Goodnight all 

"Svend" (svend) 10/10/2018 at 00:10 • Filed to: None

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Well, good night all but briefly on the subject, parents are weird with their kids. Well mine were.

Me and my sister were brought up to say a pray at night.

Here goes,

‘Now I lay (me or thee) down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take’.

.

Now how messed up is that!?

“Hey kids, off to bed, remember to say your prays for God to take your soul just in case you die in your sleep” .

That’s messed up!!!

Then and I’m not sure if it’s a British thing or all parents thing.

“Make sure your wearing clean underwear in case you get run over by a bus” (or similar).

What the hell!

I’ve thankfully made it through the night and now you think I’m going to get run over by a bus?

I’m eight, stop wishing I was dead already, just shut up.

Also, pretty sure that if I was about to get run over by a bus and I caught glimpse of it last second, chances are my underwear won’t be clean long. There would be a longer streak running down my leg than tyre tread on the road of the bus trying to stop from hitting me.

Anyway, good night all. 

Chariotoflove > Svend 10/10/2018 at 00:29

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That’s the original prayer. The one my dad taught me goes :

Now I lay me down to sleep,

A bag of peanuts at my feet.

If I should die before I wake,

You’ll know I died of a tummy ache.

Chariotoflove > Svend 10/10/2018 at 00:32

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Also, I laugh at the clean underwear thing because the one time I did get in a near fatal accident, and they had to come cut my bike shorts off, I wasn’t wearing any underwear* . Problem solved, in a manner of speaking.

*For those that don’t know, lycra bike shorts have a soft chamois crotch lining  that wicks moisture, and racers customarily do not wear underwear with them.

Svend > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 00:36

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Or asphyxiation from a nut allergy.

But it's still messed up. 

Svend > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 00:38

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Argh, did not need that image. Thanks. 

Chariotoflove > Svend 10/10/2018 at 00:39

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Hey, you were the one that brought up asphyxiation from nuts...

Svend > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 00:40

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Lol.   Eeeeeeeew, nah. Sheeeeeshhhhh. 

Svend > Chariotoflove 10/10/2018 at 00:42

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Good night mate, have a good one. 

Chariotoflove > Svend 10/10/2018 at 00:48

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G’nite.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Svend 10/10/2018 at 04:09

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We were taught the same prayer as kids. There are lots of other easy to remember little poems that we used to say.

When making a promise: “I cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”

To gross out our friends we would sing the Comet song :

And at Christmas, we had this classic (although I never learned anything beyond the chorus):

pip bip - choose Corrour > Svend 10/10/2018 at 04:38

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the benefits of not having religious parents

never prayed before bed

Svend > pip bip - choose Corrour 10/10/2018 at 05:22

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My parents weren’t even religious.

My mother tries to say she is but has never done anything to come across as such, other than no meat on a Friday, which she stopped observing years ago.

My step father is Mormon and I’ll say something about the Mormon church and my mother will say not to offend my step father about the church which usually ends in me saying, ‘I don’t mean any offence, it’s just something in the news about the church and shouldn’t he be the one to tell me he’s offended rather than you doing it on his behalf without even asking if he is?’. My step father though having been baptised Mormon is not remotely religious and drinks alcohol and caffeine and smokes nicotine.

((I hate it when people are offended on other people's behalf when they don't know if the other person is offended, especially when it was nothing even remotely offensive)) 

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Svend 10/10/2018 at 05:52

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I can’t hear or see that so-called prayer these days  without thinking of ‘ Enter Sandman’ by Metallica which is not the sleepiest song I've ever heard...

Svend > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 10/10/2018 at 06:05

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I can’t read Sandman without playing Sandman lieber Sandman in my head. Sandmannchen  was an East German children’s programme which often showed socialist achievements. Lol.

The Dummy Gummy > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media 10/10/2018 at 07:40

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Exit light, enter night... take my hand ... we’re of f to never never land.  

BJ > Svend 10/10/2018 at 08:22

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I also learned that prayer as a child, never bothered me, but I’m a bit of a naive optimist, so I probably thought, “Hey, i t’s great that someone is watching out for me!”

ttyymmnn > Svend 10/10/2018 at 10:10

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It’s nice to see that this sort of thing is international. We didn’t say a prayer, but it’s certainly well known. And as for the underwear thing, I think my mom meant it as a joke, but you can never be too certain. It’s probably more of a way to make sure the kids aren’t wearing the same Y- fronts for the 6th day.

ttyymmnn > Svend 10/10/2018 at 10:13

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The more I think about it, I’ll be that prayer has its roots in the Middle Ages, when dying in your sleep was probably a rather common occurrence. As was infant mortality. 

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Svend 10/10/2018 at 11:12

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This prayer, and others like it in the English speaking world , usually have roots in c hildren’s literature from the Victorian era (a nd sometimes before) . Until relatively recently in our history, childhood mortality was a very real, and very common thing. If you browse the stacks in the children’s literature section of a rare books library, you’ll find the eighteenth and nineteenth century children’s literature was often very dark, and childhood mortality is a very common theme.

It was a product of a time when getting sick and dying (as a kid or adult) was a thing happened, all the time. In my own family history, in the mid to late 1800's , it wasn’t uncommon for parent s to have 5-7 kids, of which 3-4 survived to adulthood. Sanitation, vaccines and antibiotics transformed the world. I just hope we get another broad spectrum antibiotic or two before all our current ones are ineffective.  There is a very real chance that getting a fever and dying of infection could become a thing again within our lifetimes.

Svend > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 10/10/2018 at 11:16

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Ye’, just growing up in the modern age it jus t sounds creepy thinking back .