Tag Archives: back

Stepping on a crack will break your mom’s back

Text: 

“I think it was at my kindgarten, where all the kids would say ‘stepping on a crack will break your mom’s back.’ Back then, the teachers would make us walk together as a class in line everywhere we went, so you could see everyone in front of you stepping over cracks in the sidewalk to save their moms, I guess. It was a big deal, too. Other kids would call you out if they saw you step on one, and I think some people even cried over it.”

Context:

My informant is from Austin and first learned this superstition in Kindergarten. She remembers following the superstition for approximately two years before stopping. She guesses that she either forgot about it or decided it was false. 

Interpretation:

This superstition is an example of how folklore can be spread at schools, particularly elementary schools or preschools. It reminds me of the cheese touch or cooties, as each of these are pieces of folklore that are turned into games by young children. This superstition specifically involves other people and reveals a deeper common anxiety about hurting loved ones. It also is an example of how rhyming can be used to define a specific superstition and help people remember it. 

Step on a crack, and you will break your mother’s back.

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Performance Date: Apr. 8, 2019
Primary Language: English

Context
The informant is a Chinese American. We were discussing interesting superstitions in Chinese or American cultures when she brought out this item.

Content
You’re not supposed to step on cracks in the floor. If you step on it, you’re going to break your mother’s back. And I think kids kinda play for fun with it when they’re little. There are very few kids who actually believe it. Obviously, because kids step on it all the time, and no one’s mother dies of that. It’s mostly just for fun.
Interviewer: And how do they play with it? Like in what situations?
Informant: Someone would say, don’t step on the cracks or you would break your mother’s back. And all the kids have to avoid stepping on cracks. They just have to all walk around like to avoid cracks,
Interviewer: And they just do it for fun?
Informant: Yeah, they just do it for fun.
Interviewer: Like, they laugh and walk around it?
Informant: Kind of. It’s more like if someone does accidentally step on a crack, they would point it out and like, ‘haha, you stepped on a crack; you broke your mother’s back!’ kind of thing. It’s obviously rude and stupid.

Analysis
First, the saying itself includes a rhyming between “back” and “crack”. This is probably how the crack in the road is connected with the mother’s back.
Second, the saying involves homeopathic magic. Stepping on a crack is likened to actually stepping on mother’s back.
Third, the kids make fun of the saying, because they don’t believe in it. There is a counter-hegemonic feeling involved. The kids are supposed to follow the saying even they don’t believe it, so they follow the saying in an exaggerated way: for example, they intentionally avoid all the crack, and make fun of the kid who accidentally steps on a crack instead of feeling worried for the kid’s mom.
My informant doesn’t believe in the saying. She thinks the saying is stupid. She also cannot understand the doings of the kids.