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Old Wives tales your parents scare you with


None of the above

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I think these really come into their own when you have a kid and have to decide if you are going to traumatise them by repeating these 'cautionary tales'.

Here are a few that I remember:

"Don't tread on the cracks in the pavement or the Bears will get you"

"Stay away from the edges of the escalator and step off quickly or you'll get sucked under"

"Stop pulling faces or the wind will change and you'll get stuck like it"

Anyone got any?

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Wash behind your ears or you'll grow taters. Clean under your bed or monsters will grow under there. (Dad was kind of mad at Mom for that one. He lost a lot of sleep, over it.) Don't eat the watermelon seeds it will grow in you stomach.

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"Stay away from the edges of the escalator and step off quickly or you'll get sucked under"

I remember this one! I still think about that every time I'm on an escalator. lol

My mom used to always tell me not to step on top of sewer grates because I would fall in and be stuck underground forever. She now denies doing this, but I remember! I believed her for years and started crying when my cousin decided to prove her wrong one day. I kept waiting for him to fall in and when he didn't, I was furious that I had believed that it would happen. I rebelled by jumping on top of every sewer I came across for months. :P

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Mine used to tell me the watermelon seed thing, too.

Also to stay out of the woods or the haints will get you. Haint is the southern term for ghost by the way.

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Mine used to tell me the watermelon seed thing, too.

So did mine, but she included grape seeds as well, a cross-cultural scary tale?!

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My mom got the idea somewhere that playing in a sprinkler would cause polio or make me sick and susceptible to polio? She is a very intelligent woman, I have no idea why she thought this when i was a kid. So, anyway, I was the only kid on the block who could not play in the lawn sprinkler.

From other kids not my parents: Don't swallow your gum or your stomach will stick together.

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Don't be licking the same ice cream as your friends... you'll catch germs. You can share with your Mum though. Mums don't have germs.

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Your giving away all the secrets of the ancients.

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Go to bed or the floating balloon of death will get you

Whoa! Random and very dark!

Brilliant replies people!!!

*likes* to all for shared childhood trauma!

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My grandmother used to tell me this one,and I think its based in something old,and where all seed stories come from .

My grandmother was born in the 1800s so ...old.

She always said to never swallow apple seeds,or an apple tree would grow in my stomach.

Other kids knew this one as well,and from what I know now,a lot of seeds,including apple ,contain arsenic .

If an adult swallows a small amt of arsenic ,it won't hurt them,but a child,even small doses are dangerous .

Edited by Simbi Laveau
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If you keep misbehaving you'll be sent to Maggie Murphy's Home for Bad Children where you are beaten senseless night and day by Cinderella's cousins who are even uglier and crueller than her step-sisters!

And if that doesn't buck your ideas up, you'll be going straight to The Bad Fire *satanic music*.

*normal music* (All for peein' in the sink... pfft)

Edited by Eldorado
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I use to have my parents say that mrs McCreedy will come and take me, she was a scary old woman that locked me in a room and would let the monster that live in my wardrobe get me when I make a noise. 30 years on I still hate my parents for the trauma they put me through as a kid with this one.

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The only one I can think of is "Back in my day, $1 bought you a week's worth of groceries!".

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My parents weren't too into scary wives tales, we got other scary as kids. But my grandma liked the wives tales.

Don't eat seeds because they will grow in you. Don't swallow gum because it sticks in your insides.

If you aren't thankful for your daily bread, you will soon find yourself starving for your ungratefulness.

Moms have eyes in the back of their heads. Their hearing is better too.

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My parents weren't too into scary wives tales, we got other scary as kids. But my grandma liked the wives tales.

Don't eat seeds because they will grow in you. Don't swallow gum because it sticks in your insides.

If you aren't thankful for your daily bread, you will soon find yourself starving for your ungratefulness.

Moms have eyes in the back of their heads. Their hearing is better too.

I admit I used the "moms have eyes..." bit when my children were young, and for a while they almost believed it. It was mostly a matter of deduction, intuition, or whatever one may call it, but I could sense most of the time when my son was trying to smoke in his room even when I was too far to actually smell anything. Sometimes extra eyes do work!

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Hey,some great posts, mine was, If you dont eat All your dinner,you wont grow up..(hated carrots) so why did mum put them on the plate ?.. Spinach is good for you look at Popeye,(who in my opinion was a mishapen runt with huge arms,and a stick insect wife)..But the best one yet was from my uncle, who was a small chap of about 5 feet high,he used to say, put some Horse manure in your shoes or I'll be taller than you..(I never tried that one) but I found out years later that he had..ha ha..

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My parents may have given me a few, but my grandparents were the main culprits.

Don't smile at wooly caterpillars, if they count your teeth, your teeth will fall out.(My brother and I would go show them to my grandparents with our lips covering our teeth, trying to tell them we found a wooly caterpillar)

If your knees were ticklish it meant you like girls/boys.

Dont play with fire or you'll pee the bed.

Edited to add: Raise your feet when you go over a bridge, to make the car lighter. Otherwise, we'd fall through.

Edited by B Randomly
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In My Country One Of The Most Popular Is: Don't Drink Black Coffee Or You'll Grow A Tail ..

It's Interesting To See How Some Of Them Are Repeated In Different Countries And Different Cultures :)

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"If you don't quit playing with that so often, you'll go blind. You'll also be helluva lonely." -- Grandpa.

I wish I'd listened.

*trips over pc cable*

Edited by Eldorado
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