Step on a crack, break your mother's back. Every Australian child between five and eight believed this for at least a year. Walking home from school became a balletic exercise. Footpath cracks were minefields. Stepping on one was a small act of matricide. The rhyme had teeth. Other variants existed (mother's spine, neighbour's house, the devil's back) but the mum version was the canonical one. Kids enforced it in the playground. There were rules. There were exceptions on hopscotch lines.
Stepping on the crack does not affect your mother's back. The rhyme is at least 150 years old, traceable back to 19th-century English skipping rope chants, and possibly older. A Victorian-era version goes 'step on a crack, break your father's back, step on a line, break your father's spine,' which is helpful because it shows the adult target rotates depending on which parent you most resent on a given afternoon. The rhyme persists for the same reason Bloody Mary, the Hook Man, and the Knock-Knock Joke from Saw all persist: childhood operates on magical thinking, and small portable rules with apocalyptic consequences are a great way to organise the otherwise overwhelming experience of walking down the street. Your mother's back is fine. She'll have other complaints. None of them will be footpath-related.
Reception
Sources
- Wikipedia: Step on a Crack PRIMARY
- Snopes: Crack Myth REFERENCE
- Etymonline: Nursery Rhymes REFERENCE