Old Wives tales your parents scare you with

[meryt-tetisheri]

My mother was more known for the most famous 4 words ever used ( in parenting ) -> "I told you so"

I thought they were 'because I said so'

[Eldorado]

"As long as you always tell the honest truth, everything will be fine."

What a load of bull that one turned out to be. lol

[Beckys_Mom]

I thought they were 'because I said so'

Yes that is another

Another one is --.. Usually caught watching MTV instead of doing homework.. and I got - Don't you MTV me.. I'll give you MTV if you don't do your homework...!! Like some sort of wacky threat lol

[tipotep]

Its a little off topic but my dad was always good for saying " do as I say , not as I do " .

Oh when I went on my first trip to the snow as a youngster , my older cousin warned me not to eat yellow snow , WTF yellow snow I said , I thought it was white ?

TiP.

[Clarakore]

The lies older siblings tell are way worse...

[ChrLzs]

You can't go swimmng for thirty minutes after you eat because you will get cramps and drown.

Beat me to it.. This one really resonates with me - even as a kid I know I had my doubts about this. While it was probably a genuine belief at the time, it irks me to think just how much valuable in-the-water time I lost because of that daft myth. I'm sure I would have been a much more confident and better swimmer in my early teens if that 'restriction' wasn't around.

Ironically, after being a pretty lousy swimmer up to about 15, I made up for it thereafter to become an avid (if not all that speedy!) swimmer/snorkeler/scuba diver.. and ended up managing a marine research centre.. So perhaps in a way, it was the trigger that fired me into that profession, so I shouldn't whinge...

[Heiko]

My grandma told me that if I watch too much TV my eyes would get quadratic... I was really afraid and asked everyone in elementary school if they ever saw someone with quadratic eyes. In the end I got everyone else in my class scared too and soon my whole school thought that watching TV had such an effect (none of the parents told us the truth- they liked the idea of us watching less TV)

[Eldorado]

My grandma told me that if I watch too much TV my eyes would get quadratic... I was really afraid and asked everyone in elementary school if they ever saw someone with quadratic eyes. In the end I got everyone else in my class scared too and soon my whole school thought that watching TV had such an effect (none of the parents told us the truth- they liked the idea of us watching less TV)

I went to that school! South Park Elementary?

[None of the above]

Sometimes ominous is good!

One day when my son was two years old I left him playing in his room and went to take a bath. I suddenly had a feeling that something is wrong, I called him but got no answer. I hurried outside to look for him, in towels & covered with soapsuds, to find him on the road carrying a toy brief case saying "daddy office". He somehow managed to open the house door, of course after that fences, locks & chains were installed, but we could have lost him!

Anyone who has a todler learns that Silence isn't golden, silence is a warning!

[Heiko]

I went to that school! South Park Elementary?

Nope, Grundschule Langgöns ;-)

[Aim4TheHead]

My grandma would tell us we better go straight to bed and not make any noise or else La Llorona was going to come and get us.

[The Unseen]

Has anybody heard about Lock Jaw? Now the story would freak you out "If you were a Kid".Was only told once and it stuck with me to this day,thing that nightmares are mad of and how Lock Jaw would steal your soul after he nailed your jaw shut with a rusty nail.

[dreamgoddess2011]

In elementary school I decided to stick some beans up my nose. My mom had to take me to doctors to get them out. She told me I should not put beans in my nose. Because They will grow and turn into a big beanstalk like in "Jack & the beanstalk". :-o

[Urisk]

I remember watching a news story about some factory so I asked my dad what it was... he said it was called a Dam, and it was where bad little boys got made into custard. Dunno where the Dam came from, maybe it was a hydro-electric dam or something.

I did my damndest to never get into trouble!

[MetallicBlood]

In elementary school I decided to stick some beans up my nose. My mom had to take me to doctors to get them out. She told me I should not put beans in my nose. Because They will grow and turn into a big beanstalk like in "Jack & the beanstalk". :-o

I recall a kid in my elementary school doing the same thing at lunch as a joke, but fortunately the beans didn't stay stuck in his nose. He blew them out...

