What superstitions actively affect your life?

[PinkFing]

As in you adhere to them every day:

I’ll start
Magpies can make or break my day

I can’t handle salt without chucking some over my left shoulder.

I have to touch wood
to avoid cursing something I say.

The beginning of each month starts with lots of rituals to avoid bad luck (white rabbits, pinch punch etc) I used to take the words ‘white rabbits’ to the ceiling of my bunk as a kid so it’s be the first thing I said!!

I used to avoid all the cracks in the pavement as a kid but managed to stop that.

There’s probably loads more but over to you

I won't open an umbrella inside the house but I wouldn't say it's something that affects my life because I rarely need an umbrella inside the house.

I still can't walk over three drains. Ridiculous.

Snap to both of those ones above. Ditto for walking under ladders.

No pram in the house till our baby was born.
That was a hassle!!

Magpies

New shoes on the table. Doesn't affect me daily but I'd still never set them down anywhere other than the floor.

None I think other than not wanting baby things around until my first baby was actually safely here.

If I think of something bad that might happen I have to cross both my fingers and touch wood with at least one of them.
No shoes on the table.
No opening an umbrella in the house.
Try to avoid walking under ladders.
I also bought the bare minimum until my first was born, and didn’t buy the pram until then either.

Magpies too. I was distraught when I was pregnant with DS2 as I kept seeing one magpie so thought something was going to go wrong in pregnancy or birth.

I also often saw 3 so was convinced I would have a girl.

DH (quite rightly) thought I was crazy.

I'm the same with magpies. There have been eerie coincidences with them especially around times of pregnancy or life changes.

I did a dissertation on this for my first degree!

(There was no statistical significant between high stress and increase of superstitious behaviours. But it was an incredibly shite dissertation, so who knows....)

I read somewhere that women who feel powerless to control the direction of their lives cling to superstitions to try to gain some control over their lives.

None.

I won't open an umbrella in the house, chuck excess salt Iver my shoulder and don't walk over drains with 3 drains in a row.

I can't buy specific people Christmas cards in advance. That mainly just costs more money as I can't get them in the sales.

No crossed knives (arguments)
No new shoes on table
No laundry on New Year's Day
No open umbrella in the house
Magpies salute

I have no superstitions at all. I haven't even heard of some of these.

I had a magpie drop dead in front of me when I was pregnant, you can imagine how manic I was after that !

I have been known to touch wood. That's it.

Never bring lilac flowers indoors.
No shoes on the table.
The magpie one.
The umbrella one.
The ladder one. But that’s common sense in case something falls on you.
Used to have to hold our collar if an ambulance passed, until we saw a dog, I think. Can’t really remember.
If someone gives you a knife as a gift you have to give them a coin in return.
I remember when I used to take my new babies out in the pram, older people would press coins into their hands. Not sure why.

Nothing that affects my daily life. I touch wood if I don’t want to jinx something I’ve just said. And I don’t walk under ladders but I’ve never heard some of the others. I chase magpies away out my garden because I don’t like them haranguing the other birds. That’s the only way a magpie would spoil my day!

It doesn’t really affect me but it is stopping me doing something.

We moved into our new house and it has THE biggest mirror in our bedroom I have ever seen. It’s the length and nearly width of one whole wall. There is no way we can get it down without it breaking (we think it’s drilled and glued onto the wall as it’s so big and heavy) so it’s staying for an indeterminate length of time until one of us is brave enough to tackle it.

Magpies and 3 drains.

I can't think or say something that could be 'asking for trouble' without touching wood, or my head. I can get quite upset about it.
For example - "oh I've been very lucky to not have claims on my car insurance whilst I've been driving" - even typing that now has made my stoch curl up and ive had to knock on my head.
My DH likes to wind me up by proclaiming "I'm invincible" because he knows it's makes me tap (and throw a pillow at him).