Showerthought: I used to think you had to wait an hour after eating to swim.

For over forty years, I never got in the water right after a meal. My mom drilled it into me as a kid, saying I'd get a cramp and drown. The other day, I was reading a first aid manual from the Red Cross while waiting for a job to start, and it said there's no medical basis for that rule. It said cramps from eating are rare and not a big drowning risk for most people. The real danger is being tired or drinking alcohol. I felt like a fool. All those times as a kid sitting on the hot beach, watching my friends swim, for no good reason. It was just a story passed down. Has anyone else had a family safety rule they later found out was totally made up?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jenny1mo ago

Watched my friend refuse to let her kid swallow gum for years, convinced it would stick in his guts for seven years. She found some parenting blog last month that completely debunked it, explaining it just passes through like anything else. The look on her face was pure shock, like her whole reality shifted. She said she felt silly for all those frantic "spit it out now!" moments. It's crazy how these ideas just get stuck in families and no one questions them.

rose_hart1mo ago

Ugh, that's the worst feeling! I've noticed this happens a lot with "old wives' tales" that get treated as hard science. Like my dad swore you'd catch a cold from going outside with wet hair, which is also not true, it's from germs. It makes you wonder what else we're just blindly following because someone said it once.