Becoming The Muse

Two Belly Buttons

“If you eat in bed you will get two belly buttons…”

That’s a myth or superstition which traumatised me from childhood. One of my earliest memories of my paternal grandmother, Mbuyahwe is her recuperating from surgery from a condition which according to her resulted from eating while laying in bed… Two belly buttons.

When I was older, I learnt that Mbuyahwe underwent a corrective procedure on a hernia. One can see how an abdominal hernia can be explained to young and impressionable minds as being a belly button, a second one to be precise. It didn’t help that the doctors simplified a hernia as being a second belly button.  

The parents decided that the official story to tell the grandkids… meaning us… was that Mbuyahwe had to undergo surgery to remove a second belly button which had resulted from eating while laying in bed.

If you eat in bed you will get two belly buttons…

That traumatised me, even at my big age, I try not to eat in bed if I can help it…

Breakfast in bed?
We been having it pic.twitter.com/niZAwGFypL

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) December 31, 2022

Growing up, there were several other superstitions or sayings that we were told, mostly as a guide and to keeps us safe from harm… for example, not to sit in the road or else you will get boils on your backside… which was actually about not playing in traffic.

If you eat in bed you will get two belly buttons

This was supposed to prevent the choking hazard that came from eating while laying in bed not to mention the mess or the cockroaches, ants and other creatures that might end up in the bedroom following the crumbs likely to be spilled from eating in bed…

I want to think if they had simply told us this as kids we would have listened.. but looking back, nope, something dramatic as a second belly button is the only thing that could stop one from eating in bed no ifs or buts…

I am old enough to know better… and I still don’t do that.

Any superstitions and myths that were drilled into you as a child?

~B