Weird things that you believed would happen to you when you were a child

[CrazyFoxLady]

Just washing my face and remembered that when I was young my mum used to say that if I didn't wash properly, I'd get a tidemark around my neck and people would know.

A friend's mum wouldn't let her go outside if she'd washed her hair that day as she'd catch a chill - even when her hair had dried!

Still don't stick my tongue out in case the wind changes and I stay like it

Anyone else have any weird ones?

Truly they were.

And sometimes there would be a crappy “filler” film about Pendennis Castle. “This is a public information film.”

That carrots made me see in the dark

*eating carrots

Oh God those “Charlie says don’t go with strangers” films. They shit me up proper.

I definitely thought that quicksand and spontaneous combustion would be a bigger part of my adult life

I was also convinced that ladies stored babies in their bosom until they were ready to have them. When baby is required just pull out of the top of your jumper - ta da!! I remember having a very heated argument with my mum that you absolutely did not need a man to have a baby....

I had a few obscure ones:

If I wore shoes without socks, my toes would disappear; or my shoes would walk away without me.

I remember vowing aged 10 that I would never, ever drink alcohol, or smoke. (I kept the second vow, not the first.)

That there were prisons for children, where I might find myself locked up if I didn't do as I was told. (Fortunately I had stopped believing this by the time I read Jacob Two-Two meets the Hooded Fang!)

Putting my bare feet too close to the fire meant that they would burn away, like Pinocchio's did.

@DahliaMacNamara Your one about being able to fly "if you concentrated hard enough" reminds me of a (nice) trick a family member played on me when I was five or six. In the garden, they covered my eyes, stood me in a laundry basket, and told me it was a hot air balloon while they lifted the basket (with me in it), and someone described the tiny scenery below me. I couldn't see out of the blindfold at all, and I totally believed I was flying high above the garden! I found out later how they made it so convincing.

Mine is the opposite too, I never believed I’d get my period! I cried and cried because I thought I’d never get it and wouldn’t have babies...then when I did get it I realized they could keep it!

I was Captain Logic as a child so believed nothing like this, no matter how many times my mother told me they were the gospel truth.

If you can't explain to me scientifically how sitting on a cold step will give me piles, then don't waste your time telling me about it.....

That's the 'carelessness causes fire' stickers you used to get on cushions etc literally meant that if you were careless with them, they would spontaneously combust. I carried them as though they were made of glass 😂

Now I think of it, I now have quicksand fear on behalf of DS.

The 70s was absolutely huge for quicksand. It was everywhere. Thousands just disappeared.

Just before we played pin the tail on the donkey, an older child told me that if I stuck the tail in the donkey's eye, I would stay blind for ever. I believed this, and I was really scared when it was my turn to be blindfolded!

@DeathByMascara there were so many things that could catch fire wasn't there? I also used to think my nightie would explode on me if I sat too close to the fire 😂

And yes remember when the danger of spontaneously combusting was a thing?! Whatever happened to that? 😂

Actually in the 80s your nightie probably WOULD catch fire - hideous nylon things!

I told DS this morning that he works get what apple tree growing in his tummy if he kept eating the apple seeds!

I also have an irrational fear of quicksand.

I used to believe that when people died they would die with their legs straight together and their arms out to the side (I think from the Jesus on the cross image).

'Would get an'.
Need to proof read.

I thought you could die just by holding your breath.

We also had a vicar come to primary school and tell us the end of the world was coming and i went home and made a will when I was about seven. I.e pencil case to holly, teddy to grace, best pen to amy I must have been pretty stupid because they would have been dead too! my mum was really angry with the school.
If you sit too close to the fire your bones turn black.
I also still get vertigo if i look up at the clouds or stars! So weird and horrible.
Also, I'm not sure if this is even still true now but I lived on a farm and heard if a bull saw the colour red it would charge. So I changed into a full red outfit, carried a red bucket and coloured a piece of paper red and climbed the gate into the bulls field just waiting to get charged at luckily mum found me

I thought I was going to electrocute myself or blow the house up every time I flicked a light switch on. We'd been told something at Brownies about having to have bone dry hands to avoid electrocution when turning on anything electric, and also that if you switched a light on and there'd been a gas leak your house would explode. We didn't even have gas at home, but I did often have sweaty hands.

I fully believed I'd be haunted at some point too, possibly poltergeist possession. Ghosts were everywhere back then.

Like a PP, I also believed in astral projection and thought anyone could do it if they focussed enough.

Mind you, I also couldn't sleep for about a year as gripped by fear I would turn into a werewolf (thank you, 18 movies for 13 year olds)...

I thought I was a dream Walker - mostly because I've had a number of lucid dreams between the age of 11 and 23.