Misconceptions you had as a kid

[Nick Biped]

I don't think anything like this has been posted recently, but sorry if it has. Anyways, what are some odd beliefs or misconceptions you had when you were younger only to later find out that it wasn't what you had originally thought?

One that comes to mind for me was that I used to think to not drink and drive meant you couldn't and shouldn't drink any beverage before or during driving. It used to concern me a little whenever my parents drank coffee or pop or whatever before getting in the car.

Also, I used to believe that a credit card was a source of infinite buying power, and that you could use it at any time to get whatever you wanted, without any consequence. I used to sometimes be puzzled when my parents would *gasp* spend money on something rather than use their card and get it for free. This was before I knew there were things called "bills". :rolleyes:

So, did you have any strange beliefs when you were younger, or am I just weird that way? :p

[Spike04]

This is more of something I believed when I was young (like 4) and pretty stupid. :)

I used to think whenever you turned the TV off it would continue from where you left it. I know, it's sad. :(

[Mike Spartz]

Prehaps the greatest misconception I had as a kid was my sense of right and wrong/good and evil. I saw the world in black and white meaning that when I heard someone murder someone or do something that I didn't like or understand I would think that it was evil. However, now after high school and 9/11 I've come to realize that the world is not black or white but gray. That there really isn't any right or wrong, only what suits you best as a person.

Other misconceptions are:
I thought Santa was real

I thought that a person of authority (ie parents, teachers) was always right and that it was important for me to obey them.

I thought the people getting shot in movies really died...this was went I was really really young.

[Cyber E.]

I believed for the longest time that babies were created through kissing for extended periods of time...I still do actually.

Other misconceptions are:
I thought Santa was real

?!

Santa's not real?

Well there goes my entire religion.
-Cyber

[JohnCrichton]

I thought wind came from from trees... cuz well, that's where air comes from, sooooo..... >_>

Made sense at the time. :p

[Steve Jester]

I believed for the longest time that babies were created through kissing for extended periods of time...I still do actually.

:rolleyes::D That can be intrepreted so many ways, you know that right. (and I wouldn't call that a missconseption etheir, there's a lot of kissing involved in the act *sees mods readying the BANed wagon* I think I'll shut up now)

Anyway, my biggest misconseption was that money was limitless. (I whish I could think like that again *stares at empty wallet*)

[atf487]

That all people from the middle east were evil.

Sadly, people still think that.

[Mike Spartz]

That all people from the middle east were evil.

Sadly, people still think that.

my point of seeing things in black and white... :(

[Spastic Minnow]

When I was about 5 a friend of mine and I ended up playing at a girl's house and somehow we decide to play "show me yours and I'll show you mine" :o anyways, only having brothers I still remember the extreme shock when I found out that the girl was MISSING SOMETHING! I got pretty mad and accused her of hiding it between her legs.

[The Landstander]

When I was about 5 a friend of mine and I ended up playing at a girl's house and somehow we decide to play "show me yours and I'll show you mine" :o anyways, only having brothers I still remember the extreme shock when I found out that the girl was MISSING SOMETHING! I got pretty mad and accused her of hiding it between her legs.

Ha! I had the same misconception...however I found out the truth in a different way...ah, the good ol' internet...

[Outlander00]

When I was a little kid, for some strange reasons it was okay to take toys out of the store and/or walk out with them. Boy did my parents fix me of that real quick :p

That when someone died that they were just asleep for a long time.

That you could ride a dog like a bucking bronco.

[Behonkiss]

I thought wind came from from trees... cuz well, that's where air comes from, sooooo..... >_>

Made sense at the time. :p
"Where does wind come from?"
"Trees sneezing."
"Really?"
"No, but the truth is more complicated."

[Patchwork]

I used to think whenever you turned the TV off it would continue from where you left it. I know, it's sad. :(
I used to think that too...I thought it would work like a VCR. Stuff I used to think:

-Diet Coke was for people on a diet
-not wearing a helmet will cause youtr head to crack open like an egg and your brains would spill into the streat
-Even LOOKING at a pig will result in a stay in Hell (this results from me being Muslim...and my mom's comments on pigs..don't ask)
-Bloody Mary will cut off your head in the dead of night and leave iyour headless body on the bed (I now know that Bloody Mary only kills you if you yell her name in front of a mirror in a dark palce.....I REFUSE to ever have the bathroom door open at night)
-If I poured in bubble bath with Daffy Duck on it, Daffy would pop out of the bubbles and bathe with you
-Butterflies were evil and out to kill me (and they ARE)

[Catlover]

One I can remember:

- In China, everyone had buck teath, wore those rice picker hats, and that it was allways sunset.

