Don T Crack Arthritis

Don’t Crack Your Knuckles, You’ll Get Arthritis

Growing up as a child I was told by my mother that I should never crack my knuckles because when I am older I will have arthritis. She then would always manage to come up with a story about a resident at one of her assisted living facilities that cracked their knuckles as a child and now has arthritis. Granted this was early in my adolescents and I would not dare challenge my parents, until the age of twelve when I started to become more observant of my surroundings. I remember sitting in my family room watching a rerun on Nickelodeon, then during one of the commercials I heard a crack come from beside me. I had never realized before this that my dad cracks his knuckles almost daily. After realizing this, I froze and reassured myself that my father had just cracked his knuckles. I then quickly left the family room and went to the study. As I

I remember going clicking on the first link on the google page, I was unsure if I should defy my parents knowingly or continue to follow the status quo. I then did what any rational twelve year old would do and confront my mom. She then tried to persuade me and started to make up facts and stories about the effects of cracking knuckles. This didn’t last and I eventually left. I started to then wonder why my own mom would lie to me and continue to lie to me even after I caught her in the act. I started to then do some research, but to no avail. I vividly remember wanting to know why this occurred, however I would not know for many more years. As I got older I realized that I had been “lied” to many times, these ranged from not swimming after eating to not swallowing gum because it will stay in your stomach for seven years. I now know that no real harm will come from any of these but rather I was lied to because my mom wanted me not to do something but didn’t want to say “because I said