[MetallicBlood]

Another zinger my dad told me was that Santa Clause was always spying on me thru the smoke detectors we had in the house, and we had one in almost every single room. My dad was a firefighter so go figure.

[ImaLoner]

I've not been on here for a bit, but I was pleased to see this topic. My mom and grandmother had quite a few old wives tales that they used to scare me. Three that stick out immediately in my mind are:

If you don't hold your breath while driving/riding/walking past a graveyard, a spirit will enter your mouth and possess you.

The devil comes around after midnight and if you're awake, he takes you back to hell with him. - This one.. well, if my gramma heard me up watching television after midnight, she'd make her voice really deep and try to scare me. It worked when I was younger. This also stuck in my head when I would wake up in the middle of the night. I'd just lay there in my bed looking at the shadows to make sure "he" wasn't coming to take me away. That makes it quite difficult to fall back to sleep, I found.

and

Blood in an egg meant something evil was lurking.

Edited October 16, 2012 by ImaLoner

[Eldorado]

I know it's not an old wives tale and not scary but I can remember believing the older kids in our street when they told me that if you planted the core of an apple you'd just eaten, it would grow into an apple tree some day. Am still waiting on my 2,381 apple trees to sprout.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Eldorado

[ImaLoner]

I thought of another one and thought I'd add it. I was told that if you hear a knock at the door, always look to see who is there, because if you open the door and no one is there, it is death coming to claim someone in your house. Apparently, by opening the door, you've now let the bugger in. I still check to see if anyone is there before I open it. I'm not superstitious, it's just a habit for me, I think. Eldorado, I'd never heard the one about planting an apple core. The only one involving seeds was one mentioned previously. It was always watermelon seeds and if you swallowed them, you'd grow a watermelon in your stomach. I remember being around 4 and my dad had told me, as he had told me before, only there was a woman present at our neighborhood Brunswick Stew who was pregnant. He said that the woman had swallowed a watermelon seed and that was the result. I had all sorts of terrible images in my head of what would happen to that poor lady once the watermelon was ripe.

[wolfknight]

Don't play with matches or you will pee in the bed

[wolfknight]

Do not rock the rocking chair unless you are sitting in it

Edited October 16, 2012 by wolfknight

[Shego]

My mom told me once when I lied about something, that Satan was standing behind the Peach tree in the front yard, looking at me as we walked to the car. -_-

[Ninhursag]

In my country old women say that it's not good to turn the bread upside down and dispose of garbage after dark ..

Also, one of the most stupid superstitions ever that we have (which my best friend really sticks to) is "Don't sing on Friday, coz you'll cry on Sunday".

I wonder how this one came to be ..

[Night Walker]

The Far Side as a parenting manual:

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

Some similarities/variations on existing themes:

"Step on a crack - break your momma's back" - If Devo said it then it must be true...

"Seeds will grow in your stomach" - in the days before seedless varieties this made eating watermelons very time-consuming. It took me years to overcome a fear of passionfruit.

Confusion over guerrillas/gorillas - "Why are they fighting monkeys?!?"

"Gum doesn't digest and will get stuck in your stomach"

"Fear and respect the escalator":

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gwGcP8QbH8[/media]

"Sitting too close to the TV will make you go blind" - I suppose that is better than "Move your fat head!"

A couple of new ones:

"Eat your bread crusts and your hair will grow curly" - supposedly a good thing...

Frogs give you warts.

[ReaperS_ParadoX]

Has anybody heard about Lock Jaw? Now the story would freak you out "If you were a Kid".Was only told once and it stuck with me to this day,thing that nightmares are mad of and how Lock Jaw would steal your soul after he nailed your jaw shut with a rusty nail.

WOW THATS JUST MESSED UP