I 100% understand your wife. I'm not that bad, but it's a consequence of being told you have to be perfect or you failed growing up, at least for me. If something doesn't go right the first time I still get that mini freeze "error encountered on line 1 please reboot" that my parents unintentionally instilled in me.

Sounds like generalized anxiety disorder

lol anyone else remember being in pre-k and pleading with God not to send you into eternal fire?

“On February 15, 1909, Millet’s 15th birthday, these “girl stenographers” promised that when the workday ended, they would kiss him once for every year of his age. At 4:30pm, they made good on their vow and descended on Millet to deliver the expected smooches. Millet tried to wriggle away, and in the ensuing rumpus was heard to exclaim, “I’m stabbed!”

According to the Times, 23-year-old Gertrude Robbins, one of the kiss-happy stenographers, rushed to his aid, but fainted at the sight of blood streaming from a wound in his chest. An ambulance was summoned and Millet transported to New York Hospital, but he died from his injuries on the way there.

Arrested on the charge of homicide, Robbins told police what had happened. Right before the office kissfest, Millet had been holding an ink eraser—not a rubber blob, but a six-inch-long metal tool that resembled a knife. When the stenographers surrounded him, Millet’s eraser was in his pocket. During the fracas, he fell forward, and the sharp point of the eraser drove into his heart.”

https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/george-spencer-millet-kissed-to-death-in-1909.html

Someone lands on the bad roulette number once in a while.

To be fair falling down the stairs could very easily kill you if you land wrong.

That one is way more true than "if you swim after you eat you will die". And even the swimming one is way more true than the interpretation that most people had that if you just enter the water, you will die.

As a kid I would have been fine falling down staris.

Now, overweight and in my 40s I get it. I slipped on porch steps last year and went down 3 steps and I had to go to the ER and was basically bedridden for a week.

If you faint, you can hurt yourself pretty badly by just falling to the ground; now imagine the same thing with stairs.

Even if awake, falling down the stairs has the risk of you hitting your head/neck/back, so it might be exaggerated somehow in movies, but still potentially bad.

Just a random fact that had barely anything to do with anything: In parts of Germany, there is the saying "did you fall down the stairs backwards" when someone cuts their hair quite short. I am from a part of Germany where this is not common and first time I heard it, it was a mentally handicapped person so I assumed he was just talking random stuff as he often did until I was told that that is common here.

I mean, any vigorous activity directly after eating can cause a stomachache. I don't know why swimming was the sole focus but a general caution to digest a bit before activity isn't bad advice.

It's a rule created by adults who got tired of kids stuffing themselves with food and then jumping in the pool and throwing up. It has nothing to do with cramps, and everything to do with making a child wait a few minutes after eating because kids have zero self-control.

There's a major differencebetween something entirely made up that your parents know is bullshit and something that's false but your parents genuinely believe, because thr delivery will be very different. Especially if even the danger of the myth is exaggerated (I was always told it's a bit dangerous and to not do it but never that it's a huge risk of death).

Though also being lied to about some dangers would make me think that everything I've been warned about is false or greatly exaggerated, and I'm very grateful that despite being quite anxious about my safety, my mom never did that. But that might be an autism thing because reportedly if she explained why something was bad I'd get it and just not do it, even when I was very young.

I do partially blame my teenage depression-fueled 2ish years of barely every brushing my teeth, the consequences of which I'm still dealing with, on being told that even skipping one day is really bad and I will probably get cavities if I do that a few times. Cue me skipping it on some days because of mental health, realizing that even after months of occasionally doing that my teeth are still fine (including the dentist saying they're doing great and no issues), and subsequently no longer being able to find the motivation to do it at all since the consequences I was trying to avoid never materialized.

I wish critical thinking were taught and encouraged, but even my school teachers told blatant lies and sent me to the principal for pointing them out. There's a systemic issue interfering with people's abilities to question what they're told (at least, here in the U.S.), and the addition of anxiety makes cracking that egg an even bigger challenge. I learned long ago not to assume that everyone else thinks about things the way I do, and unfortunately almost everyone holds some kind of belief that they've never critically examined.