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

[scalt]

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".

I'm quite pleased to discover how many of us are terrified of pressure cookers as my DH mocks me mercilessly about it. He somehow thinks that mansplaining telling me how they work (I already know thanks...) will cure me of this fear that apparently nobody else has. Well clearly they do! I may be irrational but at least I now know that I am not alone!

@Hollythedogwalker @helloisitmeyourelookingfor
My mum often gave us a lecture about how dangerous tampons were, (1990s) and never bought them for us as teens, despite using them herself.

MIL had some sharp pointed "tool" that she used as a tin opener - it looked like it came from medieval times and left the top of the tin really jagged, I would basically have to leave the room when she was using it I was so convinced making a tuna sandwich , would end up as a trauma scene!

Another one for pressure cookers. My mum would never own one because someone had been killed when the lid flew off. My Dad had a thing about mains gas. He used to call it "instant demolition". I don't know whether there'd been a spate of gas explosions (I grew up in the 60's/70's) but he wouldn't have gas central heating or a gas cooker if you paid him. For years I was extremely uneasy if I went to someone's home and they had a gas fire or gas cooker going and was always relieved to make it out alive!

A teacher at school had a bee in her bonnet about girls with long hair in plaits, apparently you would have someone's eye out if you turned your head too quickly!! (blinded them by whacking them in the eye with your plait.) It still makes me laugh 30 years later! 🤣🤣

Going over level crossings. Even driving over.
I had a full on 70s childhood with all the public safety videos 😱

Watching TV in a thunderstorm - mum (and later on, a friend’s mum - when I was an adult, I might add!) made me believe it would blow up and fly across the room 😂

Blowing up balloons, I was told a terrifying story that they could be sucked down your throat as a child.
Also sparkles and candles.
Still terrified now of them and my daughter just laughs at me

Sewing machines.

In Year 7, my textiles teacher made sure we knew how easily the needles could break and that our parents would have to pay for a new machine if we broke it. I was all too aware of our financial situation in comparison to the other kids’, so asked to sew by hand instead!

To this day, I’ve never used a sewing machine.

Cutting up the alkali metals at work

Taking the blades off scalpels at work

Dilute conc acid also gives me similar feelings

around the house it's ladders

I'm scared of pressure cookers and chip pans / deep fat fryers. My DH has bought both of these and I am slowly learning to trust the pressure cooker. The fryer, however, was quickly resigned to the shed!

There should be a national pressure cooker amnesty. Lethal things.

This sound like very reasonable things to be scared of 😄

Sparklers, and fireworks in general.

My DF would light some fireworks in our garden and I would give him a long and earnest lecture about how dangerous they were and to be sure to take precautions and he would listen very carefully and not let on that he was an adult and perfectly capable.

Many years later I learned he had been an armourer in the RAF dealing with nuclear weapons. Bless him for letting an 8-yr-old give him a safety lecture about sparklers.

Running the vacuum cleaner over its cable would result in an instant explosion according to my mum and I remain terrified to this day.

God knows why she was so worried. Her 1970s hoover barely picked the crumbs off the floor, never mind obliterating a cable.

My mum has made me suspicious of green cars and opals - apparently both are very unlucky!

My brother lit a match ( entirely safely) but then put that match into a giant box of matches. They all lit each other and created a fireball which burned off his eyebrows. He was 12 and a bit of a pillock. As long as your son only lights one he'll be just fine 🙂

I was never bothered by thunderstorms until a few years ago when we had storms in two years in succession that did serious damage to several houses in our street (holes in roofs, chimneys and gable ends demolished) and a number of homes including ours had their electrics damaged (power surges that destroyed TVs, computers and house alarms). One neighbour was knocked unconscious by an appliance shock. After that we bought surge protectors and tend to unplug things if at home.

Im 59. When I was a child there was an advert about a girl in a nightie who went too close to the gas fire and went up in flames .The final shot was her plastic doll ( in a matching dress) burning. Totally traumatising.

I am scared of operating record players. Not so relevant in 21st century Britain thankfully.

Oh, thank goodness I'm not the only one. Pressure cookers, escalators, ladders, level crossings, chip pans, bonfires, the whole shebang. I was a child in the 60s and 70s and was thoroughly traumatised by all the safety films. I remain surprised that I am still alive given the number of everyday items that are just waiting for the opportunity to kill me.

Not something that I would use per se....but I remember years ago, an advert on English TV about some kids playing near a pylon. Something happened and the electricity from the pylon went bang. I remember the kids screaming and I thought that the pylon had fallen on them. So I ended up being scared of pylons.

I remember the adverts about sparklers and people being scared of shell suits.

Deep fat fryers/chip pans because of that safety video where a mum puts some chips on then goes in the bath and the curtains catch fire (did anyone else watch that??)

I also never take a shower during a thunderstorm

I remember the same thing! Was thinking about it the other day, too, when stirring porridge whilst wearing a dressing gown ...

And I'm adding my name to the list of those terrified of pressure cookers 😂

Another one scarred by the child's welly on an escalator horror. My kids make fun of me for standing in the centre of the step for fear of going anywhere near the yellow line.

Lawn mowers, mowing over the cable, getting your hand mangled by trying to see why the blades are jammed and it accidentally turning on, a rock getting flicked up and 'taking your eye out'.

Fishing or flying a kite in case of electrocution from getting caught in overhead cables.

Crossing a railway track in case my shoe gets stuck.

I was a Primary school teacher ( newly qualified in the late 80s). Shell suits from market stalls were big in the catchment area and we had to teach the children " stop,drop and roll" because they would be having fireworks at home/ on the recreation ground and their clothes were hugely flammable. Don't run, get on the ground, roll yourself over and over longways to put it out.