Things you hardly dared use, because they were "dangerous" (lighthearted)

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Children are always being told things are dangerous, such as fire, escalators, roads, and so on. Were there any things which you hesitated to use as you got older, because "danger" had been drummed into you? (Lighthearted, obviously: otherwise this thread is too dangerous!)

Matches were one of mine. I could hardly bring myself to light them, in case I got burnt.

My grandmother emphasised how dangerous her appliances were, such as her ancient twin tub, and her electric lawn mower, and I almost forbade her from operating them, on this basis. (I was six at the time.)

In my first year at secondary school, I was astounded when we were made to use methylated spirit (to erase permanent marker), from a bottle prominently marked "poison".

Me too! I remember reading that story in a newspaper as a kid while waiting in thr barbers for my dad to get his hair cut. I think it was in America, and the article said it took her 20 minutes to die.

Since then I only use escalators when there is no other choice, and I will not let anyone stand on my step, much to DP's amusement.

Clearly the key tethered to corned beef cans make for an unreliable and terrifying opening option just waiting to take a chunk of thumb out of any adrenaline seeker willing to use them?

This genuinely made me laugh, thank you. I was warned in a manner that made me feel exactly the same!

My pressure cooker has a nice valve, and is very different to my mum’s old one with the weights on the top. I always let it cool down with a tea towel over the so that the steam is contained when it releases.
Oddly, my mum always took ours on holiday too. I have no idea why.

I had years of nightmares from the Apaches film. We went to a village school, and played on friends’ farms.

Oh, and I have a scar on my thumb from opening corned beef cans.

My friend set our kitchen alight when she started cooking chips, got distracted, and went out. I came home just as the fire was spreading, and had to put it out with an extinguisher. I threw the chip pan into the back garden - the flames were incredible. I never deep fry at home.

Me too! As a kid, I was told a swan could easily break your arm with its wing.

Another one here scared of pressure cookers.

My mum told me it was a bomb, so I used to run past it into the garden with my arms over my head for protection.

A swan did break my brothers arm when we were little. To be fair it wasn't exactly the swan, he was running away from the swan because 'its going to break my arm' and fell over and broke his arm. Even as a small.child I found the irony of this hilarious.

Corned beef tins. The ones with a key. My mum has scars all over her fingers.

And Chupa Chups lollies. My dad always confiscated them and I'm still scared I might choke. And I'm 52.

Obviously chip pans, sparklers, electricity pylons, windscreens and anything else featured in 1970's public safety broadcasts.

That's actually painfully funny. If I had been your brother, I would bear a grudge against swans to this day. My family used to go punting sometimes, and I was nervous when we got close to swans.

The swan haters need to read "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction", which has several hilarious scenes with Adrian living near a canal, and being "harrassed" by swans nearby. Everybody who visits him says "a swan can break a man's arm, you know". Adrian wonders if he can take out an injunction against swans, and writes to the council saying "because all swans belong to the Queen, she is responsible for their behaviour, and Her Majesty could end up in court". The council writes back saying (totally seriously) "I will contact your nuisance neighbour Mr Swan, and see what we can do".

Another dangerous machine we had was an ancient spin drier. When the lid was lifted, the contents would carry on spinning for some time, and anybody who put hands inside would get "a crushed arm".

I'm surprised not many people have mentioned certain sports, such as rugby, and netball is another one which seems to bring on a lot of injuries, especially sprained ankles. I'm sure many children have seen their mum or older sister laid up from a netball injury, and have declared "I'm never playing netball". The pre-game ritual of players lining up so the umpire can check their fingernail length, and that they are not wearing any jewellery makes it look like a dangerous game. I've been known to quote horror stories at new players who are reluctant to follow these rules.

@glassof These slippers are doubly dangerous.

The seatbelt safety advert always stuck in my mind. My parents would have seatbelts fitted in to their car way before it cam as a standard thing, and drilled it into us to always wear seatbelts. I showed the safety advert to my DC when they were little.

A couple of months back, I was giving a friend and her daughter a lift. Friend sat in back with her daughter. NB I don't even start car up until everyone has put their seatbelt on. Friend tried to protest about having to wear a seatbelt. I told her I wouldn't drive anywhere until everyone in car had seatbelts on...and to watch that video. I couldn't believe she didn't normally wear a seatbelt if not in the front seat!! Crazy.

