What are some of the strangest beliefs you have had?

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I believed the local zoo was owned by the school district.  I grew up very poor and the only time I ever went to the zoo was during the spring field trip.  We rode the school bus, parked in the school bus lot and toured the zoo as a class. I thought this was standard procedure and never questioned otherwise.

 

It was only when I was in high school that I realized the zoo was it's own entity and anybody could go to the zoo at any time.

 

 

 

[Catherine]

I believed I could study for the board exam during my "summer off" after my first child was born. Ha ha ha.

 

I believed raising children was simple and straightforward.

[SquirrellyMama]

I remember being told that if you lie on your back and look up at the sky you would die. I think I was 5 or 6 years old. I still don't like to do it even though I know it isn't true. Funny, how things you believed as a child can still have a hold on you now even when you know the truth.

 

The other thing was about death also. I was always afraid as a child that God would stop thinking about me for a second and I would die.

 

I obviously had anxiety about death as a child.

 

Kelly

[unfrumpable.]

I thought high school would be like Grease. What a disappointment.

[Word Nerd]

I thought high school would be like Grease. What a disappointment.

I don't know. I don't think its message that you should become someone you are not to make the cool kids accept you is that far from reality.

[elegantlion]

My dad was a broadcast engineer at a TV station. When I was very young engineer always meant trains, so I thought they had a train track in the parking lot of the TV station and my dad drove people around on it. 

[Um_2_4]

I thought that the number on the bank sign (you know the time/temp sign) they used to show, was how many cents they had in the bank (I think because of the Celisus sign after it). I knew what the time was and the degrees Farenheit, but the 3rd number had me confused, so I made that up. I don't remeber how old I was, but at least 4-5.

[Word Nerd]

I checked the back of my closet more than once just in case it would open up to Narnia.

[Crimson Wife]

When I was 3, we moved to a house on a cul-de-sac that had 2 ways of getting to the main street. Shortly after we moved it, I was walking on one of those streets and accidentally stepped in a puddle of vomit (yuck). I developed a phobia to that street and would always beg my mom to drive on the other street. Even as a kid I recognized it didn't make logical sense to assume that just because one time there was a puddle of vomit, that meant the whole street was forever "contaminated". But I had a deep visceral reaction that lasted until we moved away 5 years later.

[nmoira]

When I was a child I thought that if I fell asleep with my head against the car window, my neck would break if we went over a bump.

 

When I was very young... five-ish, I was convinced I could levitate.

[bluemongoose]

I thought scrambled eggs were future brothers and sisters. I asked my pregnant mother (I was 3) how my

brother got in her tummy. She told me that she has an egg that she and my father mixed and that made a

baby. I was horrified as I thought I had been eating siblings for breakfast and I flat out refused

scrambled eggs for a long time after that.

[unfrumpable.]

I don't know. I don't think its message that you should become someone you are not to make the cool kids accept you is that far from reality.

Fortunately, that has never been a message that I took away from Grease. Watching it as a 2nd grader, I was hoping for fun, dancing, and carnivals.

[Pegasus]

My dad was a broadcast engineer at a TV station. When I was very young engineer always meant trains, so I thought they had a train track in the parking lot of the TV station and my dad drove people around on it. 

 

Very similar to my DD asking me at a very young age why I "didn't do my job."  I was confused until I understood that she expected me, as an engineer, to drive trains. I was relieved as I thought for a minute that she may have been talking to my boss.

 

As for my own beliefs, I was terrified of my first baby developing a flat spot on her skull and was neurotic about always being sure to lay her down in a different position each time.

 

Oh, and when I was very young, I believed that mirrors were actually windows to an identical world where everything was in reverse image.  I finally figured out that it couldn't be true or we could open the window and climb through.

[emzhengjiu]

When I was about 5, I overheard my mom and dad talking about union activities.  My mom was afraid my dad would be fired if he participated.  For months, I though my dad was going to be set on fire.  I had the most freightening nightmares.  Finally, I told my mom who explained, but it was a long time before my fear went away.

 

ETA:  This is one of the strongest and most unpleasant memories of my childhood. 

[BarbecueMom]

My mom went through the Arby's drive thru for a Coke when I was about six, and I got upset that she was drinking it in the car. I was scared she was going to get pulled over and arrested for drinking and driving.

 

She still teases me about it.

[emzhengjiu]

My mom went through the Arby's drive thru for a Coke when I was about six, and I got upset that she was drinking it in the car. I was scared she was going to get pulled over and arrested for drinking and driving.

 

She still teases me about it.

How funny!  My now almost 13 yo dd tought the same thing when she was about 5 or 6.  She would get very upset.  She had heard me rant about drinking and driving many times.  It took several discussions before she understood. 

[J-rap]

When I was very young, I believed that the only way you would die was by eating very gross things. I couldn't imagine why people would suddenly choose to eat gross things when they were old. It just didn't make any sense to me. I was determined to never eat gross things.

