A BURNT CHILD DREADS THE FIRE
MEANING- One does not repeat a learnt lesson.
ORIGIN- Very similar in meaning to another proverb, "Once bitten, twice shy," today's proverb is an old one. It appeared in English literature as early as 1320, in "The Proverbs of Hendyng." Another proverb, which is similar, comes from the French: "A scalded dog fears cold water" carries an even stronger message; that those who have experienced a great deal of difficulty or pain will not only avoid it in the future, but will be afraid even where there is no cause.
Other languages also have like proverbs, such as, "One bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope's end" (Jewish), "A man who has received a beating with a firebrand runs away at the sight of a firefly" (Singhalese), and "A dog which has been beaten with a stick fears its own shadow" (Italian).
ORIGIN INFO FROM Pride-Unlimited.com
What It means to me- Today a funny thing happened... Basil started doing this thing where he kind of says a phrase that resembles "I wanna go down." Which means he wants to literally get down and crawl around. We were at this neighborhood school event... you know cake walks, fried chicken and silent auctions. The whole thing was held on the school's blacktop. So, Basil just kept saying "Wanna go down, wanna go down." But with Georgia's weather, the blacktop was very hot. But I put him down anyways. He did this hilarious almost dancing between his hands. He would lift one hand up and put the other down and then rapidly switch to the other.This movement resembled those Russian dances when they switch legs in a croutching position. It was kind of mean, but hilarious. So maybe when B. sees black concrete in the summer weather we would have learned his lesson. That is all what parenting is about. Lessons learnt.