Have you ever heard that chihuahuas 'cure' asthma? We got our chihuahua puppy because I heard that from more than one person, and my daughter and I both 'had' severe asthma. I am very much a realist so I hate to admit that, but heck, I'll try anything once if I'm desperate enough, and I got tired of seeing my little girl struggling with her asthma. We literally have never had problems since, and our little Baxter is three years old.
When my older daughter, Cheyenne, was about 3 weeks old, I asked my Mom how to get her to sleep all night. My Mom (being the superstitious person that she is) told me that if I really wanted to get her to sleep all night, I would walk her around her bed counterclockwise. I thought that was so silly so I rolled my eyes and paid it no thought. Well, several nights later, desperate and sleep-deprived, I tried it, thinking to myself the whole time, "this is so silly, what am I doing?!" Wouldn't you know it, the girl slept all night that night and has ever since, and she's 8 years old now. :) No doubt, that's a coincidence, but still... you think I won't share that advice with my girls when they call me desperate and sleep-deprived?? And you think they won't try it??
So what silly 'old wives tales' have you tried? Did it work?
I made up my own, once (not that I want to be called an old wife just yet.) I get terrible migraines and I could feel one coming on one day as I was heading into the grocery store, and I was hit with this crazy craving for prunes...so I bought some, went home, ate two, and the headache went away. It actually works for me a lot of the time, if I catch one early enough.
My Mom had tons of Old Wives Tales and considering that she graduated from high school in about 1936 and married in 1941 I always considered the source. But lets see-- If a woman lifts too much her uterus will fall out uuummmm didn't happen.
If a woman exercises too much she will grow a beard and her voice will get deeper, she will develop manly looks---didn't happen.
If you sit on a public toilet seat you will catch VD (STD). never happened
Both my parents told me this one -- every hour of sleep you get before midnight is worth 2 hours of sleep after midnight--uh huh debunked.
This one I read -- If an expectant Mom raises her arms above her head --her baby will be born with the cord wrapped around his/her neck.
A neighbor (from a 3rd world country) told me if you tap the spoon on the pan after stirring the food the baby will be born with crossed eyes. debunked
Seriously, as a sleep deprived Mom if someone had told me to stand on my head in the corner and recite the Declaration of Independence backward and my baby would sleep I might have tried it.
Several years ago a friend of mine rolled out of bed on her hubby's side and was having a bad day---------- so she got back into bed and then out again on her side to improve her day. She actually believed it worked.
Sometimes it's the placebo effect. A person is told something will happen if they do... and after they do .... it happens because they believe it will.
My family is Mexican so we have all kinds of crazy old wives tales.
Like:
-if you watch a dog poop, you will get a stye on your eye. You cure it by rubbing the tip of a chile pepper in your eye.
-If you tie up some lemons together to make a lemon necklace and wear it around your neck, it will cure pneumonia.
-You can't wear any shoes with a heel when pregnant or else you will go into early labor.
-If you raise your hands above your head when pregnant, the cord will wrap around the baby's neck.
-Your baby needs to wear a bracelet when it's born to ward off the "evil eye"
-If there's an eclipse when you are pregnant, you have to wear a red string or else the baby will be born with birth defects.
-If you go outside when it is cold, you will get sick. This is the only one I have told my kids, only because they would be running outside naked in the rain if they could.
My mom wanted me to get rid of my cat because it would suck my baby's breath away. My mom tells me tons of wives tales but I can't remember any of them because I usually don't listen. Just roll my eyes at her.
Marla - I drank coffee since I was little and I'm 5'3".
Well my great grandmother once heated up a pure silver spoon over a fire and slapped it against my leg to draw out spider venom. ( I was bitten by a spider and it got uber infected). It worked. Hurt like hell and I would never NEVER recommend doing it to a kid, but it did work. All the yucky stuff came out, and started to heal.
well have plenty of old wives tales but not necessarily what has worked. ut for example, if i admire a child for something beautiful (eyes, nose etc) i touch my nose to take the evil eye away. if a black cat crossed in front of me, i take three steps back. i never step on bread crumbs on the floor because i was raised believing those are souls (or something of the sort). if you are deathly afraid of something that means in previous life you were killed by it. i am deathly afraid of snakes. great, huh :)
my mom believes in soaking socks in milk to lower the fever (never tried it).
I have tried the wrapping a string around a cut on your toe: it worked kind of.
Eating peppermint when you are sick from eating too much. Works unless you ate too much peppermint, then well, you get sick.
The one about the uterus falling out used to be true. Women's corsets were so tight that they would squish and rearrange the internal organs and the uterus would fall out. Thank god for women's lib right?
Oh, my grandma said we couldn't drink coffee because it would stunt our growth, she should know she was only 5'1 and 3/4s. So, none of us drink coffee, but my sister is only 5'3" and I'm 5'5" so I dont' know if it worked or not since my mom was 5'8". Thats my favorite.
Not sure if it is considered "old wives tale" or just mexican belief, you must touch a baby that you admire/say it is pretty so the baby will not get sick with "evil eye". So for years, I could never pass a baby w/o touching it in some way.
Then if your baby was sick or fussy for no reason, someone had given the baby "evil eye" and to cure this you took a raw egg and rubbed all over the baby while quoting some prayer, Sana sana, something something.. then you cracked the egg into a bowl and placed it under the babies bed. In the morning if the egg was "cooked" then for sure the baby had evil eye and it was cured!! My aunt swore by it. I never did it.
Now I quit touching babies, BUT I say a quick prayer blessing the baby cuz that stupid voice tells me if I don't I will make the baby sick!!
hehehehe! I DID NOT tell my kids to do this the way my mom did to me! They don't need to live with this guilt!!!
Blessings!
D.
my grandma use to crochet all the time. She said that if you stick the needle in the yarn then it brings bad luck to the person using the blanket.
my grandma also "tests" what the birth of her great grandchildren will be with her wedding ring. with this she was actually right 75% of the time.
to get rid of planter warts.... slice an onion down the middle, rub it over the wart and don't look when you throw it out the door to see where it lands. she said once the onion starts to rot the wart will rot with it. ( my mom's went away after grandma did it for her.... wish it would have worked when mom did it to mine!)
don't wear red to a wedding... its a sign that you have sexual feelings towards the groom
.... oh the memories... sure do miss my grandmas! .... :)
