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

298 replies

scalt · 05/10/2024 09:00

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".

OP posts:
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5
imverynosey · 05/10/2024 13:16

MeMyselfIgor · 05/10/2024 09:28

Not putting a seatbelt on. There was a horrendous safety advert back in the 90s when I was an impressionable child where a teenage boy didn't put his seatbelt on in the back seat of a car. His mum was driving and they had a crash, he was thrown forward onto her and crushed her to death!! It was awful! Ever since I've got into a panic if any car starts moving now before I've put my seatbelt on.

Sounds like the advert did exactly what it intended to do ! I remember those adverts

TheGreenKnight · 05/10/2024 13:36

Not quite relevant to the thread, but when I grew up in the 1950’s we believed that if you swallowed chewing gum it would get wrapped around your lungs and asphyxiate you.

frecklejuice · 05/10/2024 13:40

octoegg · 05/10/2024 10:19

Mine is touching the flat bit of irons. Even if it's my own iron that's been in the cupboard unused for a month, I still have an irrational fear of touching the 'hot' bit.

I have a really weird thing with irons that I have to touch the hot plate, I'm 45 and can't help myself! It's only a fleeting touch but I HAVE to do it!!

frecklejuice · 05/10/2024 13:45

TheGreenKnight · 05/10/2024 13:36

Not quite relevant to the thread, but when I grew up in the 1950’s we believed that if you swallowed chewing gum it would get wrapped around your lungs and asphyxiate you.

My Mum used to tell me that it would wrap around my wind pipe 😂

ParrotsAteThemAll · 05/10/2024 13:48

AngelinaFibres · 05/10/2024 10:58

First week of secondary school in a farming area we were shown a film of the 12 most common ways we could die on a farm.It featured a class of junior school children with name labels on their coat pegs. As each child died in a horrific way the name label would be removed.
Some of the ways...
Poisoning
Drowning in slurry
Messing about with loaded shotgun
Run over by tractor
Crushed by gate
Killed by cows
I was 11. I'm 59 now. Never forgotten it

I’m still traumatised by this film! It was the talk of the school in the 1st year and I’ve always avoided slurry pits incase I drown (very unlikely occurrence in my town house).

StMarieforme · 05/10/2024 13:49

@Simonjt the fear is reheated rice that's not been reheated properly. My DD had rice from a Chinese takeaway once when she was about 12, and she was so very ill from that. The fear is real. Honestly.

Singleandproud · 05/10/2024 13:50

I've also given myself food poisoning from poorly reheating rice. Never. Ever. Again.

BobbyBiscuits · 05/10/2024 13:53

My mum told me I couldn't touch the VCR or the microwave as they were live and would give me an electric shock, and then explode.
I'm not sure but I think she actually genuinely believed that to be true!
I was deadly afraid of both fire extinguishers and toilet brushes as a child. Just looking at either one would send me running out the room sobbing. 🤣

StMarieforme · 05/10/2024 13:53

AngelinaFibres · 05/10/2024 10:47

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 remember that too.

Singleandproud · 05/10/2024 13:53

I'm still scared of drowning in a grain silo. I have never been anywhere near a grain silo. Those public service announcements clearly did their job.

I also thought quick sand and spontaneous human combustion was going to be a bigger issue.

Apparently the spontaneous combustion was an issue as some medical creams were highly flammable, not to mention fabrics so when people smoked it happened in the 60s, 70s etc much less of a concern nowadays -other than phone and electric scooter battery's.

RaiseYourSkinnyFists · 05/10/2024 13:56

I was terrified as a child of burning my hands off if I touched a bottle of bleach.

I'm in my forties now and touching the bottles still puts the fear of God in me.

HalloweenPart10 · 05/10/2024 14:01

The iron!

Even now (almost 60) I can’t touch the plate of one, even it’s brand new out of the box. I feel so daft, but I can’t get past it!

Also hate matches or any sort of flame that gets too close to me, like sparklers.

HalloweenPart10 · 05/10/2024 14:04

@octoegg

sorry, cross-posted! We must be twins, I thought it was just me being weird about the iron…

Itsmyluckyegg · 05/10/2024 14:08

MeMyselfIgor · 05/10/2024 09:28

Not putting a seatbelt on. There was a horrendous safety advert back in the 90s when I was an impressionable child where a teenage boy didn't put his seatbelt on in the back seat of a car. His mum was driving and they had a crash, he was thrown forward onto her and crushed her to death!! It was awful! Ever since I've got into a panic if any car starts moving now before I've put my seatbelt on.

Yes!! This is the one advert that has always stayed in my mind when driving.

Alpolonia · 05/10/2024 14:09

KnickerlessParsons · 05/10/2024 10:54

Chewing gum. I was terrified of swallowing it and it sticking to my heart and my heart not being able to beat and therefore me dying.
Thanks Granny.

I remember in the 80s when this new gob stopper sweet came out. It seemed enormous to me. I was too scared to try one in case I choked to death!!

starlitsnow · 05/10/2024 14:10

HalloweenPart10 · 05/10/2024 14:01

The iron!

