Weird things kids believe

[HYHYBT]

Just a possibly very silly idea for a conversational thread that I don't think has been done before. Probably with good reason, but here goes anyway.

What odd things did you or someone you know believe as a child? I don't mean stories you were told, exactly... maybe an example would be the best way to introduce this. I remember, from somewhere before I was old enough for kindergarten (now called "Pre-K"), knowing that we lived in a place called "Commerce, Georgia" with Commerce being the town or city and Georgia being something called a state... but, never having been told otherwise, thought that the state was part of the town and not the other way around.

I remember going to the beach and hearing about the tide, and thinking it was the foamy stuff on the water between waves, named after the detergent that did the same thing in the washer.

One that lasted much longer, and in fact occasionally still causes me trouble, is that I thought a "maiden name" was the middle name that a woman dropped, not the last name that became her middle name. Now, like the others, since I didn't know that I didn't know, I never asked, but unlike the others, the subject never came up until I was grown. And as you know, "mother's maiden name" is a standard ID-verifying question, so to this day I have at least two accounts (checking and one credit card) with the wrong name listed...

So anyway, I was reminded of this today and thought maybe it'd make a nice change from the usual "What's your name/avatar/sig mean", "What are you listening to/reading right now", "What's your pirate/giant robot/prawn star name" perennials.

[Mixed Bag]

Great obscure topic. :grats: I know what it means to struggle when introducing a new idea.

In LA there used to be a big black building visible from the 405 freeway with the name TISHMAN in white letters at the top (a building developer, I later learned). Though I'm not dyslexic I could be lazy with words on occasion and somehow thought it said TRASHMAN and that it therefore must have been a high-rise enclosed garbage dump.

It wasn't until I got involved with personnel data of coworkers in my early twenties that I realized how much younger or older people could look than they were--between only knowing so many ages growing up and being more imaginative than observant, I tended to either assume people were the same age as those I thought looked/dressed/acted similar to them, or if I happened to know about how old they were I used my imagination to gloss over apparent inconsistences or didn't notice their looks so much to begin with (easy to be indifferent to appearances before romantic interest kicks in).

[Plaidman]

Only a few things stand out in my mind.

1: My mom created snow. For the world. I begged for her to do it during the summer, and she said no. =(

2: Slightly more better was my mom always complained about not having enough cash for a new cars. This was when I was 7 or 8. We always past by the car lots out of the way to town. The ones that have stickers to tell you what year they are? So one day I managed to save up 82 dollars. (See where this is going...) I went to my mom and told her that i had enough money for her to buy a car now. She looked at the 82, and started laughing. laughing ever so much. Oh the laughter -_-. She then told me that those were the years, not the prices.

3: Woman are goddess, treat them like so, and they might hold your hand.
This is one that is still in my head. Seriously, I was shocked to learn that my friends kissed on a first day. I thought that was like month later date thing, a week in dating you get the first kiss, year or two later you have love fun in the bed time.

[Jpurple]

Heh- good topic idea!
I don't remember any odd things I believed as a kid that turned out to be wrong (I still believe that my dad can fix anything, and have yet to be proven wrong!)

My daughter, however, is 4 right now. She firmly believes that when she turns 5, she's going to be magically taller, faster, stronger, and able to do a lot of things that she can't do know. I'm trying to find a nice way to explain that that isn't the way it works...

[NightAngel]

LOL- JPurple! I think that common for kids around that age. My oldest just turned 6. On his birthday he came to me and flexed his arm muscles and said, "See? I'm all grown- up now!"
I laughed and said, "Well, then I guess you'd better get a job."
The next day I got ready for work and he arrived at the door (I thought to say good-bye) with one of my nametags on his shirt and said, "I'm ready to start my job."

Poor kid was devastated when I told him he couldn't come with me. :lol:

[Misanthropical]

You know the eagle with his wings in the air that is on the side of mailboxes that are on street corners?

Well, I use to see it as the wings were the head of some weird creature and it use to scare me silly as a little girl. I would cry when my mother and I walked by mailboxes with the eagle on it. I never told her why I was so freaked out. It wasn't till I was 12 that I figured out that is suppose to be an eagle.

I use to believe that the pit of Hell opened up under my bed at night and if I didn't have my feet and hands under the blankets some demon would pull me into it. I don't know why I got the idea that Hell opened up under my bed.

I use to think my parents where the only ones in the world who were divorced, since I didn't meet another kid with divorced parents till I was teenager.

I believed that unicorns would show themselves to me if I only wished hard enough.

Now, for my children.

My little guy thinks I have the "force" like the Star Wars "force". He just can't understand how I know where he is when he is hiding or why I know when he messed up without anyone telling me, so it must be the "force"

In his mind this also explains why I can move so fast and kick so high. He seems to have forgotten that I took martial arts for two years.

My little guy thinks it should be an arrestable offense to make his mommy cry.

My daughter use to come up behind me and move my hair around. I asked her why she kept doing this and she told me she was looking for the eyes in the back of my head.