[Sisyphus]

Mine is kind of tmi. I figured out or was told from a young age that babies came through the vagina to be born. I knew my other bits and pieces all had a function. I knew men and women had sex to have a baby, and it involved a @enis going in...but I didn't know where it happened. The only extraneous part I had was a belly button- that thing didn't do anything! Therefore I deduced this was where sex happened. It never occurred to me men also have belly buttons, I guess?

 

I was an embarrassing 11 and in 5th grade sex Ed before that was cleared up! Thankfully I never told anyone, though when my parents tried to have "the talk" around 9 or so I assured them I already knew everything. Guess they ought to have asked, lol.

[Word Nerd]

That reminds me of when I was pregnant with my younger DD and older DD started asking questions. We read a preschool-level book about babies. Afterward, she said, "It must hurt when the baby comes out your breast." I still don't know what part of my explanation gave her that idea (I think I mentioned that a mother's breast makes milk), but I cleared it up for her. :lol:

[unfrumpable.]

I checked the back of my closet more than once just in case it would open up to Narnia.

Yeah, another disappointment. :)

 

Not something I didn't believe per se, but when I was in early high school, ninth or tenth grade, I saw Nightmare on Elm Street 3. In my room I had a marionette hanging that I had had for years. After one or two sleepless nights, it was relegated to the back of the closet. It just reminded me too much of the movie. lol

[MyThreeSons]

I believed the girls at the school playground who told me that I should go home and pour pickle juice on my blistered hands to make them stop hurting.

[NicAnn]

 

Also when I was young, I'd hear adults talking about guerilla warfare, and I wondered why(not how, oddly) gorillas would be fighting people in the jungle.

I thought that for a very long time. Very long...

[Moxie]

For some reason, my mother told us that if you sing at the table, the devil flies around your head. Punks that we were, we decided to sing more and try to catch the devil and rid the world of him forever! Pretty sure Mom's plan backfired.

[snickerplum]

I thought my dad was a member of the Beatles. He had a guitar and he knew all their songs. :)
I also remember my mom saying we needed to stop by the drug store before going home. I was horrified. We'd just gone through the D.A.R.E. program at school I couldn't believe it. My mother, of all people.... :)

 

[LucyStoner]

 

 

When I was very young... five-ish, I was convinced I could levitate.

 

Me too!  Seriously.  I was convinced that I levitated and once I was a little older, I was convinced that I USED to be able to levitate, but I couldn't any longer.  I "remember" levitating.  

[nmoira]

Me too! Seriously. I was convinced that I levitated and once I was a little older, I was convinced that I USED to be able to levitate, but I couldn't any longer. I "remember" levitating.

I still have crystal clear memories of floating through the house on my back, about two feet of the ground.

[waa510]

When I was 5 or 6 a friend told me that it was dangerous to sleep on your side because all your organs would slosh to that side of your body and get squished. I was very scared of causing permanent damage to my organs by squashing them until I confessed my fear to my doctor who managed to keep a straight face while clearing up that weird misconception.

[Woodhaven]

When I was a child I believed that all adults with white hair were very wise and never did any thing wrong.  I thought that they had lived so long that they had learned everything, and didn't make mistakes any longer.  Ha!

 

I remember hearing and seeing an old man with very white hair say/do (I don't remember what) and realizing that that wasn't true.  It was very surreal.  It really burst that bubble!

[Moxie]

I was totally convinced that you would suffocate if you slept with the door shut. I remember being in bed and feeling myself run out of oxygen.

[Rivka]

I thought that the number on the bank sign (you know the time/temp sign) they used to show, was how many cents they had in the bank (I think because of the Celisus sign after it). I knew what the time was and the degrees Farenheit, but the 3rd number had me confused, so I made that up. I don't remeber how old I was, but at least 4-5.

I believed the EXACT SAME THING. What else could C stand for?

[Rivka]

I thought I never slept. After all, I remembered lying awake in bed being unable to fall asleep and I remembered being awake in the morning, but I never remembered actually sleeping.

 

My 8yo has complained for a long time about how long it takes her to drop off at night. She insists that she lies awake for hours and hours and that obviously her bedtime should be moved later. Then I made her a CD of relaxing nighttime music. The next day she complained that it cut off "after only, like, five songs." Yeah. There was nothing wrong with the CD. She just fell asleep.

[PrairieSong]

I half-believed my Raggedy Ann doll was alive and would run around having all kinds of adventures when I was away, just like in the Raggedy Ann stories. My aunt helped me put a candy heart inside her, just like in the book, and one time I was SURE I heard it beating.

[PrairieSong]

Me too! Seriously. I was convinced that I levitated and once I was a little older, I was convinced that I USED to be able to levitate, but I couldn't any longer. I "remember" levitating.

I have had these dreams all my life. Sometimes I float and sometimes I actually fly around. Sometimes I do flips in the air. It's so fun!

