A bath after food? Or that you shouldn’t swim after a meal

Don't sit on a table or.youll never get married.
I sat on a few. Got married twice. Also divorced twice so maybe something there lol

lainieb56

Don't sit on a table or.youll never get married.
I sat on a few. Got married twice. Also divorced twice so maybe something there lol

I’d love to know how that one came about, how would sitting on a table be a factor?

Astitchintime

Don’t sit too close to the TV…….you’ll get square eyes 🤪

Accompanied by “if you read too much you’ll ruin your eyes!”

My MIL disapproved of us having slices of freshly baked fruit cake whilst it was still warm. It would give us bad tummies.

What's the difference between that and a hot fruit sponge pudding?

TillyWhiz

My MIL disapproved of us having slices of freshly baked fruit cake whilst it was still warm. It would give us bad tummies.

What's the difference between that and a hot fruit sponge pudding?

I remember that one!
They just didn't want us to eat it 😀

A slice of fruit loaf once caused me a very, very bad tummy. 😩

Don’t sit on a cold step - you’ll get haemorrhoids 😫

Many of us were told that eating crusts would give us curly hair, but my Dad told us that eating crusts would give us a hairy chest. That would have successfully stopped me eating crusts for life had l not liked them. Sadly, despite a lifetime of crust eating, my hair is still stubbornly straight but, thankfully, I can also report that my chest is follically challenged.

Pissenlit if I remember right.

If you pick dandelions you will wet the bed. Also new bed new baby

New house, new baby
Yes, that one's true 😁

Dandelions are colloquially known as pissabeds in some parts of the country.

‘Best’ old wives’ tales I heard were while we were living abroad, with neighbours from a different (Mediterranean) culture.

If I continued to carry toddler dd1 while pregnant with dd2, my baby would be born with a broken arm.

If I went swimming when pregnant ‘your bones will open and you’ll lose the baby’.

Perhaps ‘best’, if taking the baby out after dark, I must cover her face with a blanket, to keep any evil spirits away!

For Casdon - you are the only other person I’ve come across whose mother used to say ‘it’s all my eye and Betty Martin’!!
I’ve had some funny looks when I’ve used that phrase….my mother was brought up in South West London: I wonder if it’s a regional thing?

AngieLC

For Casdon - you are the only other person I’ve come across whose mother used to say ‘it’s all my eye and Betty Martin’!!
I’ve had some funny looks when I’ve used that phrase….my mother was brought up in South West London: I wonder if it’s a regional thing?

I've heard the phrase but my Mum never used it.
🙂

Heard in the South West!

Aha, not regional then! And who was Betty Martin?

My mother had my ears pieced when I was 6 as it was thought it would relive the terrible catarrh I was suffering from!

AngieLC

Aha, not regional then! And who was Betty Martin?

“[A] Jack Tar [British sailor] went into a foreign church, where he heard someone uttering these words—Ah! mihi, bea’te Martine (Ah! Grant me, Blessed Martin.). On giving an account of his adventure, [the sailor] said he could not make much out of it, but it seemed to him very like “All my eye and Betty Martin.”
speakingplainly.org/2012/11/26/all-my-eye-and-betty-martin/

Possibly 😁

I remember those old wives tales :
But I was swimming after a big lunch and I threw up and had to come out of the pool so maybe there is something in it .
My hair was greasy as a teenager and I wasn't allowed to shampoo it until my period had completely finished .
I'd have to use dry shampoo . It just made my hair look dusty .
And I wasn't allowed to get chilled by sitting on cold walls or stand on cold floors without proper insulation on my feet .
Vests and petticoats were considered insulating in the Winter .
All our clothes had to be thoroughly aired .
Not eating breakfast and lining the stomach with adequate food was the rule.
Drinking soft drinks such as Coke or Fanta were considered unhealthy and addictive .
I wasn't allowed coffee until I was an adult .
Getting wet in the rain was another taboo .
Sun bathing was another.

Thank you, Allira!

No one knows where the phrase 'all my eye and Betty Martin originated, but the suggestion is that it is the English mispronunciation of an Italian phrase.

Rather like the phrase, more or less gone out of use, San fairy Ann, to mean a something doesn't matter. Said to date back to WW1 and an anglecisation of the French phrase 'Ca ne fait rien'

You should not swim directly after a meal, as a coroner stated recently after a teenager inhaled her own vomit when swimming last year and subsequently died
.

grammargran

It's obviously a generation thing as in my 80s and I remember each and everyone of the restrictions quoted. I'll add another, don't cut your toenails on a Friday ...

Years ago, in the early 70s, I was a trainee auxiliary nurse at a local hospital. A three year old I was minding was quite poorly one night and developed a high temperature. I was told to stand him, naked, (at 2am) in front of an open window until he was cooler. It was November!
Good job they don’t think like that now!