[DianaGohan]

Well there was this one time when I was three when I but cleaner on my leg and thought I would die (because I thought that if you got any on you you would have gotten poisioned) and tried to rub it out. That's funny when I think about it now.

[Nightflower]

:rolleyes::D That can be intrepreted so many ways, you know that right. (and I wouldn't call that a missconseption etheir, there's a lot of kissing involved in the act *sees mods readying the BANed wagon* I think I'll shut up now)


*does her best Grampa Simpson impression*

"What, seeeeeeex? I've had seeeeeeex."

:p

[Calico]

Hmmm, I think my biggest "oh yeah" moment came when I realized the 'Do Not Pass' signs on roads meant passing cars going in the same direction, and had nothing to do with oncoming traffic. Before that I was always worried how you could drive without passing them??? :p

[EinBebop]

When I was about six, I pressed in the cigarette lighter in my parents car when they weren't looking. The next day, the car started having problems, and eventually they had to get rid of the car.

This is the first time that I've ever confessed the guilt I carried for years about killing the family car.

I also thought that the "$100 fine for littering" signs by the side of the road was some kind of reward. Fine means good, right?

[Chris Sanders MSX]

That in order to have a baby my father cut my mother open and put a seed inside of her stomach.

I remember when my mother got pregnant with my sister and I was giving them my take on what happened. I think they just let me believe it. I had to be about 4 or 5.

I know better now. :D

[Chris Sanders MSX]

Oh ! I also remember when I put Nair on my legs thinking that it only worked on women, because I couldn't find any lotion in the house.

[Ren]

I thought all boys were left handed and all girls were right handed. You see, my father and brother are left handed, while I and my mother are right handed.

[pabcool]

Heh. I remember my belief in the whole Santa thing. When my parents kept telling me that my wish list was a little expensive, I replied with "Santa doesn't need money."

[Elven Moon]

That Santa was very real. I was always terrified he'd come upstairs to my room or something. Once when I lost a tooth I asked my parents to put the tooth in the kitchen because I would not have the Tooth Fairy coming into my room!

Um... and the "Do Not Pass" sign had me confused, too.

I also thought I'd never think I was fat :rolleyes:

[Romanesque]

Ha! I laugh at all of your childish ignorances of basic biology & anatomy! :p

Back in my day, I was studying biology textbooks as early as kindergarten... On my own, out of my own interest, none the less. Cellular biology, chemical biology, taxonomy, ecosystems, general anatomy, plant & animal reproduction... ahh, those were the days. Knowledge free from responsibility.

Of course, this also eventually led to the fear that if I ever procreated, the female of my species would cannibalistically devour me... I spent several years wondering why there were so many living fathers in the world. I don't suppose this was a terribly common misconception...

I also believed that science was morally neutral, and would eventually solve everything. Heh. Almost as silly as believing that logic & math are internally consistant, or that reality can always be trusted...

--Romey

[Jedigreedo]

When I was reeaaallly young I thought that guys gave birth to boys and women gave birth to girls. Glad that worked out in my favor. :D

When I first saw Disney's animated Pinocchio I wondered if they used fishing string to make him move around "without" strings.

That cats were evil - oh wait that turned out to be right.

That the tooth fairy was real just incredibly CHEAP.

That Star Trek and Star Wars both took place in the same universe.

Girls weren't needed (man was I wrong..)

[ZorBrak]

I used to believe the Ninja Turtles were real...I climbed down a manhole and went lookin for them one day :confused:

I thought I could be a Ghostbuster when I grew up

I thought stomach aches were caused by food that was "mad" at me.

....You know? I was a dumb kid. :rolleyes:

[Will Sturnick]

I thought that:
- Roy G. Biv was the name of the man who invented the rainbow.
- We were all clay people that giants controlled. The giants were controlled by bigger people.And the bigger people were controlled by God.
- People had black outlines, just like cartoons, we just couldn't see them.
- When you sleep you just jump forward in time, instantly.
- The basic Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy thing
- My sisters had me convinced a man with a rifle was out to kill me.

