Childhood misconceptions

[Stalfos]

I used to think that the moon was also the earth.

 

[Chipl95]

When I was little (like 4yo), I thought those mannequins on clothes shops were actual people, and you could BUY them so they would become part of your family. So I thought my aunt used to be a mannequin.

I though that all traffic lights were operated by some people who had cameras a around the city, and they would press a button to change the lights to green, red or yellow.

I also thought that there were kilometers-tall walls between the borders of each country that reached outer space, and so if you flew to another country the airplane would have to fly to the space and then down again.

That last one would be Donald Trump's dream!

 

[cannedcommunism]

I thought that the reason pregnant women have baby bumps was because at a certain point in somebody's life their family just sits down and eats them and then they enter their mother's stomach again and get born again.

 

[dragonpisces69]

In response to the same old Christmas story involving the birth of Jesus that my pre-school/kindergarten teacher told me and my classmates when I was about 4 or 5, I first thought babies came from their mother's throats. Back then, nobody ever told me how a baby got into a mother's stomach, it was just a random thought that somehow popped up in my head out of nowhere!

There are tons more that I knew, but I cannot remember any of them right now oof

 

[hzl]

I legit thought I could be a fairy 'when I grow up'.

 

[k e r f u f f l e]

For twelve whole minutes of my childhood, I thought my grandmother was a male imposter.

 

[Neb]

- I thought Singapore was in Eastern Europe and Guam was in the Caribbean.

- I thought est. was short for east.

- I thought you had to lay perfectly still for 15 minutes in order to fall asleep. Any turns or subtle movements would reset the count.

- I thought there were monsters under restaurant booth seats.

- I thought when a dog licked you after asking a question they were saying “yes.”

- I thought Sharkboy and Lavagirl was well acted.

 

[SmrtLilCookie]

After I learned about black holes in elementary school I thought that one was going to come and swallow the Earth any day. No one thought to tell me they were tens of lightyears away (or what a lightyear even is).

I also thought the red light on smoke detectors were like little eyes watching for fire. I had a smoke detector outside of my bedroom. It scared me half to death sometimes because I thought it was watching me

 

[eggie_]

when i was little i thought if you put soap in water and then put that in the freezer, it would explode. my line of thought was
soap + water = bubbles...
water freezes. bubbles keep growing. big bubbles blow up ice.
i even tried it once in my parents freezer LOL. it of course didn’t work, but i was convinced i just didn’t put enough soap in...

i was an interesting kid haha

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

I thought that if you drove a car with the doors open, they could turn into wings and let you fly. Yup, I was a smart kiddo....

 

[Pintuition]

The moon was following me, especially in the car as a toddler/young kid! I was concerned we were moving too fast and didn't want to take away the moon so nobody else could see it!

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

^ Speaking of moving fast, I used to trace the path of raindrops with my finger along the window when I was in the car. I got sad whenever I couldn't see them anymore.

 

[Lavamaize]

I thought checks where basically free money that you write out to anyone you want. Man do I wish that was true.

 

[Kaiaa]

I thought drinking and driving meant drinking ANYTHING could get your pulled over.

 

[frogslime]

I thought you could ask Santa Claus to custom make you your very own video game.

I THOUGHT THIS EXACT SAME THING!
I was gonna ask Santa to make this web game I planned out. My mom broke the news to me but that didn't bum me out. Instead, it's probably the reason I'm learning coding.

I also thought the kisses at weddings were like wax on an envelope signifying God can generate a child in your stomach anytime until you get too old.
I was wrong, surprise surprise.

 

[hzl]

I actually believed I could be a fairy when I grew up - 26 and that still hasn't happened unfortunately

 

[DinosaurDumpster]

i am so sorry for my 4yo self, but...

I thought Panic! At the Disco was a song.
Not even sure how that got into my brain.

I also mixed up One Direction and Big Time Rush, so I thought that Big Time Rush was a real band and One Direction was a TV show... so yeah. I'm so sorry.

 

[oak]

When I was a kid my dad would leave for work and I would run beside his car along our street (it wasn't busy) and I legitimately believed I could run as fast as a car lmao. I remember telling people I could run as fast as a car too, why didn't anyone stop me haha

 

[ting1984]

I thought babies just randomly formed in a woman's body. Boy, was I wrong...

I thought the same thing, and it led to some funny and awkward conversations with my family when I was a little too young to understand the sex act.

*parents watch TV special on someone who was adopted*
ME: what is a 'biological' parent?
FAMILY: well, a biological parent formed the child, but didn't raise the child
ME: but HOW can that happen!?!??!
FAMILY: well, um...

*topic of sex comes on the TV; TV gets turned off*
OLDER BROTHER: we came from mom and dad, you know -- they had to do 'it' for us to be born
ME: NO THEY DID NOT. 'Sex' is a bad thing where people take off their clothes, and that's why we can't watch it on TV!

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2020

This thread is priceless. Loving some of the examples here!

Another one I thought of --

When I was a little girl and my mom would wash my hair in the tub, she would say "I need to get all those turnips and rutabagas out of your hair." She was trying to be cute and make sure I didn't make a fuss, but I took this very literally and would look at the soap suds and think, 'there go all those turnips and rutabagas down the drain...' I really thought I had vegetables growing out of my hair that had to be washed away.

 

[Toska]

I always thought that owners of a company would press a button on a desk/table/etc if they wanted their commerical to run on TV. I assumed they always fought over who could hit the buzzer the fastest