My oldest son use to believe that any child who called out "mommy" was talking to me, since that is my name. :rolleyes:

[susan]

I use to believe that the pit of Hell opened up under my bed at night and if I didn't have my feet and hands under the blankets some demon would pull me into it. I don't know why I got the idea that Hell opened up under my bed.


When I was a kid I didn't even know about Hell (we were raised without religion of any kind), but I did have a similar belief. I too had to have my hands and feet covered so no creepy thing would get me at night.

The only other thing I can think of off hand had to do with my bedtime. I was absolutely convinced that after I went to bed, all my favorite TV shows came on again and showed brand new episodes that I never got to see!

[digilight]

My son is full of wierd things. We live in an area that still has a big agricultural presence, Calavo Avacodo's is located here, as well as strawberries, oranges, lemons, flowers, and other things that grow in the dirt. Well my son calls all people working in the field dirt workers. He doesn't say it derogitory (he's only 4-1/2) but its the funniest thing I've ever heard.

He also believes that spiderman lives in the hills above the river.

Oh yeah, and that daddy can go faster then mommy (ok so not everything is crazy talk) :)

[Kiwi]

when I was VERY little

my grandfather told me that the brown spots on cows "grow" until they are all brown and thats how the farmer knows that its time to milk them

shuddup I was 3 and trusting!!

[MadMike]

I don't mean stories you were told, exactly...

Then I guess you don't want to hear about how my dad had me believing that chocolate milk came from brown cows. BTW, I figured out that wasn't true at least a year ago. :p

When I was a kid, I believed that when you reached adulthood, you automatically became mature and wise. That myth was shattered when I started working retail, and found out just how childish and stupid some so-called adults could be.

I don't know why I got the idea that Hell opened up under my bed.


Actually, it's right under your couch. How do you think I got there. ;)

[NightWolf]

Then I guess you don't want to hear about how my dad had me believing that chocolate milk came from brown cows. BTW, I figured out that wasn't true at least a year ago.

Hey! I believed that one too. :lol:

I can't remember the exact age, might have been around 7-8, they put up a new bridge in Green Bay, Then called "Tower Drive Bridge" It's big enough so that any ship that sails into the bay can get under it without having to raise and lower the bridge. There are 2 huge arches that stick up from the middle of the bridge and for whatever fricken reason, I thought we had to actually ride up on the arches in order to ride over the bridge. I was scared outta my mind whenever my parents would mention taking the bridge. I'd beg and plead for them not too. Then, one day, they just drove over it without telling me until it was too late. I spent the ride with my hands over my eyes. :D

http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newpictures03/FRWhitec-GBay-07-02-03-dl.jpg

[NightAngel]

I knew I'd think of more.

When my oldest son was around 3 y/o he came up with this crazy belief that somehow he fell from the Moon into my tummy and that's how he was born.

I sincerely, to this day, have absolutely zero idea of where he came up with that notion. :confused:

[thegiraffe]

My brother was convinced until he was about 6 or 7 that girl babies came from girls and boy babies came from boys. He said our dad told him that.

Riiiight....

[kerrisan]

This is my mom's story about me when I was 3. -_-

My brother is a good 6.5 years older than me and decided to tell me about the birds and the bees when I was three. THREE. Well anyway, when he finished I went to my mom on the couch and said "Mommy, Mommy! Guess what! When I was little, I was a chicken!"

Get it? Egg? Chicken? :rimshot::rolleyes:

[Mixed Bag]

You know the eagle with his wings in the air that is on the side of mailboxes that are on street corners?

Well, I use to see it as the wings were the head of some weird creature
You too?

For those in the countries that spell properly, it looks like
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/Uspslogo.gif

I see my rimshot monopoly is toast...I'm honoured to have to think of a new title.

[Tanasi]

One day my youngest son was getting on my wife's nerves and she send him out to "bond" with me. I was in the garage doing some body work when he walked in and said "Dad Mom sent me out here to bond with you." OK son I got a pair of coveralls for him with a dust mask and put him to work sanding. A few minutes later "Dad are we bonding?" Yes son we're bonding. About 10 more minutes of sanding "Dad I don't think you know what bonding is, you don't have any glue out at all."

My oldest daughter thought the police switched the names of racoons and skunks. I don't have a clue where she got that one.:confused:

[KuzcoLlama]

I was actually quite independent and intuitive (and mental) as a kid.

One of the few things I believed as a kid:

My mom is psychic and powerful. Seriously, I sometimes still believe it. Of all the people in my life, she was the only one who knew every time I lied, and I couldn't hide things from her. She's stealthy! I thought my mom had no idea of one secret of mine, then one day..."Sure is a nice day, don't you think?" "Yup." "So are you [doing said secret]?" :eek:

That I was blonde. No don't ask. I don't know either.

And that I was literally transported when I dreamed, and then safely returned. Until one day I woke up from a falling dream-- and fell out of bed. I was then certain I didn't go anywhere except painfully to the ground.

[Misanthropical]

My daughter believed for the longest time that I only dated her father. When my daughter found a picture of my ex-boyfriend with his arm around me, she threatened to tell daddy.

I had to tell her that her daddy wouldn't care, since it was before I met him.

