Pinball - a taboo
I didn't really play much as a kid - I felt guilty spending my parents hard earned money!

The only two games I remember, were at the local squash court at separate times: Kiss and Playboy.  True - perhaps the reason why I only remember those is that I've been hearing about those ever since.  I can't recall any of the many other games I would have seen and but rarely played as a kid, yet I love EM games.  Perhaps catching up on lost time as a youngster, when I craved playing them but didn't.

Wine - "it's good for you"
From the age of 10, my father always encouraged me to drink wine at the dinner table instead of what he called 'trash soft drink'.  The amount of alcohol I've drank in my whole life is probably less than 20 litres.  I have minimal interest in alcohol.


The moral:
Make something a Taboo as a child, and you are sure to encourage a passion for it.  Don't taboo something, and there will be no interest in it.

So teach all young kids that pinball is bad!  

BB - this is incredibly insightful & very true. And sometimes it cycles by generation - eg . a liberal generation (grandparents), strict generation (parents), liberal generation (me). Alcohol was not welcome at my parents' home & so it was pretty interesting to me as a teen - & I still enjoy a good drop    Another eg. is although mum & dad were well-off they would always be careful with things like not use the dryer & dry things on the line. It annoyed me to the point that if I want to run my heating at 26 degrees & wear shorts around the house I do. And nah - Kiss was awesome at the time - I reckon it's from those days, not what you've heard since.