Old wives tale

That there were only 3 states of matter, and I believed that for a looooong time. And that the Earth is awesome and fine, and that humans are good. Noooppe. The Earth is dying, and humans are terrible people(not everyone, but human nature)

Mostly, society does this to cover up terrible truths, or, in the case of plasma, because it's either 1, too new, or 2, too complicated, or both

 

When we were little, my sister and I were told that if we leave the window open at night, a witch would come over and eat us. Now we weren't afraid, we longed to meet that 'witch'! So we left the window open (there was a fly screen so no stranger could come in), and had to close it whenever necessary. The witch never ended up coming because, of course, she wasn't real.

There was nothing else I can remember other than this, but for the children in my dad's village (when he was a child), they were told never to go out in the beach alone otherwise a beach monster who was called Abd El Neer (Arabic) would come in and take them into the ocean.

 

Well, the classic "don't watch too much TV or your eyes will turn into squares" was something that got said quite a few times at my place. Also, whenever my brother and I were making funny faces, my parents said: "Watch out, when the clock hits a full hour, your faces will stay like that!"

Oh, and before I forget, I believed in Sinterklaas too (if you don't know who that is, go google him, I'm too lazy to explain). One day, back when I was nine years old, my dad entered my room and told me he wasn't real. I said "Oh" and moved on. Yeah, I took it quite easy, considering how I used to believe in him like all kids in the Netherlands do. I even planned on catching him in a net when he had entered my house to fill our shoes with presents.

 

Depends what the 'old wives tale' is. There are some that make no sense, like a person being dumb when they watch too much TV, for all that you know I could be watching the news or the History channel all day.

The only real wives tale I believe in, would have to be the one about having the happiest dreams before your death. My mom told me this, and I've believed it since that day. I don;t society has to do with it- it's just how I was raised.