It turns out that quick sand, burglars and house fires are far less of a risk in adult life than I'd anticipated. Phew!

[Limth]

As a child, I felt certain I'd witness at least one untimely death in quick sand. Possibly my own.

I also felt certain I'd be burgled in the middle of the night on multiple occasions by a duo of tiptoeing men, one of whom would be wearing a stripy top.

And I felt sure that, at least once in my life, I'd wake in the night to a room filled with smoke as my house burned down around me. I still won't let my dog sleep downstairs just in case of fire.

These eventualities were so ubiquitous in children's media - I was born mid-80s - that I was sure they were just eventualities. In fact, almost obligations - these things were so ubiquitous to be almost legal mandates - that everyone had to experience a house fire, burglary and a brush with quick sand death at some point.

What things from your childhood turned out to actually be far less of a risk than you'd thought?

😂😂

Putting a slightly damp hand anywhere near a light switch.

Apparently spontaneous combustions were a specific situation but the ignition likely came from smoking so doesn’t happen as much with less smokers

Quicksand for me too. When I was very young, not wanting to go anywhere with a jungle in case I was killed by huge swarms of ants that devoured anything in their path.

I was also constantly disappointed at not coming across gangs of robbers hiding in the woods so I could foil their evil plans, famous five style.

This was me too. I imagined them swimming out of the grate in the deep end.

70s child here who also remembers the Charlie says and PIFs . I imagine as we had free reign playing it was to keep us safe - there were no trigger warnings then!

Quicksand featured in lots of kids tv programs, I think.

The pylons,a disused quarry filled with water and train lines were all in our local woods, so the PIFs were relevant. We used to have someone from British Rail come to our Primary School every year with lots of horror stories about different ways you could kill or maim yourself on railway lines. Scary, but then better than playing on railway lines.

those safety films in the 1970s were enough to make any child a screaming mass of fear!
I was scared of burglars, polished floors with rugs on, pylons, trains speeding by and sucking you off the platform, chip pans setting fire, drowning in dark deep water where the grim reaper lurked, oh yes and men with puppies and sweets in playgrounds!

I was pretty worried I would get flattened by a steamroller. I'm sure kids dont worry about this so much nowadays!

Shitttt
now that is a reason to be scared

There should have been a PIF about never boiling an empty exposed-element electric kettle. I did that when I was 9/10 (was a forgetful kid) and it exploded. The lid blasted off with such force that it left a dent in the ceiling.

I was traumatised. On the positive side, I didn't have to make tea for everyone for several months.

Oh yes! Quick sand was so often featured in adventure series when I was a kid. Never known anyone to get sucked down by it.

Being eaten by a T-Rex whilst sat on the toilet!

And all of the above. Loved the 999 series and of course the scary school assembly PSA films!!!!

Highway men!!

I have never yet been in or witnessed an accident where the ambulance people comment on the victims dirty underwear. There's still time I suppose.

My primary school cloakroom had a poster warning about Colorado beetles, so I thought they were going to be more of a thing than they've turned out to be.

We were also shown a PIF called Survival Swimming at every end of term school film show (proper crackly old films on a projector that had probably been shown every year since c. 1950 (I was there in the late 70s). From this I learned how to make a life jacket out of a pair of pyjama trousers should I be shipwrecked at night. Not happened so far but only a matter of time in sure.

Vampires, after watching the original Dark Shadows. I still pull the covers over my neck in bed. Never bitten yet but they're still out there.

However when I was six years old and standing very close to the television it blew up! Fortunately the screen did not blow out but you could see the wrecked tubes inside. It looked like Berlin in 1945. I couldn't hear for few minutes afterwards.
No one had ever warned me!

Later working in a factory I got the hem of my overall caught in the exposed works of a conveyor belt (I'm sure this was a safety violation but once again I'd never been warned). After a few seconds of feeling embarrassed and trying discreetly to free my clothing, I apparently started screaming at the top of my lungs. I just remember a man with a huge pair of scissors cutting me out and helping me to the nurse's office. I was allowed to sit down for a bit and given paracetamol. But my back was definitely sprained and hurt for days.

Hair in the filter!!! Forgot that one!!

I was thinking the other day that you never really hear about quick sand any more. I was terrified too 🤣

After being shown Danger Farm (?) I’m still scared of drowning in a slurry pit.

Great thread OP. My never realised fear is falling into a river and being stripped down to my skeleton by piranhas.

Level crossings, I've always been frightened that the gates might be out-of-order & I'd be killed walking across the lines.

I got stuck in quicksand once on a school trip. Wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Oh, also, was anyone petrified of being trapped inside an abandoned fridge on some waste ground?
I'm sure there must have been a public info film about that. I remember it being a real worry. I used to play out on some disused semi-waste ground, and I have a (possibly unreliable) memory that at one point there really was an abandoned fridge there. I found it very frightening

Here in Cornwall people still do fall down abandoned mineshafts from time to time. I wonder if there were localised public information films about them in the 1970s? 🤔 I wasn't born here, so don't know.

The ones you hire wouldn't cut you but my daughter has proper ones and I have cut my finger on the blade drying them off after she's been on the ice.

I always think about it though when she skates!

Quicksands on the Solway coast and the tide whips in really quickly. Somebody did get trapped recently and drowned.