Mum jumping out and scaring me as a child.

[1000yellowdaisies]

Perhaps not an AIBU but its so strange i really don't know where to post...
So I am now 36 so born mid 80s and I've just had a flash back to something strange my mum used to do.

From as early as i can remember she used to do this thing of 'giving me a good shock' so jumping out from somewhere or doing something else that would startle me greatly. She wasnt doing this to be mean or fun she used to say that a 'good fright gets your blood circulating' and its good for your heart or something like that. Anyway she seemed to believe it had physical benefits for your body to have a scare every now and then....
She did it for years when I'd least expect it but then it tailed off.
Mum was and is kind and loving, we are very close and she looks after my DC regularly. She is not mean.

But I've suddenly remembered this thing and wanted to ask her about it. Not because I'm traumatised, I am not, I'm just so curious! But then again what is the point after all this time and maybe it would embarrass her to be reminded of it.
Was this a thing that was believed at the time??
Just to say my mum was an older mum (41) when she had me which felt unusual in the 80s... she was also not raised by her parents but by elderly relatives (who were born in the late 1890s) so she did have lots of old fashioned views when i was growing up (didn't get a microwave for many years as dangerous and also couldn't drive near electricity pylons in the rain in case in case of electrocution).
Has anyone else ever heard of this as a thing?

My son loves it when I hide and jump out, but I'm not small and really loud so he knows when i am 'hiding'. It's really just a more extreme version of peek a boo.

Sounds a bit like when my dad would capture a spider, show us the spider and then pretend to throw it at us 🙄 parents were sometimes fun but also very annoying in the 80s, I wouldn't overthink it.

Oh yeah I used to lie in bed at night convinced I could hear the banshee and wonder which of my family would be dead in the morning

Isn't peek a boo a milder form of jumping out? I remember my DC used to jump and then laugh hysterically at it. I suppose if a child cries or looks frightened or upset then you must stop it but for me and my DC we like it unless it's done at an inappropriate time and place of course.

Where is this published research?

@HandScreen, it was linked on page two.

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/fear-can-be-fun-and-it-might-even-be-good-for-you#Is-it-good-for-you?

I have never heard of it being good for you, that’s quite daft.

I do like to scare my husband as often as I can. He’s very good value

Your Mum is obviously a real character and she believed what she did was good for you .
love a Mum who doesn’t fit the stereotype of the perfect Mother!
My Mum was very bohemian and I loved her so much for being unique >
Ask your Mum about her quirkyness.

But I'm sure, from reading some of these posts, that parents no longer play peek a boo with their babies, heaven forbid! When did people become to over sensitive? I remember as a child making someone jump was a great game, adults and other children.

In the 80’s, and even longer, flora butter used to have this ‘guide’ for a healthy heart, and one of the points in it was to do something everyday that scares you. Maybe she thought that? I’d ask her I think!

Guess you’re not American.

Okay so I asked my mum about this today, I was dropping DC and I stayed for a coffee before work....

She said she vaguely remembers it.... her words were 'oh yes, I think I remember'.... but she reckons it was about once or twice in my whole childhood and I remember it being much more.... so she has either forgotten or I've overblown it in my memory :)

As for the why, as predicted it was something she'd heard around the house growing up from her grandparents.... a fright gets your blood going... her grandparents had lots of ideas that probably weren't scientific and we were chatting about that. Her grandma used to make her eat this home made beef bone marrow soup when she had a cold to cure it stuff like that...

She was kind of meh about whether she still believes it now she just kind of shrugged.... i think she probably does know it sounds silly...

Mum was a single parent so its not like there was anyone there to say 'erm what are you doing you loony'.

Either way we had a laugh about it :)

Exactly.
Some strange replies here “it was so cruuueelllll”. I can only think that those posters must have had very odd upbringings themselves to be so neurotic now.

I'm interested in the science behind this. I've never heard of it but it makes sense!

I might try this theory on my DH 🤔