Steem4nigeria Accelerator Contest Week 63:The Lies I Grew Up Believing

Greetings friends and welcome to my blog. I must say that this contest topic is very perculiar to me cos I was fed with loads of lies as a child and till tomorrow I still marveled at how bizzare these things were yet I believed them as a child and swallowed them hook, line and sinker. My parents and most adults still owes me plenty apologies. Hahah. Let’s get down to the plenty lies they fed me. Heheheh.

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What were the lies you believed while growing up?

They were plenty and I would share the ones I remember.

Lie 1:
I was told that if my milk teeth falls off, I need to throw in unto a zinced roof and I have to make some enchantments for the teeth to grow back. So whenever my teeth fell off, I would go to our balcony and stand with the fallen tooth and say “this tooth as I throw you on top of this zinc, be swallowed by a rat and not a lizard”.

I would chant this multiple times before throwing it on the zinc hoping that the rat gets to swallow it before the lizard does cos if the lizard swallows it instead of the rat, my tooth won’t grow back. Can you imagine?

Lie 2:

My parents told me that if I mistakenly swallow and orange seed, that it would germinate in my tummy and grow out of my mouth. You cannot imagine the trauma I went through when I mistakenly swallowed one only to find out it was all a lie and that they were only trying to get me to be careful not to swallow the seeds.

Lie 3:

We always desired to have whiter finger nails as kids so I was told that to get whiter fingers nails, we should always come out and sing to the Egrets (which was called Jekeleke in Igbo language) whenever they are flying by because they are white birds.

So we would always look out for Egrets flying by and we would all start singing to them while waving our hands to them to take our black nails and give us white ones. We would sing and sing until they all fly by.

I would check my nails and they are still the same but that didn’t deter us because we were determined to have the whiter nails so we would continue our singing and waving the next time they fly across. Am still waiting for the white nails. Lolzzz.

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Lie 4:

I had always wanted to grow tall as a child and I was told that if am lying down on the ground and someone crosses my legs, that my legs would keep growing short until I end up a very short girl.

Hence whenever someone has to cross, I would lift my legs and if you mistakenly cross my legs while am lying down on the floor, I would hold you hostage until you cross back to reverse the effect of the shortage on my legs. Hahaha.

Lie 5:

I was told that if a boy touch me that I would get pregnant. Boys have been touching me since and I’ve been touching them too ooo. I’ve not seen the pregnancy. Hahaha

Lie 6:

This seem to be the one that broke my heart cos I believed it till this year. It was practically some months ago that I knew it was a lie. Do you wanna hear this?

So while growing up, there was this rail station that was in the state where I grew up from. I would always cross it while going to the market but I had never seen a train crossing it. I was told that If I ever see a train crossing, that I should run very far from it because if I stay close to the train when it’s crossing, that the train has a magnet and it would magnet me to it and crush me.

So I grew up being afraid of a train I had never seen crossing. It was until some months ago that I happened to be around a rail track and here was the train coming in full speed blaring the horn. I noticed everyone just shifted to the corner but they weren’t fleeing.

That thought came up but I just shifted alittle and the train passed. I was waiting for the magnet to magnet me but here I am telling you of the lies I was fed. So there was no magnet in the train after all. It’s well. Am glad I found out they lied to me as a full over grown adult. Hahahah.

What was your reaction after finding out the truth as an adult

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I must say it was a mixture of disappointment, betrayal and amusement and a little anger. Sometimes I still wonder at how as children we manage to believe all sort of bizzare things. It’s very weird to even know that we sincerely and judiciously practiced those rituals.

The one that baffles me is that of enchantment for my tooth to grow back and praying for rat to swallow it. Can you imagine the betrayal of getting to biology class and knowing that rats and lizard has nothing to do with the growing back of my teeth.

Can you imagine the tension of thinking that train would magnet me as an adult? A full blown adult for that matter. They still owe me some apologies as long as am concerned. Thank God for this contest. Next time I see my mum, I must demand for my apologies. Hahaha.

Do you subscribe to telling lies to young minds in a bid to protect them or you choose to call a spade a spade?

The lies are not worth it really. They made childhood fun and also stupid but I think it’s preferable to spell things out clearly for kids and tell them why they shouldn’t do things in clear letters than lying to them. They grow up believing in lies and will be tempted to pass down these lies to their own kids too.

Am sure our parents had their own fair share of the lies and decided to do it us too. So calling a spade a spade is a better way to teach and protect than lies.

Thank you for coming down this lane with me and I ask @Lewis-write, @jovita30 and @ngozi996 to participate in this contest.