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?

There have been far fewer problems with komodo dragons than my childhood reading led me to expect. I was fairly certain that they lurked in every hedge in my rural home counties town.

No strange men have ever tried to lure me anywhere - let alone into a suspicious windowless van - with the promise of sweets or a puppy.

Mad dogs have also been far less of an issue for me that I anticipated.

I was sure I would find myself in a sinking ship at some point. I'd watched the Poseidon Adventure with my sister and shortly after that the Herald Of Free Enterprise disaster happened - I can still remember the date and that we'd gone out for a very rare treat after a school music festival, and all the mums were talking about it, I think because ferries went to Zeebrugge from our city as well, it really effected 11 year old me. I tried to reassure myself that I'd completed my silver survival badge at swimming so would probably be ok 🤣

These are so great. I wonder what risks our children are absorbing by osmosis that'll stay with them forever 🤔

Being catfished.

I’m 59 & still hate pylons! Stuff of nightmares!

I live along Morecambe Bay so the threat of quicksand is very real although the effects are slower than I’d expected!

I’ve also been visited by far less vampires and poltergeists than I thought, fortunately.

I keep seeing this quicksand thing on SM. Must be doing the rounds…

Macguyver was the source of a few irrational fears. Quicksand, getting tied to a chair, facing a firing squad, getting trapped in a car boot, not knowing whether to cut the blue wire. Thought about all those things a lot.

Sharks learning to walk. Not sure where that one came from. Still scared about it if I'm being honest.

I was disproportionally concerned about extreme weather in the US considering I lived in the UK.

It's quite sweet though isn't it, we were so sheltered from the realities of adult life and the things that would actually stress us out that we fixated on other things we saw despite not being able to rationalise it. I guess we were the lucky ones.

Oh and spiders in toilets.

I was told “if you keep wearing shoes without socks, when you take them off, you might find your toes have vanished, or your shoes will walk away without you”. Neither has happened so far!

I know someone who fell down a well and took 2 days to be found 😱

Glad to see others still remember the terrifying escalator safety advert with the child’s teddy getting torn to bits.
I have avoided escalators all my life.
Ditto the one where a child loses an eye due to a firework. I became too scared to even watch fireworks though a closed window. (Hate the blimmin things now as an adult because I understand the terror they cause animals.)
Who the hell thought these images were suitable for very young children?!

After having a good giggle at these (child of the 70s/80s here, it was very nostalgic) I went out to walk the dog. Listening to Saturday Live R4 as I went, I was amused to find their Unsung Thank You spot dedicated to a woman thanking someone for SAVING HER FROM QUICKSAND on a beach a couple of years ago.
Maybe those warnings were more prescient than we realised.
I'm now going to watch out for grain silos and spontaneous human combustion 🙄

My mind was blown when I went to DH's Scandinavian home town and the train lines just run through the town with no fences or gates or designated crossing points with lights and bells. Apparently they just grew up knowing not to cross when a train was coming. Wild.

Went for a walk with German boyfriend by his village. Nice walk through woodland and fields. And then part of the route along the railway. Between the tracks. Had to get to the end of an embankment before there was enough space at the side of the track to walk safely there. (I struggle enough with driving over level crossings. I was really unhappy and close to tears actually being on the railway.)

Also, Germans on New Year's Eve. Clearly no equivalent of the firework code. They were lighting rockets in the direction of their friends across the street.

Also, while it's not a risk as such, I've never found a hidden tunnel, and the Famous Five led me to believe the country was riddled with them.

Piranhas. It seemed almost certain that we'd all lose at least a toe to one, and the blood would attract the rest for a feeding frenzy. In that well known piranha hot spot...East London

@BearSoFair oh blimey yes! Venus fly traps were also a worry!

Was looking for hair getting caught is the swimming pool filters! Hair always tied up swimming still to this day!

I’ve also been visited by far less vampires and poltergeists than I thought, fortunately.

Anyone else's bedroom window shut at night? A vampire bat, getting in, was a real and present danger in the 80s!

A little creature crawling into my ear while I sleep and laying eggs deep into the ear canal, that then hatch and move around but can't be removed. Still makes me shudder.

Growing pubic hair that grows too fast up inside you and gets caught up in your internal organs and eventually wraps around your heart and kills you. Mine doesn't grow that quickly thankfully.

Sewer rats that climb all the way up the pipes into the toilet bowl and bite your bottom while you are doing your business

Oh yes acid rain! Where did it go? We were taught about how awful it was in school now it's not mentioned.

Anyone have things that are more of a threat as an adult than you expected as a child? Mine is asteroids. I was pretty sure as a child that the dinosaur killing asteroid was a one off, turns out there are thousands of the damn things buzzing around us like midges beside a lake.

Rats tails in KFC.
I have never had KFC for that reason. The dc think this is both hilarious and that I'm missing out. I will not give way. Turns my stomach even seeing them eat it.

Another one for pylons.

We were fairly close to Morecombe Bay and our village was on a marsh so quicksand/sinking mud was a reality. My dad once saw a young cow walk into a marshy area and very quickly get swallowed up before he could call for assistance to help.

Burglars casing the joint to find out when you were going on holiday and taking everything. Df was a teeny bit obsessed with that to a point when we went away we sometimes used to have a little pantomime of pretending to go and leaving him behind encouraged to do lots of noisy waving, if he thought someone was watching.