[Psilon]

Almost as silly as believing that logic & math are internally consistant, or that reality can always be trusted...
--Romey

I don't think it was silly of you to believe that logic & math were internally consistant. I'd be impressed if you knew what internally consistant meant. It took a good mathematician in our century (20th) to proove this. However, what would be a bigger error would be to dismiss logic and math, because of this.

I figured out the sex when my dad told me to put the male pins into the female pins. Took a little while after that and I got it. No biology books, just imagination and common sense:o.

The biggest misconception I had was that we could travel to other star systems in my life time.

[Simpler Simon]

When I was 7, the 007 movie living daylights came on TV. If you haven't seen it, in the beginning the agents are playing war games with paintball, until someone sneaks in and tries to kill off the agents. Anyway, I kept seeing people get shot with red paint that looked like blood, and not have any reaction, so for the longest time I had the misconception that you'd only die if you were shot in the head or heart, but could move without any problems if you were shot in the leg, stomach, or other areas.

[Boy Wonder]

That you thought dreams were real, my misconception.

[Nightflower]

Dang, I can't think of any misconceptions I had as a kid... I know I pronounced a lot of words wrong and I thought a lot of words meant different things, but not all of us are born speaking the English language. :P






(Wait, none of us are born speaking the English language....oh, you know what I mean. :P)




I used to think guys and girls thought the same way. :P

[Bud 'n Lou]

Whoever said that they thought that the drinking and driving thing meant drinking any beverage, I used to think the same thing.
Also, when driving in cars while it was raining, I always found the windshield wipers very distracting while trying to see the road, and I imagined that it must have been for the drivers too. So I thought all people who drove cars where able to see through the wipers as if they were invisible.
Also, when I was young, my father had a weird girlfriend who did interpretive dance and stuff. She would often do strange things like act out my Tales From the Crypt comics (which was actually kinda cool), and she'd also demonstrate her dances. On one occassion, she did a dance, and explained that that dance was meant to appease some sort of sea-god, and if you didn't respect him, he would "make you pay." My father lived in Staten Island, but he would often take us to Manhattan, and whenever we took the ferry, I was afraid that this sea-god would capsize us and we'd all drown. I still fear large bodies of water.

[EightOh]

I used to always confuse Jack Nicholson and Jack Nicklaus.

[Pyro]

Quite a few times I've recalled big misconceptions from my childhood. But at the moment I can't really remember any of those.
Most of the ones I can recall now are misconceptions I've had for a long time.
-Pretty recently, my friend and I were talking about something (I don't remember what), and I said "Babies come out of the mom's stomach, duh," or something like that, then I started laughing and felt so stupid because I realized that I had said the wrong thing. I had just always thought that way, because my mom had a cesarean section with me, and even though I knew where babies really came from, I just always thought of the way I came out more than the real way. But now I'll always know because of that conversation.
-When I was a kid, I saw the topic on a Ricki Lake show was lesbians, I asked what a lesbian was, and my sister said that lesbians are people from Lebanon.
-When someone would choke, My mom would say, "It must have gone down the wrong pipe," and I always had the vision of actual pipes in my body, and I never questioned it for some reason. Eventually, I learned how the body works, and these "pipes" aren't as shiny and metally as I thought. I learned about the epiglottis being the reason for that.
-I don't know if I can say this, but up until this year I had had circumcised and uncircumcised confused because my parents never told me I was circumsized, so naturally, I thought I was uncircumsized. I was so upset to find this out. I can't believe they never told me. It's very upsetting to suddenly find out that a part of you has been lopped off and you don't know where it is. But anyway, I'm sure you all didn't want to know this. :sweat: :shrug:
-When George W. Bush became president, it took quite a while for it to sink in for me, because all my life, Bill Clinton was president. (At least, all my life that I was aware of there being a president.)
I just wish I could remember the better ones right now.

[The Landstander]

Back in my day, I was studying biology textbooks as early as kindergarten... On my own, out of my own interest, none the less. Cellular biology, chemical biology, taxonomy, ecosystems, general anatomy, plant & animal reproduction... ahh, those were the days. Knowledge free from responsibility. Dork. *mocks* :p

Also, when I was really young (like 4), I used to think everyone had the same last name as me, O'Connell.

[sl4]

When I was really little, I used to think Oldsmobile cars were for old people. :p

[Conekiller]

I used ot think that our lives were projected onto a ginat screen on some alien world where the alines would revel in our mundane daily activities. Much to my Surprise a recent South Park epsiode dealt with the same things

- I would never see a naked girl...boy was I glad I was wrong!

