We request members of the BuzzFeed Community“What strange things did you believe when you were a child that turned out to be completely false?” To our delight, we received all kinds of silly proposals. Here’s what people revealed:

1.“I had only seen babies swaddled and carried, so when I was very little, I thought babies were born without legs like tadpoles.”

—Spn42

2.“I thought there was a tiny man who lived inside each traffic light and could see all the cars through the colored windows. He would be responsible for changing the color that lit up and the lane ahead. follow.”

—dikatkeith

3.“I thought every song on the radio was played live by every band in the studio. I always wondered how they mixed so many bands together so quickly.”

—haleyj_92

4.“Every time we drove somewhere at night, I thought the moon was following me.”

—maedestaint

5.“My dad always told me that babies come out when your mom poops. He completely convinced me until about fourth grade. I was so freaked out when my mom went to the bathroom.”

—kaekaeeee

6.“I thought real greenhouses caused greenhouse gases. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t just ban them if they were such a problem.”

—hostile lettuce

7.“Until probably the age of six, I thought that inanimate objects also had feelings. For example, if I chose a glass from the cupboard, I thought I would hurt the feelings of the other glasses because I didn’t If I thought a chair was ugly, I had hurt it. I grew up to be a very empathetic person.

—roidietrich

8.“I have not discovered pickles were cucumbers until I was 26. I don’t know what I thought it was. Maybe their own vegetable? »

—kats469b4463f

9.“My parents had to explain to me what abortion was when I was 7 because I thought it was the name of a serial killer who targeted children. One day we walked past a group of demonstrators and one of the signs said: “Abortion kills children. I was horrified and convinced that this killer named Abortion was going to get me!! I finally told my parents about my fears, and they explained to me that I was safe, luckily they explained it to me simply. and without bias. They didn’t tell me it was wrong or immoral or explain what they thought about it. They were very direct about it! »

—jamanthameg

10.“When I was a kid, my older brother told me that tornado sirens sounded from a truck someone was driving around town to make sure people knew there was a tornado. When I When I was 18, I told my then-boyfriend, ‘It would be a terrible job to be the person who has to drive in the tornado truck to let others know to get to safety. . That’s when I learned.”

—Emmacroghan

11.“Laying down while eating will cause your food to come out of your ears. I tell my little sister that now and I’ll tell my son when he’s older.”

—hollasempiternal

12.“I thought you could sit on clouds (even though you were on a plane at a relatively young age).”

—allenbanks

13.“My mother told me that when you eat your boogers, they turn into snakes once they get to your stomach!”

—lozpatboj

14.“I thought women got pregnant by chance.”

—messiah eater

15.“That when you were ‘fired’ from your job, they would take you out to the parking lot and set you on fire. I don’t know why I thought that, but 5-year-old me thought that!”

—erinlindon

16.“I thought all cats were girls and all dogs were boys. I also thought the people on TV could see me! »

—karentturner2

17.“My parents told me it was illegal to turn on the lights in the car while driving.”

—ellensaxton1

18.“My parents told me that if I mixed salad dressings, they would become toxic.”

—Kate1221

19.“I was taught that if you eat in the bathroom (yuck), you’re actually feeding the devil! I grew up in a very religious home, so the devil was blamed for a lot of things!”

—yg400forever

20.“I thought planes dropped you off at home. We had to pick up my dad from the airport once, and I remember thinking, ‘But that’s going to drop him here! We’re going to miss him.'”

—colleenm4d592d94b

21.“I thought the sky was a big, solid dome above us that the rockets flew through. I found out I was wrong in first or second grade!”

—idiotmorse57

22.“I thought if you fell in the toilet you would be flushed and never seen again.”

—lunalover8047

23.“I asked my father how pilots could fly a plane, and he said they had instruments that told them which way to go and where to go. For so long, I thought that meant that they heard sounds of musical instruments in the cockpit: a flare intended to point left five degrees, the trombone intended to point south, etc.

—samanthabeverage

24.“If you ate ice before going to bed, it would give you nightmares. I didn’t find out it was something my mother invented to stop me from eating sugar before bed until I was 27.”

—lisepooo

25.“My mother told me that the crusts in my eyes in the morning were from bugs pooping in my eyes. My art teacher said that wasn’t true; she said it was the merchant of sand that had sprinkled sand in my eyes Adults can be cruel Either insects pooped in my eyes, or a strange stranger threw dirt in my face while I was sleeping. scary, anyway.

—sarahalkawas

26.“I thought that when I looked at a map or globe and pointed my finger to touch a city, a giant finger would come out of the sky and into that city.”

—jennerrsss

27.“At one point in my life, I thought everyone had an older brother or sister. I remember asking a friend of mine where her brother was. She told me she didn’t have one and I asked why I was about 5 years old.

—edimonrocat

28.“I was told that veal came from brown chickens. And that made perfect sense because I thought brown eggs meant veal. I always told my parents I preferred white chicken.”

—danielled4ef399f29

29.“I thought reality TV confessionals were filmed in real time. I was so confused as to how they could appear in one scene and then change clothes to explain their thoughts and return to the original scene.”

—ajtotsrocks2334

30.“I thought “paid vacation” meant you could pick anywhere and your company would pay for your vacation! I didn’t understand why people would randomly go to a lake or something when they could have gone to see the Eiffel Tower or something else. Hawaii“.

—marilynboeri

31.“That a new day would begin immediately when I woke up. I hadn’t really grasped the concept of time.”

—ieleminou

32.And: “ALL this time I believed Canada was beneath us (geographically) because my PATRIOTIC GRANDFATHER believed America was ALWAYS above Canada (in politics, sports, economics, etc.) , but I thought he meant as in geography. Imagine a proud little seventh grader standing in front of her history class and proclaiming that Canada is under the United States. Yeah, that didn’t go well.”

—juliajoseph

What is the stupid (and very, very wrong) thing you believed in as a child? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.