Tuesday, July 12, 2011

If you make a silly face for too long it will stay like that for forever!

I'm sure everyone has heard the saying that if you make a silly face long enough, it will stick and stay like that forever. Working in a daycare with two year olds, I find myself making this statement quite often. While researching this old wive's tale it was pretty clear that this is nothing but a myth. In fact, it is actually normal for children to cross their eyes and have their eyes wander up until they are three months old. As children get older, if they continuously cross their eyes they will return to their normal position.

Most of the muscles in the face are attached to each other or skin, not to bone. When these muscles are used and then relaxed it is their job to return back to their normal position. Making these silly face can actually be good for you. Making these ridiculous faces can actually help relax tense muscles. They can also improve your circulation and reduce stress. So, it is definitely not dangerous to make crazy faces.

Since I could not find much information on how this myth came about I asked my mother why she always said it to my siblings and I when we were little. Her answer was pretty simple and made a lot of sense. She said she was trying to scare us out of embarrassing her out and public when we made these crazy faces at each other and honestly, it worked.

1 comment:

  1. I've heard this statement also but never actually believed it. I wonder how such a statement originated?