[Seafaring]

I used to think that people who wore trench coats had magical powers, therefore they deserverd the best treatment and respect from the community.

I would never flush the toilet when I was younger because I didn't want a terrible monster to come out.


And the worst one of all...
Before I had any concept of geography whatsoever, or the location of the place I live in, whenever I would watch the news, like CNN, and they would show a map of the US, and Alaska and Hawaii were off to the the side, usually off the coast of california, I truly thought that was where they were. Therefore I also thought AK was a pretty small state, even though my parents would tell me " no honey er live in the largest state." Eventually though I realized that Alaska is much too cold in the winter to be near California.

[Blue]

Let's see this is dum but up untill i was 6 i thought when it rained it ment god was peeing.

[drippynmeatwad]

I thought all dogs were boys, and all cats were girls. -I still think the scrubbing bubbles are out to get me. -i heard my mom say "Kevin got lost in Kindergarden" so i thought kindergarden was a huge garden maze i would be stuck in forever. I had a tantrum when my mom signed me up for school.

i have a bunch more. thank god i'm sparing you. ;)

[drippynmeatwad]

oh yeah, i gave all the letters and numbers 1- 10 gender. I don't know why.

Female- a,f,h,i,k,l,m,n,p,r,t,u,w,y
1, 4, 6, 7
male- b,c,d,e,g,j,o,q,s,v,x,z
2, 3, 5, 8, 9

i even gave them relationships.
n dated o, then they broke up, then o went out with p
f and h fought over g, then g married f. h lived alone for the rest of her life.

sad aren't i? i was the original Jerry Springer. heh,heh..... :o that's what i get for being so far apart in age from my sisters.

[Chris Wood]

I used to think that too...I thought it would work like a VCR. Stuff I used to think:

-Diet Coke was for people on a diet


It is. Who else would drink that swill?

[Duelist]

I was always confused about what this sign meant http://members.aol.com/rmoeuradot/200x200/warn/W4-2.gif

Someone told me it was that Motorcycles had to turn on their lights or something. :p

In fact, I'm still not completely sure what it means :shrug:

[Duelist]

I used to always confuse Jack Nicholson and Jack Nicklaus.

Hey, so did I. and i also used to think that that little light on the dashboard that looks like a person with a seatbelt on would light up if anyone didn't have their seatbelt on :D

[Jedigreedo]

I was always confused about what this sign meant

In fact, I'm still not completely sure what it means :shrug:

I do believe it means that two roads that are widely divided are going to get closer a little ways up.

Or it could be for a turn lane. Sometimes they veer off of main lanes to a middle lane strictly for turning. Not fully sure though.

[Duelist]

I do believe it means that two roads that are widely divided are going to get closer a little ways up.

Or it could be for a turn lane. Sometimes they veer off of main lanes to a middle lane strictly for turning. Not fully sure though.

huh?........
:confused:

[Will Sturnick]

In fact, I'm still not completely sure what it means Accoring to my "New York State Department of Motor Vehicle's Official Driver's Manual" it means: Right Lane ends, merge left. So basically it's letting you know that the right and left lanes are combining.
oh yeah, i gave all the letters and numbers 1- 10 gender. I don't know why.
I used to that to the colors. Lemme see if I remember any...

Girl: Pink, Purple, White, Red, Blue
Boy: Green, Brown, Black, Orange, Gray, Yellow

[Pyro]

It means that the lanes on the road you are driving on will merge into fewer lanes ahead. The picture on the sign depicts it very simplistically.

[Conekiller]

I used to beleive that Red and Yellow were opposites, but it's been bombarded down my throaght since kindergarten that red and blue are

[Damien]

-My friend swore up and down that the Ninja Turtles were real, so one day I went knocking on a manhole lid and calling for them. No answer, but this was when I was living in Quincy, Mass., not thinking that they live under Manhattan.
Oh, and that live stage show they had? I was convinced that it was real, the Turtles were in trouble, and The Shredder was really shredding New Kids on the Block records.

-Dear God, I'll never forget the time my dad and a neighbor lady told me about the Sandman. My dad was trying to explain eye bugers, but all I could do was cry and think about this horrible old man who was going to come in and rub sand in my eyes while I slept.

-Women could get pregnant sleeping with a man or a woman.

-That I would grow up to be a pro wrestler, because it was real, and if I went outside and shouted loud enough to Hulk Hogan, he'd hear me and beat Earthquake at Wrestlemania.