People who take old wives tales seriously...

[lagertops]

Especially RE pregnancy. Ive been asked a couple of times if ive 'found out' the sex of my baby by doing the ring on a string thing by people with a serious face. Also had a friend tell me that she just couldn't understand why her baby was born without loads of hair as she had really bad heartburn throughout pregnancy...

And today was the icing on the cake. My OHs step-grandmother absolutely demanded that I was in no uncertain terms to buy my babys pram until after he was born. I didnt bother asking why as she talks crap a lot until the third time she had said "Buy the cot, but do not get the baby's pushchair!!" and her reply was simply 'Its an old wives tale.'

Im sorry, but I cant be bothered with superstition to the point where it's affecting my practical choices. I know for most people its a bit of fun, but does anyone actually take this nonsense as gospel?

[juniper9]

I have a black cat crossing my path every ten minutes or so. She hears cross words, that's for sure.

I've tried doing them all at once, but the raspberry leaf tea scolded me whilst I hoola hooped and the farting put DP off sexy times. The archers definitely helped restore the mood.

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

DS2 came home and put his new shoes ON THE TABLE yesterday doomed we are... all doomed.

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

sonorous wtf was that supposed to ahieve

[garlicbaguette]

!!! Don't go into a meeting while pregnant. It will prompt a miscarriage. This is obviously true, as it happened to me twice.
!!! Don't go to Tottenham Court Road while pregnant. It will prompt a miscarriage. This also happened to me!
!!! Don't go the beach while pregnant. It will prompt yet another miscarriage.
!!! Don't stand in the queue at Sainsbury's. It will prompt ... you guessed it.

I rather suspect the only way I could have prevented those mcs would have been not to get pregnant! But, hey, why let common sense get in the way of some new folklore creation?

Love the laptop one. YY, my great-grandmother was always warning against laptops while pregnant

[ZingWantsCake]

LaQueen

DS1 was born on the 13th.
so sometimes his birthday falls on a Friday.
I'll tell him we can't celebrate him then!

[garlicbaguette]

Now there's a mental image to relish, juniper!

[ZingWantsCake]

garlic
yes, the laptop one is actually from ancient Greece, oracles spoke against the use of technical devices as such - dontcha know?

They found some vases decorated with hand painted mobile phones crossed out and these were given to pg women at their what we now call baby shower.
ancient wisdom that was.

[garlicbaguette]

Brilliant, Zing

[specialsubject]

rising to feet cheering and applauding at

"I actually think it a sign of limited intelligence and a woeful lack of understanding of how the world actually works"

people should be embarrassed at this kind of thing. Such ignorance of basic science is terrible. Roll on the day when it is perceived as dumb to mention luck, superstition and all the other crap that clutters those empty heads.

[lagertops]

My OH's grandmother obviously didnt even have the infant mortality thing in mind, as she said it was fine to buy my cot but not the pram. I even asked her what the meaning/ origin of the old wives tale was and she didnt have a clue.

[ZingWantsCake]

oh and the crossing the legs one is what someone else said upthread.

plus I think I heard somewhere that it is to do with ligaments and the spine and nerves getting trapped - so best avoid for that reason.
I certainly couldn't cross my legs at the knee when I had PSD!

[ZingWantsCake]

garlic

true story!

[Dobbiesmum]

I think it's rather sneery and a touch nasty to question the intelligence of anyone who believes in what are basically harmless oddities tbh, it surprises me that people can get so worked up about it. Unless it becomes obsessive where's the harm? If you don't believe it fair enough but some do. I have friends who are far from empty headed who have certain superstitions (exceedingly rich and intelligent owner of a company who wears the same pair of socks to important meetings for example) it harms no one.

[mrsjay]

I agree with you dobbiesmum I think it is sneery and mocking

[AKissIsNotAContract]

I still get a few people at the dentist who believe pregnancy steals the minerals from their teeth or that you lose a tooth for every pregnancy you have.

[MoominsYonisAreScary]

The crossed leg thing is to do with dvts and blood flow in pregnancy.

Think there maybe some truth in blood preasure and arms up as well.

My mw said boys heartbeat tends to beat slightly faster than girls, although im not sure if thats true!

Most of it is just crazyness

[ZingWantsCake]

moomins the heart beat thing seems to be true

girls heartbeat is slightly higher - but it is difficult to examine and test.

our mw got it right with DD!
each time we listened to the heartbeat she said it's a girl.
we'd had 5 boys already so I was very much doubting her!

she also said to a mum of 5 girls that her 6th is going to be a boy - based on the slower heartbeat. she got that right too!

[AmberLeaf]

Thanks all who cleared up the leg crossing things.

I still do it even now though, its a comfy way to have my legs!

[HumphreyCobbler]

I don't find other people's superstitions annoying.

I find it annoying when they tell me off for doing normal stuff because of their superstitions.

If someone slapped my legs to stop me crossing them my hormonal rage would ensure that I slapped them back I would be very offended.

[edam]

Wow, a colleague really slapped Costa's legs because she had them crossed in a meeting? I'd have been furious and slapped them right back.

[ZingWantsCake]

humprey

exactly. and if someone slapped me when pg I would have kicked them.

[ShowOfHands]

Flisspaps and I have spent a lot of time tag teaming each other on 'what brings on labour' threads. Because none of the old wives tales work yet we persist in recommending that heavily pregnant women eat spicy heartburn inducing foods, going on long walks and having uncomfortable sex with the promise of something which doesn't hold true. I note people on here are saying sex worked for them even. No it didn't. You had sex and then had a baby. Millions of people had sex and didn't. I ate rice and my waters broke. I also had a nap and then my waters broke too. I am 99.9% sure that both are a coincidence. My favourites are when people say 'well I had sex on the Wednesday night at 40+7 and labour started on the Thursday lunchtime'. Well yes, you were 41 weeks pregnant, the labour starting is hardly a shock is it? And between the sex on the Wednesday and labour starting 18hrs later, did you do nothing? What about breakfast? Why not claim it was the muesli or loading the washing machine at 10am or hiccuping into a light breeze at 11.45am?

I do understand that people like to feel in control and we do like patterns in things which is why we see Jesus in burnt toast and bulbous frogs in the clouds, but so many old wives tales surrounding pregnancy and labour are about telling a woman what she must or mustn't do with no basis in fact. I've known too many demoralised women try and bring on labour and then feel like failures when consenting to chemical induction.

Can we invent lots of new wives' tales that involve making people feel good about themselves?

[WilsonFrickett]

It's training for the shite useful advice you'll get when the baby comes.

I was overdue with DS and went to our normal curry place. Ordered a very hot curry. Concerned waiter (they did know us very well, we were there every week ) said 'That's hotter than normal Wilson, do you think you'll like it?'.

I said 'it's to bring on labour.'

He said, very gently 'love, if that really worked, every woman in Pakistan would have premature babies, wouldn't they?'

[ZingWantsCake]

show arrogant much?

you are not in a position to decide what seemingly worked for me or anyone else!

feel free to add me to your spreadsheet, because having sex to bring labour on worked for us 3 out of 3 times.

when the cervix is favourable the sperm does help dilating it by acting the same way as the gel that is used when inducing labour.
a smaller and weaker version of the drugs, but it works for a lot of people.

and sometimes it doesn't. similarly sometimes the gel doesn't.
will you discredit that too?

and before you ask me to link for studies and research - do find it for yourself.
I know it works and I don't need to prove anything.