Myths that you were told as kids...
 

Aside from the superstitions of walking under a ladder, a black cat crossing your path, and stepping on a crack will cause your mother's back to break, I laugh now at some of the stuff I remember being told as a kid. What's scary is that some of the myths were told to me by adults!!


- If you swallow gum, it will stick to your lungs for nine years! (I remember after inadvertently swallowing a piece of gum, I envisioned that every time I breathed in, I was blowing a bubble in my lungs!!)
- Going outside with wet hair or without a hat/coat/scarf will make you sick.
- Squeezing zits will lead to cancer
- Wearing a tampon takes away your virginity
- Swimming after eating will give you cramps and you will drown
- Cracking knuckles causes arthritis

Anyone else have any good ones? Have any of you who are parents ever told their kids anything like this?

I was told that it was illegal to chew gum if you were under 25 ....

My mom is the queen of old wives tales so I'm pretty sure I've heard it all growing up. I crack my knuckles and she still tells me that doing that will make my knuckles grow into "gorilla knuckles"...whatever that is. I'm 31 now and my knuckles are still proportionate to my hands.

Speaking of zit-popping, I thought it was an urban legend that popping a pimple could cause an infection that could go to your brain. Turns out it's true.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/facing-triangle-death

-stepping on a cold floor without socks will make you sick
-pulling out one gray will cause you to have 2!
-if you swallow a watermelon seed (or any other seed) will cause you to grow that fruit in your belly

-guacamole is made by smashing guacamole lizards

If you don't stop crying La Llorona (the crying lady) was going to come and take you away.

If you cross your eyes, they will stick.

There are children in India (or some other country) who would be GLAD to have that
sauerkraut!

If you shave your legs (too early), the hair will grow back like a monkey.

If you cross your eyes they will stay that way.

Reddit?

"One day I'll be dead and THEN you'll be sorry"

(my mother is never going to die. She will outlive the cockaroaches!)

"If it weren't for you, my hair wouldn't have turned grey"
Until middle school, I was pretty convinced that my father's grey hair was the result of any stress I caused throughout my childhood, especially because he had no grey when I was a toddler and by the time I got to college, he was about 75% salt-and-pepper. At least I didn't make it fall out?

I think this is true. I got my first grey hair about a month after my daughter was born. Truth.

There is a Wookie that lives in the back yard of my grandparents house.

My husband was told that beer + watermelon is lethal.

I remember being told that if you talk while you're fishing, it scares the fish away.

My grandmother told my mother this; my mom apparently knew it was malarkey right away. when my sister and I hit puberty, my mother was very clear that this was an old wives' tale.

Regarding the gray hair, I went through some extreme stress about 2 years ago and sprouted 3 gray hairs. My hairdresser plucked them and I haven't seen any since. I believe it, especially because both of my parents and my sister had gone gray by the time they were the age I had those 3 grays.

If you swallow gum it will stay in your stomach for 7 years.

Eating Pop Rocks can kill you. (I loved Pop Rocks and am still alive and well:))

A cat can steal your breath when you are asleep and you will suffocate and die. (have yet to experience this and I have had many cats)

When you walking along with one or more people and upright obstacle divides your party, all of you must say "Bread and butter," or a disagreement will break out.

Never put your purse on the ground or there will never be any money in it. The ground drains away the good luck.

If you accidentally spill some table salt, you must throw a pinch over your left shoulder to forestall evil/bad luck.

I'm certain I'm forgetting at least one Mississippi Delta superstition.

Does the floor count? Or the ground outside? Because if the floor counts, that could explain a lot... mine is always on the floor at home and I always seem to be broke!

I was told this, but you had to be hit in the back of the head and your whole face would be frozen like that.

If you eat watermellon seeds, a tree will grow in your stomach. Was freaked out when I accidently swallowed a seed.

lol

I don't know if people consider it a myth or not, but my dad totally believed that there was a "Sasquatch", he actually believed that there were a lot of them. And tried to get me to believe it, too. :rolleyes:

If you make a funny face when the clock strikes twelve it will stay that way.

If you yawn without holding your hand in front of your mouth a bird will fly in and make a nest in your stomach.

Breaking a mirror is 7 years bad luck.

Breaking porcelain is 7 years good luck,

If you swallow seeds to any fruit, a tree will grow in your stomach.

If you swallow gum you get really sick.

If you eat the crust, your hair will be straight or curly (depending on who told you)

if you don't eat the crusts you will never be able to whistle.

If you wear clogs, warts will develop on your feet.

So your Mom didn't want to pay retail for Dansko clogs either?

Yea, I believe this, I go around in my office and pick up purses and stuff...I think it drives my boss crazy. She then goes hunting for her purse on the floor when its next to her on the credenza.

OMG! I was totally told this (the curly version!)

If you write on your skin with an ink pen, it will seep into your bloodstream and kill you.

If bats are flying around they will go for your hair and get stuck in it. (This one took - I'm still terrified of bats)

(Local) There are snakes covering the floor of the empty Reformed Church. I'm sure there was a garden snake or 2 in there, but we were thinking boas.

Eat your beets! They make your cheeks rosy.

No, mom, they taste nasty and I have blush in my purse.

Touching a frog causes warts.

It's bad to sit too close to the T.V.

Tornadoes can't hit Chattanooga, TN because it's surrounded by mountains.

Eat your beets & carrots or your hair won't stay red.

Sorry, but being from the area (kinda), LOL at the bolded.

If you keep making that face, your face will freeze that way.

You shouldn't use tampons until you're "older".

(Gentlemen, you may want to skip past the next bit ......)

I had my first period when I was 12 1/2. A few months later, Aunt Flow came to visit right before Halloween. I had a skintight costume and did NOT want a big bulky pad showing. My mother introduced me to the wonderful world of tampons. I was just shy of 13. I have never gone back. Anyone who tells a preteen or young teen that she shouldn't use tampons is full of malarkey (with apologies to Joe Biden ;) ).

--If you let your arm or leg hang off the side of the bed when you go to sleep, something will come out from under the bed and grab you.

While I know that is not true, I'm still funny about that to this day!

Heard lots of these but . . .
 

I have heard lots of these before but the funniest (or perhaps most inappropriate) one has to be what my mother told my brother (and his teenage friends) growing up. . . once a boy (or young man) uses his penis, it will stop growing. :eek: I still remember my brother and his friends' faces 25 years later.

Your mom wins. That's hilarious.

I'm a victim of the urban legend about the guy who killed the dog, hid under the bed, and licked the girl's hand. I still keep my hands and feet on the bed to this day.

Then again, I'm also in my 30s and legitimately afraid of the dark.