My cousin had a thumb-sucking complex which her parents found necessary to remove. The "blackened thumb" scared her, but not enough for her to stop. So at one point her father caught her in the act, grabbed her thumb and showed it to her that it was black. Scared straight. He had coated the palms of his hands in black oily substance, and when he grabbed her thumb he rubbed it on her...very clever and amusing.
A childhood belief about sucking my thumb
others believed things like this
- My friend told me that if you sucked your thumb, your skin would get all mushy and your thumb would fall off.— Lauren
- my mother was able to stop me from sucking my thumb by telling me it would rust and fall off!!— lv
- If you suck your thumb it would eventually go black, shrivel up and fall off.— Charlotte
- I used to believe that your thumb would come off if you sucked your thumb too much— Anonymous
- My mother told me that if I kept sucking my thumb I would grow another one out the side of the first one.Anon
- My mother told me when i was 5 that Santa wouldn't come if i kept sucking my thumb. — Traumatized