It's the driver's responsibility to ensure everyone is wearing a seat belt so you absolutely had to insist she wear it

It's the drivers responsibility to make sure minors are wearing seatbelts 14 and under iirc. Any adult not wearing a seatbelt is their own damned fault, they are assumed responsible for themselves.

Of course the driver can refuse to move until everyone is using the seatbelt. But that's entirely up to the driver.

I think this is a situation where it's perfectly reasonable to say 'I'm not saying this because I'm worried about you going through the windscreen, I'm saying this because I don't want you taking my head off in the process'.

Candles. I will forget and the whole house will burn down.

My partner has them around his house and I get anxious looking at them!

That is pretty much what I told her! She was a bit off-ish about me insisting on everyone having seatbelts on, but I won't budge on that. My ex ILs were the same, I just refused to start driving until they put seatbelts on! I think it shocked me as my parents were so strict about seatbelts being put on straight away, so I used to assume that everyone was the same.

Pylons! They showed us a public information film in primary school when I was 7 of a boy climbing up a pylon to get his kite and got electrocuted. I was terrified of pylons hated going under them especially if I could hear them ‘crackling’.

scalt · Today 08:40

These slippers are doubly dangerous.

Oh, where did you find them? It's just that my daughter wants to dress up as a shark, for Halloween...

It's not been drummed into me by anyone else, but I had one bad experince a long time ago with a small, very sharp knife, and since then I have been terrified of using the massive chef's knife of my knife set that I bought 6 years ago.

They've never been sharpened since I got them and it's not a particularly fancy set or anything, but they still remain so sharp...I'm really accident prone as you can tell and I can just imagine taking a finger off or something with it by accident, or getting a deep cut and fainting in the kitchen and waking up covered in blood. So I struggle on cutting things up with paring knives for now. It's also why I don't ever use the serrated bread knife...I dread to thing the damage that could cause me! 😫

Omg, I remember this advert and spent most of my childhood under my dad's coat in the back of the car whenever we had to drive anywhere. That advert terrified me. Even today I still have anxiety whenever I have to walk underneath one.

We have several in the area I live. One of them started hissing and popping after heavy rain fall. I rang up and reported it. The operator stated during our call that a few other people in the area had reported it and had mentioned that it was that safety ad that had prompted their calls.

I am currently working on my fear that stems from my grandmother, who as soon as a thunderstorm started would run round the house, unplugging everything, closing the curtains and covering the mirrors with sheets. The TV would be disconnected and pulled into the middle of the front room and covered with several blankets - just in case.................

My partner is an electrician and despite his best efforts, I still want to do the same.

Thing is - I love a good thunderstorm!

Great thread OP. Oh @Cushioncalamity that’s really made me laugh your poor dad though! What a freaky accident. I was exposed to all the safety films of the 60’s and 70’s and still remember them vividly. I wasn’t really scared by them but I especially remember the one about not climbing into abandoned fridges and getting suffocated. My DM would never have a tumble dryer due to the risk of it catching fire. She however used a pressure cooker without a care in the world. With regard to sparklers does anyone remember London Lights? They were just glorified matches that burned green and pink so much more dangerous than sparklers we loved them. I also remember melting crayons on the hearth with a red hot poker from the coal fire.

I was absolutely amazed a few months ago that DH sat in the back of the car, and asked if he needed to wear a seat belt.i was quite dumbfounded he needed to ask. He said he didn't know because he never sits in the back.

A couple of years ago we were driving to Cornwall and we left at silly o clock in the morning. Kids were 12 and 15 and I generally had stopped checking at that point as they were quite used to getting in and putting seat belts on. We'd been on the road well over an hour (mostly motorway) and both were asleep, when I was horrified to notice that DS didn't have a seat belt on. I felt so awful and immediately woke him to put it on

I remember the pylon advert, and the sparkler one, from childhood. So scary! And I've seen a really creepy one (that was from the 70s but I've only just seen it) about playing in water or ponds.

😂😂

Given the amount of crimpelene and nylon in the 60s and 70s, this was a distinct possibility!

Opals are only unlucky if you buy them for yourself; ok if they are a present!