@Kushyzee
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Childhood myths; yay or nay?
This article has been sitting in my draft since last week and I finally decided to write on it today. It was during the recent power outage in my city and I was playing football with my friends when my girlfriend noticed ripe pawpaw (papaya) on a tree close to our fence. My friends succeeded in plucking it and two kids helped us to retrieve them from the next house. The mother of the kids then told my girlfriend that since she will be eating pawpaw, then she should stay away from soft drinks throughout the day (specifically Fanta). After hearing that, I started thinking about all of the myths I have heard during my childhood and I wondered if there was a truth to them. 1. Pawpaw (papaya) vs soft drinks (Fanta).
**Image source** https://unsplash.com/photos/ipmkJx06XFM I am not really a fan of pawpaw and I don't like eating it right from childhood but I can remember my mom strictly warning my siblings never to drink Fanta after eating pawpaw because they will end up dead. The argument was that pawpaw and soft drink when combined are very deadly. The one that is even more popular and widespread is mango vs Coke or Fanta. It's the same as the pawpaw case above, and it's said that both of them should never be combined. But is that true? Definitely not! 😀 I believed it a lot when I was a kid but as I got older, I find out it isn't true because I have mistakenly tried it a couple of times. And also, there's no medical evidence to support this claim that mango or pawpaw and soft drinks combo could kill. Mango contains ascorbic acid like most fruits, so what specifically is in mango that will combine with coke to form a poison? 🤔 I have seen people that took soft drinks after taking mango and nothing bad happened to them. So yeah, it's just a myth 😉 2. Coconut water is bad for kids
**Image source** https://unsplash.com/photos/WUMxEBWvE64 I don't know about people in other parts of the world but in Nigeria, this was a very well-known myth that was very popular during my childhood. I remember my parents will always drink the water inside a coconut when they have opened it and when I ask for some, they tell me that kids shouldn't drink it because it will make them dull 😆 I believed them a lot and I stayed away from coconut water because I don't want to end up reducing my intelligence (but I guess my intelligence did reduce for believing in that sh*it 😂). There's definitely no relationship between coconut water and a kid's brain, if at all it will even contain nutrients that will nourish the brain. But I guess my parents wanted the coconut water all to themselves, hence they came up with that lie 😆 But I believed them because other adults around also said the same thing. It was like they all held a meeting to come up with that lie, it worked for years. But later on, I just damned the consequences and started drinking the water. 3. Throw your teeth on the roof
**Image source** https://unsplash.com/photos/WUMxEBWvE64 This one is very funny and I believe most of us in Nigeria have heard it before. Whenever a person's milk teeth fall off, they are told to throw them on the roof or else new teeth won't grow back. I did it for years and whenever a tooth falls off, I quickly throw it on the roof. My mom even told me something even crazier; that throwing one's tooth to the roof will give it access to lizards who takes the tooth and gives the person a new one (I guess our tooth fairy in Nigeria are lizards 🤣). I thought about it one day and just concluded that it's very absurd and not true. Till today I still don't know the reason why teeth have to be thrown on the roof. 4. When your right hand itches you, money is coming. *To be continued...* **Thanks for reading 💖💖💖** **Monday April 4th, 2022**
30 comments
Parent's greatest excuse is "it's not good for the kids" lmao they always said that if they don't want to give you some lol. That itchy hand thingy , I used to believe that when I was younger, I was so excited everytime my hand itches because I was expecting to receive money 🤣 but now that I'm an adult, not a even single penny arrives whenever my hand itches lmao
😂 I feel like we have been conned into adult life. Most of the things we believe as kids no longer work when we become adults 😆
Oh the number 3 myth, we also had that myth in our country and I remember throwing my milk teeth on the roof. I don't exactly remember the reason but yeah most of the kids before were doing that, unlike today no one does it anymore😅
Same thing in my country, I no longer see people doing it anymore
I think some of myths are only an excuse to protect the child from being hurt.
Exactly, parents use that as a tool to protect their children, but sometimes they do it for selfish reasons 😆
This are things we were told at our young age especially that “throw your teeth on the roof” that one is the most popular one which is just superstitious. It’s said that lizard will eat the teeth lol 😂
Exactly what my mom told me, but I later found out that it's rubbish as I grew older 😆
I love drinking coconut water though.. O Coz we have a farm ful of coconut tree 😁
Coconut water has a refreshing taste, but my parents never allowed us to drink it when I was younger 😆
Lolz, you remind me of a lot from reading this. Mango and Garry, don't walk on your shadow, never draw a line on the floor at night. Those things never had side effects, they were composed just to keep us away from doing somethings.
And I still wonder why we were told those things, till today I still don't know the reason behind most of them, it's not like they are really dangerous
We usually wrap our tooth in a black polythene bag before throwing it on the roof if not all those lizard that use to climb fence would easily spot it. To be on the safest side, just dig a little hole at the backyard and bury it.... We usually feel like conquerors after successfully burying a tooth 😁
😂 I am telling you. Some people picked that option of burying their tooth, but I prefer throwing it on the roof
Hahaha, these are some interesting and amusing myths indeed. I suppose these were told by old generations and were passed down to their offspring and then now to you, lol!
That's right Ate, but now it seems nobody cares about them anymore and are no longer passing them down
Waiting for the money part, this topic is the biggest and hottest one especially to us Filipino, i want to know if it is for real or a not
I will talk about that later today 😁
Omo if to say the first item on list dey kill true true, I for don die teytey cos I used to test if those things are true. The one about the coconut water is really hilarious, I can't believe you fell for that. Me, I was like 'if I dull, I dull, I must drink this water o' 🤣😂
🤣 exactly me o, I just got to one point and I just said "abeg forget this thing, I must drink this forbidden water" 😂
These things really got us those times. The mango and Coke is still trending in my villa till today. Lol🤣. The coconut; I believed this till I entered secondary school. But all the beliefs vanished when I started using phone,,,I browsed. The teeth on the roof; I was a full victim of that. Hand scratching and money; actually this works for some people and I think it's based on what they believe.
Looks like you fell for a lot of them 😂 it is crazy how popular these things are back then, but noww we hardly hear about them anymore
Yeah, the new modern Life has helped in chasing away these myths. You can't fool a boy of 12years that has phone with these. Just a Google touch, the truth pops up
All mythical nonsense. But that coconut water fit be true o, because I drink am well when I small
So are you trying to say you dull now? I concur 😂
I think I still believe the myth that you shouldn't take any soft drink when you have taken mango, it causes stomachache. Lol Also there is the one of not taking mango and Garri too because it's dangerous. About the throwing of teeth on the roof, I have done this countless of time when I was young and would be careful not to open my mouth for the lizard because my tooth will not grow😅😅
Yeah there's also one about garri and mango and I agree with that one; why will anybody think of drinking garri after eating mango??? 😂
They told us about was mango and Coke, the worse that will happen is a stomach ache (sometimes) 😂 big time scam, all of them.
I don't even get stomach ache after trying that mango and coke, I wonder how that rumour even started 😆
I also don't get it but I've geard people say they do sometimes.