[Zinjadu]

I use to believe that the pit of Hell opened up under my bed at night and if I didn't have my feet and hands under the blankets some demon would pull me into it. I don't know why I got the idea that Hell opened up under my bed.


I used to be afraid that if I didn't keep my feet, hands and head under the blanket that some monster would reach out from under the bed and grab me. I still have to make sure my hands and feet don't hang over the edge of the bed or I can't go to sleep. Makes me wonder if I was traumatized as a kid and can't remember what happened to freak me out so badly! :roll:

[one for sorrow]

1. I have this small light brown spot/birthmark on my neck. I used to think that I had spilled chocolate on my neck and hadn't wiped it off and that it had caused a stain on my skin. I figured I must have done it when I was very young, because I couldn't remember ever spilling chocolate on my neck. :lol:

2. I used to pretend to smear "invisible cream" on my little brother and he thought he was invisible while he wore it. I would have to "accidentally" run into him and use a towel to "rub it off."

3. During the whole "drug paranoia" phase of my education (around 5th/6th grade), I thought that drug addicts wanted to hook as many unsuspecting people as possible. I thought they would jump out of nowhere while I was walking down the street and just poke me with a needle and run away. OF COURSE, I would be *instantly* hooked on heroin or whatever. I thought this was a normal activity of a drug addict. :o I have no idea where I got this.

[Plaidman]

During the whole "drug paranoia" phase of my education (around 5th/6th grade), I thought that drug addicts wanted to hook as many unsuspecting people as possible. I thought they would jump out of nowhere while I was walking down the street and just poke me with a needle and run away. OF COURSE, I would be *instantly* hooked on heroin or whatever. I thought this was a normal activity of a drug addict. :o I have no idea where I got this.

I use to think that too.

[stormtreader]

My mum said she used to tell me if i stayed up past midnight id turn into a pumpkin.
When i was about 3, i was up late for some reason and she said she could see the stalk beginning to sprout from my head.
Apparantly i ran up the stairs with my hands clamped over my head shouting "no! no!".

[XCashier]

There used to be Budweiser beer commercials with the tagline, "When you say Budweiser, you've said it all". When I was a small child, I used to think that meant that if you said the word "Budweiser", you were never able to speak again. I have no idea where I got that idea from.

One Christmas Eve after my parents went to bed, my older brother brought me down to the family room and showed me all of the gifts under the tree. "See these?" he smirked, "They're all for me, because you've been bad, and I've been good!" I believed him for a few seconds until I saw one gift clearly marked with my name on it. I was quite relieved to see it; thank goodness I was able to read early in life!

[strawbabies]

After I found a price tag that my parents had forgotten to remove, I firmly believed that Santa shopped at K-Mart for my Christmas presents when I was little.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I believed that it was extremely illegal to say your own name and HORRIBLE things would happen if you did. (I don't know what would happen exactly, but it was horrible and that was good enough.) So one day in second grade, I was called on to read out loud a word problem that involved a girl named Mysty. Now, my teachers all knew I had been reading since I was four, so when I tried to tell the teacher I couldn't read that, she got upset because she thought I was just being difficult, and ordered me several times to read it, despite my increasingly frantic attempts to make her understand that it was WRONG and I just couldn't do it, and why was she trying to make me?

After I was so mad/scared/upset that I burst into tears at my desk, she finally got frustrated with me and had someone else read the problem. I never quite forgave her for trying to get me in trouble by trying to trick me into saying my own name! :lol: Hmmm, after consideration, I wonder if this was the start of my (sometimes) irrational mistrust of authority figures...

[Caveat Emptor]

A friend of my mother would tell him not to open the mailbox, as there might be "snakes in there". I knew there were no snakes in MY family's mailbox, but he lived in a different part of town. That was when we were 5. I realized by 8 that she was just trying to keep his prying eyes out of the mailbox.

When I was 4, my brother (2 1/2 years older) accidentally slammed my fingers in a sliding glass door. I didn't realize that the sheriff accompanying the ambulance was to check whether there was child abuse involved, I thought they were going to arrest my brother.

[MamaMootz]

I used to think that the radio had little minature bands inside of it, and that my Grandma could let the little band out anytime I wanted to see them play. I thought they ran in and out of the back of the radio every time a new song came on, one band out - a new band in.

I also believed that all my toys, blankets, cars, etc. were alive just like us and could get their feelings hurt. I remember getting into my father's Corvair that he had just sold and locking all the doors, crying and hugging the seats because "the Corvair didn't want to leave us." When my mom put my stuffed Snoopy in the wash, I was horrified because I thought Snoopy would drown. Then she hung him up on the clothesline by his ears to dry and I was again - begging her to take Snoopy down because he was being hurt. And the day she wanted to throw my binky out, I sat on the binky in protest and wouldn't let her take it because the binky had hurt feelings that we were putting him in the garbage.

My daughter, who just turned 4, believes that if she wishes for it hard enough, the Care Bears will come in their car and take her to Care A Lot in her sleep. She also believes her head will grow an egg if she bumps it and doesn't put ice on it right away. She's horrified when she has a bump there because she thinks it will grow and grow and "shickens" will hatch there.