20 Childhood "Danger" Warnings That Were Blown Way Out Of Proportion
I'm sure we were all given slightly exaggerated warnings not to do certain things growing up. Spoiler alert: gum doesn't stay in your digestive system for seven years if you swallow it! Well, recently, redditor kissableecassy asked folks to share more things they were told were "dangerous" as kids that they can't help but laugh at today. Here are a few they mentioned that even I remember hearing growing up.
1."'Making that face.' It never got stuck that way and will never get stuck that way."
"Yup! My eyes never got stuck in the back of my head from rolling them, either."
2."The 'permanent record' threat made to all school kids."
"It does technically exist, but its existence is something that the vast, VAST majority of people will never have to worry about. It is only under extremely specific circumstances that it will ever be looked into in any way once you're an adult.
I went to school with a guy who joined the Marines after graduation, did very well for himself, and eventually applied for Presidential Security. During the assessment process, they brought up the single detention he'd gotten in junior high. So if you plan on going into a career with extremely stringent security standards, it may be relevant, but otherwise, you're fine."
3."Getting into a car with a stranger I connected with via the internet."
"We were always told to never do that. EVER! Now I pull my phone out and summon a stranger in a foreign country and don't think anything of it."
4."Turning the overhead light on in the car. Not only was it 'dangerous' but also apparently 'illegal' even for a SECOND."
"I'm ashamed to admit I've told my kids exactly this. It's a lot easier than explaining to them that the light reflects in the windshield, limiting vision and making driving dangerous."
5."Going to bed late and getting up late. Surprise, surprise: people are different."
"My life got so much better once I embraced the idea that diurnal sleep schedules don't really work for me. Thankfully, I work a job where I can start/work later since it's a 24-hour business.
I spent the first nearly 20 years of my life constantly tired and picked up a heavy coffee habit in middle school. I'm close to 40, and I still have my college sleep schedule, so I don't get that tired."
6."Swimming right after eating. I have a pool, have eaten a burger or hot dog from the grill, and have gone right back to the pool. I'm still alive."
7."Cracking my finger joints."
"I was told I would get arthritis. Jokes on them, I did get arthritis, but not in my hands; it's in my hips."
8."In primary school, I once ate the core of an apple, and my cousin told me I would have trees growing in my stomach, and I cried the rest of the day!"
9."If you go outside with wet hair, you'll get sick."
"My grandmother told me this one my entire life. When I was 19, I got pneumonia. From that day until the day she died, she insisted it was because I went outside with wet hair."
10."I heard if you didn't close your eyes when you sneezed, your eyeballs would pop out. I've sneezed many times while driving. Now, granted, I may have scrunched my eyes up just enough to prevent ejection, but I don't think this is true."
11."I was told by one of my teachers that TV rots your brain, which never really made sense to me because if you see a play, you enrich your mind, yet put a screen in front of it, and magically, it starts turning your brain to mush. Looking back, being told that started to make me trust adults a little less."
"People are so weird about TV. Enjoying storytelling in pretty much any other form is considered some sort of classy art form, but make it a TV show or a video game, and all of a sudden, it's a completely different thing. Makes no sense."
12."Talking to strangers. My parents had wild levels of stranger danger. I'm pretty sure at one point, my dad said that anyone who would talk to a stranger in public is, at best, trying to rob you and, at worst, trying to kill you. I got screamed at for about 20 minutes when I talked to a busker playing music on the street. My dad claimed he could have lured me into an alley and gotten me hooked on drugs (what?!). I was 22 at the time."
13."When I was a kid, my mom told me never to point my finger at the rainbow because it would break my finger. I've never done it to this day."
14."Masturbating. I was told I'd go blind. If it were true, I would have been blind for decades."
15."Swallowing gum."
"I'm 41, and I know full well that swallowing gum doesn't actually stay in your system for seven years, but I still have trouble swallowing it because of the mental block."
16."Writing on your hands with pens/markers, or worse yet, Sharpies. I was always told it would give you blood poisoning, so I never did it until maybe college."
17."That chips were made of liquid fat and would kill you if you ate too many. We had a speaker come in and do a presentation about eating healthy. He had a bowl of what I now know was cold porridge and tried to convince us that it was what chips come from. I know they aren't healthy, but like, come on, you lie to kids and then wonder why they don't take anything you say seriously."
18."Quicksand. I thought that shit was gonna be everywhere."
"I was certain I was going to be taken out by quicksand in my early years."
19."I was told to NEVER cut my fingernails at night because it was BAD LUCK and would attract bad spirits. I always cut them before bed and have a great relationship with all my ghosts!"
20."An older relative wouldn't let us go outside when the ground was wet in the morning because we'd get 'dew poisoning.' It never happened, probably on account of not having cloven hooves, but I guess we'll never know for sure."
Is there anything you were told was "dangerous" when you were a kid that actually wasn't? Tell us in the comments or fill out this anonymous form.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
