The weird and wonderful things our parents told us

Teachers told us not to sit on a stone wall or we'd get piles. I didn't know what piles were but they sounded best avoided.

Stop pulling faces or you'll stick like it

I wasn’t to sit on the following

Stone walls or I’d get piles
Public Toilet seats or I’d catch something awful
My bottom for too long or it would spread and be huge!

She was right on the last one...?

Oh, yes, tanith, I was told not to go out with damp hair. I'm not sure what you were supposed to do if you'd been swimming....

If the wind changed direction when I was grumpy my face would stay that way.

Damp hair caused you to get a terrible cold ?

If I didn’t eat liver I’d get so weak I wouldn’t be able to walk.

Against all the odds I’m still managing to stagger about.

My mother used to tell me that as well: is it not true?
She also used to tell me to behave or the boggart would come and get me, which scared me for years.

A friend was told not to mix milk from two different bottles as they were from two different cows ?