Myth and reality

There are so many myths and proverbs about childhood. However modern and knowledgeable we think we are, Granny’s rules and recommendations refuse to go away and are constantly acquiring new life. But how true are they? Let’s look at some examples.

ALL LITTLE GIRLS LOVE PINK. Of course a baby can’t decide what color it wants for its clothes and surroundings. But parents unconsciously go for pink because it sets off baby’s petal complexion and symbolizes purity and innocence. This is deeply rooted in European culture. And it shows the world right away that the baby is a girl. Many girls’ toys are pink as well, because grownups think it’s sweet. This preference is then implanted into the child until she is old enough to choose for herself.

BOYS PREFER BLUE. That again is the grownups’ view. Boys are just as happy with green or brown. Consumer research indicates that blue is a favorite color with adult Germans – of both sexes! In past centuries baby boys wore sky-blue garments to protect them against evil spirits.

SPINACH MAKES YOU STRONG. Blame that one on Popeye the Sailor Man. He’s been knocking back cans of spinach ever sine 1933 and it made him super-strong. Since then kids have had to eat the bland green vegetable because it is full of iron that enriches the blood. There’s no truth in the legend; it’s due to a calculation error by the Swiss scientist Gustav von Bunge in 1890, when he performed the first laboratory analysis of (powdered!) spinach. In fact spinach provides only half as much iron as a comparable quantity of chocolate, millet, or pistachio nuts. It does deliver a lot of fiber, minerals, vitamins, and albumen – but kids are not likely to be too impressed by that.

GIRLS LEARN TO TALK EARLIER. True. Scientists tell us that the left side of the brain, which contains the speech centers, develops faster in girls than in boys. What’s more, they deploy both sides of the brain in language acquisition. In this way girls learn to talk, and read, earlier. Moreover, it’s been proved that moms and dads talk a lot more to baby girls. In boys the righthand side of the brain develops quicker, which can lead to stronger visual and logical perception. In most cases the differences will have leveled out by the time the kids reach school age.

BABY BOYS ARE MORE ACTIVE. That’s true. Pulling on the joints until they give an audible crack overstrains the sinews and can cause the joints to wear and slacken prematurely.

MIDGES LIKE TASTY BLOOD. If a kid gets bitten, people will often say consolingly, "your blood must taste good." Taken literally this is nonsense, but it’s actually a metaphor: for "tasty" read "attractive" – to little blood-suckers, that is. They find their victims by scent, not taste. What they’re actually smelling is not yet known for certain, but it’s a fact that they will home in on fatty acids (contained in sweat) and flower scents.