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

My boy ate cherry stones and mum said you will block your appendix. Sure enough he got appendicitis

My mam used to tell me that too much vinegar made your blood dry up.

Also, to stop me trying to eat with my knife, that if I cut my tongue it would never stop bleeding.

Imagine what happened the first time I bit my tongue and made it bleed. That's when she first used magic sugar. A spoonful of magic sugar stops you from bleeding to death. I don't know if sugar does help blood to coagulate or whether the sweetness takes your mind off the reason you're screaming. Whatever the reason it works and I used it on my children. They've used it on their children.

“Eating cheese late at night will give you bad dreams”

That’s true though 😂

It gives me heartburn.
Really bad, sometimes.

My mother was very opposed to telling children "untruths". Even with Father Christmas, she didn't exactly tell me he didn't exist but she didn't say he did either. I remember a family friend visiting one day who told me to go into the sitting room because Micky Mouse was on the television (he wasn't and was highly unlikely to be). My mother was so, so cross with him but he could see no harm.

My mum told me several times I was found under a mulberry bush. I used to cry to think I wasn't really part of the family but she thought it was funny.

flappergirl, why was it unlikely that Mickey Mouse would be on your tv 🤔

You are going to laugh at this! In December 1955, when Imwas just over four and a half, Mum and Dad took me to my first Pantomime, Mother Goose. When we were on the bus goi g home, I was raving about the geese flying about the stage - hadn’t noticed the wires.

Just before I started school in the late Aug/early Sep of 1956, Dad was building a shed in the garden. I wanted to know what it was for. Mum told me it was for the goose to live in. This would be the goose that would fly me up to school every day and bring me home again afterward.

She walked me up the steep hills to see the school a few days later, to familiarise me with the layout and the journey, because after the first day, I would be going alone!

(She had to take my 3 year old brother to nursery school, so couldn’t be in two places at once.)

I was absolutely heartbroken when I found out there was no goose and the shed was for the lawnmower and tools!

Not my mum but my Dad told us that, when we travelled on the underground, if we looked through the windows, we would be able to see worms.

kwest

I used to tell my grandchildren when they were small that the wild strawberries in the garden were for the fairies to feed to their babies because they only had tiny mouths. They would very carefully pick them and put them in a circle around a tree for the fairies to come and collect them later. Also when my own children reached an age where they were ready give up their dummies we would have a little ceremony where the child in question was helped up to the first branch or junction in the tree trunk where they would carefully place their dummies for the mummy birds to collect them for the baby birds. This was just before the children's afternoon nap. When the nap was over we would go out to the garden and there would be a nicely wrapped present for the child with a little thank you note from the mummy bird. If there was any hesitancy at bedtime then we would discuss how much the baby birds were enjoying using the dummies and that now you were a big boy or girl you would not need to use a dummy any more. It worked with both my children.

Haha. That reminded me of one of my daughters who was still sucking her dummy at 3 years old. We travelled overseas and I told her she had to give it up at customs because they wouldn’t allow her to enter the country otherwise. Cruel mum,me but it worked !

I remember my MIL telling my children that her sister was poorly in hospital and that she had a bone in her leg. Poor auntie !

My lovely grandad used to tell me if I didn't wash behind my ears potatoes would grow there! Really believed it! Scary!

nanna8. Our daughter told our granddaughter that she had to take her dummy and give it to Father Christmas or he wouldn't bring presents. That worked too!

My mum was born in 1915, and I am so glad she never told me any of the nonsense I've read above.

Not my mother but my dad told me that my belly button was like the tied bit on top of a balloon and if I fiddled with it it would undo and all my skin would deflate and come off. How I didn’t have nightmares I’ll never know

"N'er cast a clout 'til May be out!" I can still hear my Mum saying this and we kids had to wear a vest between September until the end of May.........and I still do that now.

Astitchintime

"N'er cast a clout 'til May be out!" I can still hear my Mum saying this and we kids had to wear a vest between September until the end of May.........and I still do that now.

Did you hear the arguments about whether May be out meant the beginning of May, the end of May or even whether it meant the hawthorn had started to blossom.
What did it mean to you?

Fleurpepper yes my mum was of a similar age and no nonesense attitude.

Fleurpepper

My mum was born in 1915, and I am so glad she never told me any of the nonsense I've read above.

Well, I suppose it is all terribly British.
There was no harm in most of it, just an encouragement to eat up your crusts (waste not want not), stop looking so grumpy (the wind will change and you'll be stuck like that), not to rush into leaving off your vest too soon because you might feel cold.

Just common sense but wrapped up in "old wives' tales".

Just common sense but wrapped up in "old wives' tales".
I think you’re right, but is quite strange to think how far and wide these tales were found.

My mother, born 1919, poured scorn on all superstitions and Old Wives’Tales. I was amazed to learn that many cultures still believe things like getting wet will give you a cold.
My grandmother said that children grow while they’re asleep and apparently growth hormones are released at night but she couldn’t possibly have known that.

Granmarderby10

*flappergirl*, why was it unlikely that Mickey Mouse would be on your tv 🤔

Ah, because in those days our TV would only receive one channel (BBC). Most people could get ITV too, but not us as our TV was so old. So for a start viewing was limited. Additionally it was a Saturday afternoon, not near Christmas or anything, which invariably meant wall to wall sport. Trust me, Mickey Mouse would not have been on the telly and even if for some bizarre reason it was, how would the visiting friend have known unless he was psychic! It was just a lie to get me out of the way and my mum was really cross about it.

“Never marry a man who doesn’t like his mother. I didn’t take any notice of her but now I think it was pretty good advice. .