What were you told - and believed - as a child

My grandma told me that if you play with your belly button it can become undone and all the air bursts out of you like a balloon deflating.

Also if you cut your tongue it never stops bleeding.

Also if you stop someone mid yawn they could die.

Also never trust a policeman.....something to do with a local officer/officers looting during WWII except she didn't tell me the history bit so I grew up terrified of the police.

Sneezing is aften compared to an orgasm in biology ie you canfeel it coming on, it becomes uncontrollable till you cant stop it, however sometimes you think its coming but it goes away, usually once you dneeze it's over but sometimes you get muliple sneezes etc! But as to it being as enjoyable ....... Couldn't possibly comment!

My dad told me my belly button was a screw and if I fiddled with it my arms and legs would fall off!! Another that still makes me smile was my old ,unmarried biology teacher who told us that a sneeze was a similar feeling to a climax. I've enjoyed sneezing ever since.

So far, no mention that eating the skin(full of golden, flecked with nutmeg) goodness, from a home cooked rice pudding, must never, EVER, be eaten by a child cos our little systems weren't old enough, and would result in certain death?

My dad - the rice pud skin hogging, greedy, lying,B******!

When I was a child we often drove past a sign saying 'LAYBY LAVATORIES'. I always wondered how anyone managed to wee whilst lying down!

I went to a convent school and during one religious education lesson we were shown a big picture on a flip chart of a huge fire. We were told that if we didn't go to church we would burn in the fires of hell. I was only about 6 years old and was absolutely terrified.

I told my girls that the tooth fairy was called Dopey Dora. She was very forgetful and didn't always remember to take the tooth on the first night. This was because I couldn't guarantee I'd have a spare £1 on the day they lost a tooth. Sometimes I had to wait a couple of days until I had any money. They totally believed me and even told friends at school. It was amazing how quickly Dopey Dora became the tooth fairy for most of their friends too.

Wilma

My Dad never came to church with us on Sundays because he went on his own on a Friday night. It was years before I realised he was going to the pub. He told me later that the priest was often in the pub too!

My dad often went down to the pub on a Friday night which also happened to be practice night for the bellringers at the nearby church He always told us he was off to ring the bells and we believed him for years!

Was anyone else told if they were naughty they would only get ashes in their stockings at Christmas? It was always a relief on Christmas morning to feel about in the dark and realise that it was full of goodies!!

Sheilasue our local name (Midlands) for May blossom was 'mother die' and we knew it must never be taken into the house. Who thinks up these crazy things?

I keep popping in here for a laugh and laugh I did about the ice cream van and 'unclean!'

Grannee yep, we called dandelions peethebeds in Dundee!

Sorry, I appear to have gone off the point. Memo to self....Don't post on GN after a couple of glasses of Merlot. ?

My darling father in law once bought us whole lamb that had been butchered ready for the freezer. He took my husband to one side and quietly told him not to let me handle the meat if I was menstruating as it would make the meat go bad! My husband told me after I had already packed the stuff away. I felt like walking round ringing a bell and shouting, "unclean!"

Thanks all for bringing back memories! There is also the one where when the ice cream van came around and sounded the tune, it meant he had sold out of products! So innocent!

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She also told me the bogeyman lived in the cockloft.

I'm still terrified of Gipsies and lofts.

My grandma used to make us go upstairs and lie on the bedroom floor so we couldn't be seen when Gipsies were going door to door because they stole children. She always bought something from them because she didn't want to be cursed.

Brilliant thread! Wetting the bed after handling dandelions though is probably correct - they are a well known diuretic. The French name for them is Pissenlit - - all I will say is "lit" is bed - the first part of the word translates pretty easily! The Scots usually call them Peebeds too!

i am not going to read these because I will get more hung up on superstition than I am already
I always have to iron out any diamonds in the bed linen when making up the bed, otherwise there will be a death

From my old landlady:
Don't mend your clothes while you are wearing them - 'stitching sorrow to your soul'.

Just remembered one as I was about to say it to my DGD...don't eat your hair it will wrap round your intestines.

Also like the funeral car one, if you saw an ambulance you had to hold your collar till you saw a dog otherwise you would ride in the same ambulance.

I was told red cars were more expensive to insure as they had more accidents, believed that for years, very gullible

If the ice cream van was playing a tune, it meant he'd run out of ice cream

A whistling women a crowing hen
Brought the devil from his den
Cos my mum didn't like whistling
Don't wash hair when menstruating
Don't let a baby look into a mirror until it had been christened
Don't cut nails or hair on a Friday its unlucky

I was told that if you ate cucumber and drank milk at the same time you would probably die. That bubble gum swallowed would choke you. Apple pips would kill you That the bush that was outside our house the rather nasty thorns if you were prick d you would die (think I must have had a bit of an obsession with not dying). I spent years avoiding that bush, and to this day avoid anything prickly. You never sat on a cold step or you would get piles.