Even now (almost 60) I can’t touch the plate of one, even it’s brand new out of the box. I feel so daft, but I can’t get past it!

Also hate matches or any sort of flame that gets too close to me, like sparklers.

Even now (almost 60) I can’t touch the plate of one, even it’s brand new out of the box. I feel so daft, but I can’t get past it!

Same 😄

I don’t like to walk on the metal covers of utility hatches (?) on the road, in case I somehow fall through (ridiculous I know).

Orielle · 05/10/2024 14:10

Incense sticks, because my Dad told me he burnt some in his bedsit in the 70s and set fire to his curtains.

SinnerBoy · 05/10/2024 14:45

Giggorata · Today 09:03

To this day, I'm scared of pressure cookers.

As well you should be! When I was 9, my dad went out and left the pressure cooker on and forgot about it. It blew up and put a big hole on the kitchen ceiling and a knife-like shard of aluminium went right through the house and almost through the front door! Blew the kitchen windows out, too.

T4phage · 05/10/2024 14:48

Chip pans. I remember the 70s safety ads where entire houses would burn down because of them.

Pressure cookers are basically bombs aren't they? 😂 Dh still has his mum's, but he hardly uses it.

Gas. I'm frightened of gas and won't have a gas cooker and we only use the gas to heat the water for washing up and showering.

Dh has a petrol camping lamp that I'm scared of. I'm okay with paraffin.

SinnerBoy · 05/10/2024 15:05

AdaColeman · Today 12:06

Never putting your head out of a train window was a constant childhood worry when travelling, due to graphic warnings from my Mother!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5180538-things-you-hardly-dared-use-because-they-were-dangerous-lighthearted?page=6

... About 1 minute in.

Gnomegarden32 · 05/10/2024 15:18

Alicana · 05/10/2024 09:31

Home fireworks. Absolutely petrified. I also thought quicksand was going to be a lot bigger deal in my life than it has been so far.

😂

NeverDropYourMooncup · 05/10/2024 15:56

The pressure cooker. I've bought a Ninja with an automatic release as a result.

The iron. Guess that was why she wouldn't use it.

The sewing machine. I'd sew my fingers together.

Looking out of windows. I'd instantly defenestrate myself if I got as close as the windowsill and cut myself to ribbons and bleed to death. Meant that the public health/don't throw paper planes out the window looked safe, as the girl only hurt her leg and there was no blood at all.

Thunderstorms and the phone+television. Despite the fact we didn't have an aerial on the roof (because of this), if the TV was on, the lightening would ignore every other house, building and lightening conductor for miles and focus upon the back of the telly at ours, nowhere else. It would also sneak down and lie in wait if we walked past the phone, so we couldn't go upstairs - think the window terror featured in that, as we might have thought to look outside. We had to listen to Radio 2 on her largest radio until the sun came out - the radio had a six foot long metal aerial she'd stick out of the window to make sure she could get a signal throughout the storm.

Herbs, raw vegetables, wild fruit and meat/fish that wasn't a combination of carbonisation and tanning. I'd be poisoned by all of the above and die in agony, especially if I'd had something as a inherently deadly as a Medium steak and a salad with herbs and sliced raw mushrooms in it, along with some homemade coleslaw and - gasp - more poison/pasturised mayonnaise.

Lakes, ponds, puddles, swimming pools, rivers, the sea, canals, boats, ferries, trains that went over bridges over water, large buckets and being any closer than 30 foot to water.

Crossing the road next to us. Cars did a hundred miles an hours down it and I'd die instantly if I walked down the pavement, never mind attempted to cross it, as it was huge and I wouldn't be able to walk across before a car appeared from nowhere and mowed me down. I tried a few years back and the fear when I was crossing this perfectly ordinary road still hit me. Never saw anyone do more than about 20mph in 40-odd years.

Horses. Cows. Geese. Birds in general. Trees and being outside at all in case there was a thunderstorm.

The big one. Salt. The root of all evil. Unsmoked bacon was soaked in milk for 24 hours, then rinsed, then washed, then rinsed, then put into the microwave until warm. Homemade bread didn't have it, pastry didn't have it, nothing was allowed the slightest trace of seasoning. Pity, really; it might have made the chips made from green sprouting potatoes and rancid oil that was around 9 months old slightly palatable.

It was her fears really, wasn't it?

Neveranynamesleft · 05/10/2024 16:06

Just looking at a mandoline vegetable slicer makes my fingers fold into a fist. Never had one, boring chunks of veg will do just fine thanks.

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 05/10/2024 16:19

@starlitsnow I know someone who fell down one of those hatches and has long lasting injuries internally because he got wedged. He was stuck a while before he was rescued.

blackheartsgirl · 05/10/2024 16:45

Another one for pressure cookers 😂.
my mums ancient one terrified the crap out of me. I wouldn’t go near it.
these days they are much safer but still…