[Janie Grace]

Mine is about s*x, too. I knew the very basic mechanics but I couldn't imagine anyone doing that voluntarily... so I believed that babies were only conceived in the summertime when it was too hot to sleep in clothing. Mom and Dad would roll a bit too close to each other and whoops -- baby on the way!

[Debbi in Texas]

I remember when I was about 5 or so, I said to my mother, "That was a good dream last night, wasn't it?"  I thought everyone dreamed the same thing.

[unfrumpable.]

I still have crystal clear memories of floating through the house on my back, about two feet of the ground.

That's very X Files.

[OrganicAnn]

My aunt worked in a bank and gave us a tour.  My younger sister thought my aunt could take all the money in the vault when ever she wanted to.  

 

[Hunter's Moon]

My father worked at an auto body shop when I was young, and I overheard him talking to a customer about bleeding the breaks. I was horrified.

[Annie G]

When my oldest was six, she LOVED The Wizard of Oz movie. Loved it. She especially liked the part when Dorothy opened the door and the movie went from black and white to color. We told her that the whole world was black and white and that was the moment that color was invented. For years she really thought the whole world was black and white until 1939.   

[renmew]

This is fun!

 

I thought the signs near the freeway the read "Park and Ride" were fun places to go, like an amusement park. When my first friend got her drivers license and car at 16 and asked where we should go, I quickly asked to go to a park and ride, since I had grown up poor and we were never able to go. My friend laughed for a long time after explaining it to me, but she never told anyone else.

 

Anther one was the single candle at church that I somehow grew up believing burned forever. Seriously, it wasn't until I was about 28 or so, when my mom and I joined the altar society at our new church, that I learned we had to change the candle and light a new one every week.  It hurt. I really had a lot of faith and truly believed God was in that building, and the proof was that candle that burned forever.

[Xuzi]

When I was about four or five my dad caught me cutting into a cabbage to get to the cabbage patch doll that I knew was inside.

 

Also, when I was about the six or seven my dad would take me and my little brother to the library and leave us in the kid's section while he browsed the adult fiction section. The main checkout desk stood between the two sections with librarians just standing there, looking like gaurds, and I believe that an alarm would go off if a kid tried to leave the kid section for the adult one and the librarians would kick you out of the library.

[Pegasus]

Ok, I thought of another one. Every summer, when we drove to visit relatives in another part of the country, we would pass by "White Stores".  I went a few years believing that these stores were unbelievably racist.  At some point, I decided that they weren't racist, that they simply sold things like sheets and towels. I think I got this from the idea of "white sales".  It wasn't until I was much older that I learned they were grocery stores.

[countrygal]

I thought babies were born going through the belly-button (that still sounds like a good idea to me...) and that if you wanted twins, you had to 'sleep' longer (my mother's explanation to an 8 year old about how babies where made was that a man and a woman sleep in the same bed.)

[skeeterbug]

For years as a child I believed there was a mini-Frankenstein with a pet alligator living under my bed. I would take flying leaps from my bedroom door onto my bed each night so that the alligator wouldn't bite my toes!

[Murmer]

Someone told me that a monster comes and eats your toes if they are not covered up by a blanket....I have never slept without a blanket on my feet even though now I know it is not true lol.

[Melissa in NC]

We had to give a standardize test while living in NC.  My daughter was distraught.  I finally got her to explain to my why.  She thought I was going to stick a needle in her eye to do a standard eye test.

[gardenmom5]

that thunder was helicopters dropping invisible bombs.  can you tell I was a child during the 60's?

[Julie Smith]

When I was about 19 my husband and I were talking about a friend of us who had credit card debt.

 

I couldn't understand how anyone could get into huge credit card dept. but I was under the impression that if you didn't pay your credit card bill in full at the end of the month it was considered similiar to stealing. If for some reason you couldn't pay it you had to go to the bank before the due date and make arrangement (money dedcuted direclty from next pay check, never allowed to us a credit card again...) or the police would come knocking at your door.

[gardenmom5]

For years as a child I believed there was a mini-Frankenstein with a pet alligator living under my bed. I would take flying leaps from my bedroom door onto my bed each night so that the alligator wouldn't bite my toes!

 

 

Someone told me that a monster comes and eats your toes if they are not covered up by a blanket....I have never slept without a blanket on my feet even though now I know it is not true lol.

were you listening to bill cosby's chicken heart routine?   what did your parents tell you about staying in that crib? :toetap05:

 

that record was so good - scared the bejeebers out of me, but it was good. :smilielol5:

[Tap]

I thought that everyone started out the same color and dark skinned people just had very dark tans.   I remember being on a ferris wheel around the age of six and saw a very dark skinned Jamaican for the first time.  I remember commenting with absolute AWE to my sister about how tanned that person was!

 

I did have a reason to believe this though.  I am Norwegian/Native American. My siblings that I was raised with are all NA.   My skin was very light naturally but I tan very easily and can get as dark as my sisters.  Being raised in the '70s my sisters would lay out in the sun with butter on them to tan their skin.  LOL  I couldn't imagine how long she had laid in the sun to get that beautiful color of skin!