When I walk to class, and most other places… I don’t step on the cracks in the cement/pavement. Ever. I’ll change my stride so I don’t step on the cracks. I know it doesn’t come from the ‘step on a crack break your mothers back’ rhyme.
The question is, why do I do this? Is there something wrong with me? Should I step on these cracks? Does anyone else avoid these cracks? (cracks being the seams between tiles…cracks in pavement… sectins of floor. Coloratons in patterned floors.)
I think perhaps it stems from the fact that I’m a perfectionist. Do any of you do this? (If you think its a silly question then it is. I really want to know though.)
The Urge
Hi!! Should I call you, ** Urge ** or with your article ‘The’ in front of it?? Or how 'bout, just TU??
Your question isn’t silly at all, and of course it * could * be considered a compulsive act. BUT, it also could be, you’re walking looking at your feet, and getting distracted by the lines too.
To tell if it were a problem for you, if you step on the crack, do you get deep feelings of unease, regret, remorse, do you need to get away from other people after stepping on the cracks?
If the answer is ‘no’, which bein’ a mom, I’m guessing your answer IS ‘no’ already! You are shy, you’re walking with your head down, and that’s all.
I have a college age son, who is shy, and even though he is in his last semester as a sophmore, he still struggles making friends, walking into the cafeteria alone or into the bigger auditoriums. All of those things are ‘normal’. He walks all the time with his head down, and * missing the fact * that he could interact with other shy people too, if he ** would just look up. **
Try a smile, it always helps!
Good luck!
Judy
“I never saw so many words compressed into so small an idea.” Abraham Lincoln
I paid more attention to cracks in the sidewalk when I was, like, 5 years old. Now I don’t care. But I think the human eye instinctively looks out for any perceived obstacles on the path and so you tend to step over them. There was a drugstore that had big blue diamond shaped tiles on their white. linoleum floor, I’d walk down the aisles and just out of the corner of my eye I’d see these dark ominous “holes” in the ground, there was a constant, tho very very low-level sense of “oh shit, I’m going to step in/on something” for a microsecond everytime I glanced down.
Anti-Pro: Being about the same age as your son, I can tell you that the reason he walks around with his head down is that he probably doesn’t want to interact with the people he sees walking by. I know I sure don’t. I’m often thinking about other things when I’m walking to classpretty focused, sometimesand seeing other people and making eye contact with them is distracting.
And it’s not necessarily being “shy” either. I got over most of my social phobias a while ago. I just often times prefer the company of myself to the people I know at college.
I don’t do it as much now as when i was younger, but when i’m walking on a sidewalk or some other concrete type flooring, i try and walk in a pattern. for example, at my elementary school, i would step twice in ever “block” of concrete. every third one i would only step in once, because the strides would end up like that. or when i was riding in a car, i’d pretend i was hovering a foot or so above the ground, but i couldn’t hover if there was a light post next to the road there, so i’d have to come down and hit it with the front wheels, then they’d come up, and i’d hit it with the back wheels. is it weird? probably. do i care? not a bit.
I am not who you think I am.
I am not who I think I am.
I am who I think you think I am.
Nope. No feelings of remorse or anything. It could be that I’m shy. I’m trying not to be. Thus I keep getting yelled at so I think shy is the way to go.
When you were five eh? Makes me feel sorta dumb. I guess maybe perhaps I just let my mind wander more than others. Or I’m more observant. Or maybe I just do it.
Heck I dunno.
About my name. Call me whatever makes you happy! If it works for you and I understand it works.
Thanks alot!! Anyone else out there do this?
Oh my God, what is this ‘pennys"theman"’??@#*&??? The Urge might have obsessive-compulsive disorder but now I’ve got an identity crisis and gender confusion!!
Also, how could someone using my name have such total disregard for punctuation! Aaaargh!!!
If you can make yourself step on the cracks without causing deep feelings of dread, then I’d say no, you’re not compulsive, just a creature of habit. Real compulsions are very difficult to break. I’ve heard of compulsive people freezing up at just the thought of trying to break their habit.
‘When I walk to class, and most other places… I don’t step on the cracks in the
cement/pavement.’
This is a very old superstition. That’s where it comes from. I think you learned it in childhood but forgot. Here it is:
" Step on a crack, break my mother’s back."
“‘How do you know I’m mad’ said Alice.
'You must be, ’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’”
I do the same thing, and I’m 19. Actually I don’t do it so much on sidewalks anymore, but I sure do it with little strips of shadow on the gangway to the ferry. But then again, I’m mildly eccentric. You may be too. It’s good.
There are a few reasons why folks might make a point of avoiding cracks in the sidewalk.
One possibility could be that this is a small way to gain some feeling of control over your world (“By avoiding the cracks, I can avoid bad events around me”).
Or it could be a game you’ve invented to “protect” yourself — to keep your eyes and your mind occupied so you can comfortably avoid meeting eyes with the people around you.
Or it could be just a silly habit left over from childhood.
Personally, when I was younger and got annoyed at my mother, I used to STOMP on the cracks. ("Hah! Take that, Mom!)
When I was younger, no matter WHERE I walked, I would “see” lines on the ground. The lines would come from corners (such as walls starting or ending), carpets, tiles, sidewalk cracks, doors, door frames, light poles, etc. All the lines would extend invisibly perpendicular to my path. When I walked, I would make sure that my toes would always line up with the start of one of these lines. My stride looked so ridiculous at times.
However, this only happened when I was walking and thinking about it. If I was talking to someone else while walking, or concentrating on something else, I had no problem.
When I was taking I-10 across West Texas at an extraordinarily dangerous speed I took to weaving across the lanes in an effort to NOT hit the little white reflective bumps used as lane dividers. I only succeeded once or twice. Ever since I’ve had an uncontrollable urge to take a road trip to try again…
As to the cracks in sidewalks:
I take the other approach - I PURPOSELY step on them, just because I know I’m not supposed to
When I was in junior high school, I didn’t avoid the cracks, but I had to “balance” stepping on the cracks. That is, if I stepped on one with my left foot, I had to step on another with my right foot. Otherwise, I felt off balance somehow.
I assume this was a minor compulsion, because at some point, I graduated to the following pattern of stepping on cracks:
right-left-left-right
But then that wasn’t good enough, so I invented the following pattern:
And that was good enough. I think moving or going to high school broke the habit. But at some point I started making an effort to look straight ahead when walking so I couldn’t see my feet. It took a while to get used to that but I eventually managed.
As for avoiding people when I’m deep in though, I’ve acquired a look of deep concentration that fends people off (and I will often not notice when someone’s calling my name if I’m thinking too deeply).
I feel much better now. Any others that do the same thing??