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".

It's a good thing to be cautious of. I once absentmindedly picked our iron up on the flat part forgetting I'd switched it on. I got some nasty burns that took a while to recover. I was in my twenties at the time!
Why did I do that?? It has a handle ffs.

Falling down a man hole!

I actually know someone this happened to and the poor woman broke her leg and hip.

My mother showed me how to check an iron was hot. Lick your finger and hold it momentarily against the plate.

Both parents were smokers so we were lighting matches from quite young.

We had a gas oven you had to light with a match and the grill, which you lit with a match and then had to blow on to get the flame to go the length of the grill.

I don't know how old we were when we learned to make tea / coffee but young. So young my brother made coffee for mum and a neighbour but mistakenly used gravy browning so I don't think he couldn't read yet.

@autienotnaughty

Birthday bumps are where people get hold of your limbs and hoist you into the air and the coming down is the 'bump'

@Simonjt

Maybe there is some Pakistani ancestry in the family.

@sashh ahh different where I was from, definitely a knee up the bottom!!

Kidney beans not being rinsed before cooking. It was a big thing when I was learning to cook as a teenager. And yes, later, the reheated rice thing.

Railway safety was another huge thing as a kid. Scary videos about level crossings and whatnot. I work for the railways now and it's stayed with me.

🤣🤣🤣

I avoid walking over manholes and inspection hatches-a combination of a Fools and Horses where Grandad falls down a pub hatch, and a news story where the concrete edging of a hatch crumbled and a woman fell down it.

Maybe I am old-fashioned or excessively risk-averse, but many of these seem perfectly sensible precautions.

sashh · Today 05:51

We had a gas oven you had to light with a match and the grill, which you lit with a match and then had to blow on to get the flame to go the length of the grill.

Aah, the memory of that! I remember crapping myself lighting the oven, when I was 13. I wouldn't light, so I put my face in close, looking for the jet and the cloud of gas went whoomp!

Escalators - I use them obviously but still in my 40s with great care and still have worry when I step off.

Lifts - again used then but really dislike doing so.

Kettles in my teens in work experience was first time I made a cup of tea by myself - I'm over that one. My parents were still wincing about me carrying hot drinks as an adult in my 30s.

Won't have a pressure cooker - one explode in parents kitchen or a chip pan - oven chips exists - though kids do know to smother them not put water on thanks to you tube educational clips.

Ironing - my Mum drilled in how dangerous it was - remember dinner lady in primary doing some ironing with us and secondary fabric teacher being exacerbated at how scared we all were off an iron.

A lot of the scary professional safety ads I think were sensible more odd ones come from parental fears. I seem to have not passed them on to my kids.

Eating peanuts was one as well - apparently Mum cousin had one grow in her lung and died - didn't question that to my 20s. She also moaned no one would eat the snickers bars in the selection boxes because they had peanuts in.

in a similar vein, my mum told me that if I chewed my hair, I’d get a fur ball in my stomach and die 😂🙈.

Just to cheer up all the iron worriers.....
I learnt to iron with a flat iron, which we heated up on the gas stove. We would have two on the go together, so as the one in use cooled down, you would replace it with a hotter iron and reheat the original one.
Before using it on your item, you gave a quick test on a tea towel or similar, damp ironing cloths helped protect the item you were pressing.

Speed was of the essence!

What a revelation an electric iron was, it's no surprise that I was thrilled with the first one I got!

Idratherbepaddleboarding · Today 15:05

in a similar vein, my mum told me that if I chewed my hair, I’d get a fur ball in my stomach and die.

She was right!

https://www.emra.org/emresident/article/trichobezoar

@sashh @AdaColeman The headmistress of my primary school demonstrated a Victorian flat iron, which had to be heated on the stove, and how to test if it was hot enough: spit on it, to see if it bubbles. Yes, the head teacher herself did this! For fun, she wore a maid’s apron and bonnet as well.

The bumps to me was being lifted by the limbs and jerked upwards, I first had that when I was nineteen.

Here’s another thing that scared me: electric fences. I never got a shock from one, as I was too careful. I was surprised to learn in physics that it’s a really high voltage (higher than mains), so it hurts, but with a very high resistance and low current, so it doesn’t do you any damage.

Also always been terrified of sparklers, fireworks, lawnmowers and manholes.

And soldering irons! I remember having them in electronics class at school and thinking they might as well be handing us loaded guns for all the damage we could do. I could never do it and my hands would shake.

Like a PP, I used to break into a cold sweat when I lowered the needle onto a record on my brothers’ record player. They were hi-fi geeks and automatic placement was too simple. I was usually sneaking a listen, so double the fear…

Fortunately, by the time I had money to buy my own music it was tapes and CDs.

Yes you could tell who cooked on gas by their eyebrows. Well lack of.

The first curling tongs I experienced were ones my mother heated up on the gas hob.

One thing that makes hot devices doubly dangerous is that you often can't see the heat; it's mostly in films and on TV that ordinary things glow red hot. (Not always, but mostly.) @Yunula I too was nervous about using a soldering iron: I didn't learn until adulthood exactly what temperature the tip actually reaches.

I am nervous of any possibility of mild electric shocks; especially the Van de Graff generator in physics, that makes your hair stand on end. I saw the demonstration at school a few times, but I was never brave enough to volunteer. My physics teacher said that you could guarantee that every physics textbook would have a picture of somebody doing it. He was totally bald, so he couldn't demonstrate it himself. There was another experiment in A-level physics to demonstrate a voltage spike, which involved the whole class (mostly boys, and a couple of girls) holding hands in a big circle to feel the shock. I managed to wangle my way out joining in. I can't imagine that experiment being done nowadays.

That's the problem with today's society. They don't electrocute kids anymore!

We have a train line crossing near us and on the odd time I have to cross it I get extremely anxious and always check my laces after watching a safety film at school when I was a kid- some poor boy got his loot caught in the train tracks when he was messing about.

Well, ritzy nightclub perhaps late eighties early nineties , very drunk girl comes into the ladies ear pouring with blood as she’d somehow dragged her earring down and she had a split earlobe. I think of this when the baby ear piercing threads come up.

on a similar note, opening your door in a thunderstorm so if the thunderbolt came in the house (not sure how) it would have an exit route. Terrifying!