The (Most Ridiculous) Old Wives’ Tales

If you are a superstitious person, you might want to skip this post. 

As with most young people of my generation, I have never believed in superstitions or old wives’ tales. To me, they are mostly ridiculous and unbelievably silly, but they do not cross my paths often. I am a Christian and so is my mum and mum-in-law, so most of the time, I do not have to deal with superstitions thrown my way. However, after my kids came along, I have been given ‘kind advice’, mostly by outsiders, about certain stuffs I shouldn’t do to my kids in order to avoid certain calamity from falling upon them.

I thought of sharing with you some of them. This could potentially be my funniest post ever.

1. I should not take photographs of my baby for the 1st 30 days of her life, for fear that her soul will be sucked away by the camera.

So, because she is a newborn, her soul is not securely stuck to the body yet, and thus can be easily sucked away by the lens? *roll eyes* If I believed in that, I would have lost 3000+ photos just like that. Yes, I take almost 100 photos everyday of my babies.

2. I should not let my baby see her reflection in the mirror or her spirit will be frightened by it and she will have nightmares that night.

Whoever heard of people who get scared by their own reflections? Unless you are real ugly, that is. The truth is, my baby loves looking at her own reflection, seeing what a beauty she is.

3. I should not openly praise my baby and say that she is obedient, otherwise she will become disobedient the very next minute.

HELLO?! I am a firm believer in positive confession. ‘Nuff said. I cannot remember the number of times my mum told me not to commend on my daughters’ obedience. If declaring that they are obedient will make them disobedient, then will declaring them clever make them stupid? Durh

4. If your baby’s ears are sticking too outwardly, he/she will grow up to be someone who cannot lose all his/her wealth.

And that’s why many parents try to use tapes to tape the ears to the head so that they will stick closer to the head and not be too outwardly. I can understand if it’s for beauty’s sake, but to keep wealth… ??!

5. Do not carry a baby upright when they are too young, otherwise they will drool non-stop later on.

Ermm, drooling is part and parcel of teething, so no matter how hard you try, you cannot stop a baby from drooling. And when the baby drools, the old wife goes, ‘There! I told you!’

6. Do not tickle the soles of your baby, or he/she will not dare to cross bridges in future.

What a dramatic effect such a small thing like tickling can cause. Very impressive.

7. On the baby’s first year birthday celebration, let the baby choose between a calculator, pen, ball and steloscope. Whichever the kid chooses will be his/her future career path.

Neat. IF I were the baby, I would choose the ball anytime. But everyone knows what a sports idiot I am today.

By the way, it doesn’t mean I have not been deceived by old wives’ tales before.

There were some that I grew up believing and even had western doctors tell me off when I mention them. For example, I always thought that when a baby breaks into cold sweat or when the forehead is cold to the touch, the baby is having a stomachache. A pediatrician told me that’s utter rubbish. =P

And remember how we were all told that when babies’ poo is greenish and resembles very smashed green beans, the baby is teething? That, apparently, makes no real sense either in the medical field.

Oh well, I don’t know. I guess some people just want to err on the safe side and just take all measures to ensure that their babies are safe and healthy. No real harm, I suppose, but let’s not get too paranoid about it, shall we? :)