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Weird things your mum told you and you believed at the time ..

(107 Posts)
nanna8 Mon 11-Nov-24 00:32:52

When Iwas really little, about 3 , my mum told me there were fairies at the bottom of the garden and sent me out to look for them. I really believed I could see them and their wings were like rainbows, gossamer fine. Thinking back, it may have been dragonflies or something like that. I am sure she said that so she could get on with her housework with me out of the way, looking back . She was a Yorkshire woman, maybe she really believed it?

MissAdventure Tue 12-Nov-24 13:26:46

I'm quite amazed at how many muns still believed that.

My friend couldn't go to the weekly disco because her hair looked as if a chip pan had been emptied on it, and her mum strictly forbade her to wash it.

cookiemonster66 Tue 12-Nov-24 13:26:44

my mum was always saying "MEN! - they are only after one thing!" but she has still never told me what that is? LOL

Stella14 Tue 12-Nov-24 13:23:40

Oh yes, washing hair was also dangerous during a period 🙄

Stella14 Tue 12-Nov-24 13:22:37

Having a bath or a shower during a menstrual period is dangerous 🙄

Mollygo Tue 12-Nov-24 10:28:30

My mother said don’t wash your hair during periods. My omniscient brother chipped in that I’d get blood in my hair if I washed my hair during the curse
I found this on a yoga site.
If you hair wash during periods, with cold water, it interferes with the natural detoxification. Take head bath only on the fourth day. So these tales persist.
(I never wash my hair in cold water unless the shower heater cuts out mid shower.)

Grantanow Tue 12-Nov-24 10:16:55

Oopsadaisy1

Carrots help you to see better.

It's true that carrots contain vitamin A that helps vision but the story originates from wartime propaganda to mislead the Germans about night fighter use of airborne radar. The propaganda said that pilots ate lots of carrots so they had better night vision.

Grantanow Tue 12-Nov-24 10:12:37

Eating fish is good for being brainy.

JaneJudge Tue 12-Nov-24 10:04:48

oh all the period stuff, yes! no hair washing and bathing etc

JaneJudge Tue 12-Nov-24 10:03:35

she used to tell me lots of places were haunted, presumably to frighten me to death so I didn't go there

Whiff Tue 12-Nov-24 10:01:00

Elless🤣

Elless Tue 12-Nov-24 09:28:27

My parents had a small stone fossil - they told me it had come out of my brother's ear because he hadn't washed them.

nanna8 Tue 12-Nov-24 06:51:55

If you swallowed a pip it would grow inside your stomach - apples and oranges. I also heard that swallowing chewing gum would make it stick to your heart. That lasted a while !

RosesandLilac Tue 12-Nov-24 06:09:17

25Avalon

Don’t wash your hair if having a period which I always thought was rubbish.

Like Terribull’s mum mine used to line the toilet seat in public loos with toilet paper before I sat down.

My mother did this too, along with many of the other superstitions and sayings on this thread.
She was very careful to never walk under a ladder, to acknowledge magpies, never give an empty purse as a present (always add a coin or two) etc

Whiff Tue 12-Nov-24 05:40:53

Things my mom said eat your crusty's you will get curly hair . Had straight hair all my life. Don't swallow apple pips as you will get an apple tree growing inside you. But the worse it's only puppy fat and will just disappear when I wanted to diet at 13. But they where the things her parents told her . And no doubt generations before came out with weird sayings.

Macadia Tue 12-Nov-24 04:39:30

My mum said that babies came out of their mother's belly button. I believed her until I read a book before giving birth.

Macadia Tue 12-Nov-24 04:37:05

7 years to digest chewing gum. Really ???

Macadia Tue 12-Nov-24 04:36:21

Stir with a knife. Stir up strife. Decades later I will not stir with a knife !

Macadia Tue 12-Nov-24 04:35:33

Opposite. My mum said to eat the crusts so I could get curly hair.

Grandma2213 Tue 12-Nov-24 03:30:29

My mother was not a fan of flowers in the house and she told me never to bring bluebells because they scream when you pick them. As an adult I checked and they do make a slight squeak if you listen hard! I was also never to bring hawthorn (May) blossom inside as it was unlucky.
Every year I was threatened with ashes in my Christmas stocking if I didn't behave. It was always such a relief on Christmas morning!

Floradora9 Mon 11-Nov-24 21:19:49

DeeAitch56

I was told if I swallowed chewing gum it would wrap round my lungs and I would die :-(

Chewing gum chewing gum led me to my grave ,
My mother told me not to knew it but I disobeyed.

Romola Mon 11-Nov-24 19:05:10

I was told that you shouldn't eat standing up, because the food would go to your legs and make them fat.

Witzend Mon 11-Nov-24 18:51:45

25Avalon

Don’t wash your hair if having a period which I always thought was rubbish.

Like Terribull’s mum mine used to line the toilet seat in public loos with toilet paper before I sat down.

TBH I was amazed when my German exchange girl’s mother apparently insisted on no bath or hair washing during a period.. I thought it was like something out of the Dark Ages. The younger girl actually had a tantrum at the dinner table because she wasn’t allowed to wash her hair.
This was in the mid 60s.

Indigo8 Mon 11-Nov-24 18:42:31

Friends of my mum had a stuffed stag's head, complete with antlers, in their hall. They told me that the rest of the stag's body was in their neighbours' hall. The two halls abutted each other so for a long time I believed them.

Scribbles Mon 11-Nov-24 18:22:41

In the early 50s we lived in a very rural area and there wasn't much traffic on the roads at night. I was fascinated by the cats' eyes that magically lit up in front of us on night journeys and my dad told me that there are tunnels under every road and a crew of men on mopeds who, when they hear a car coming, ride on ahead through the tunnel, switching on the cats' eyes as they go!

I loved that story, long after I knew it wasn't true but, sadly, it didn't work for my own daughter - a prosaic child who screwed up her face and said, "Nah! Grandad's telling fibs!".

Clawdy Mon 11-Nov-24 17:47:22

Our cat had kittens, and my mum said the cat had found them under a bush. She also said all babies came from hospital, and that all mums and dads went to choose their babies there! No giving birth..... shock