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Children don’t have much life experience, so it is quite easy to make them believe almost anything. Sometimes they don’t even need convincing as they try to explain the world surrounding them with the knowledge they already have and get convinced of some absurd things.

Sooner or later they find out the truth and have some funny memories they can laugh at when they grow up. That is what people on Twitter were doing when Dr. Daniel Marven asked them to remember what were the dumbest things they believed in as children.

Image credits: travelbakercounty

Image credits: danielmarven

People revealed what kinds of lies their parents or other adults told them so they would keep out of trouble or to just troll them. What is even funnier is that other people related to the same lies. Are there any that you can relate to? If not, what were some ridiculous things you believed when you were a kid? Share them in the comments!

More info: Twitter

#1

Dumbest-Thing-Believed-As-Child

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¡ Rachel ¡
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My goldfish "lived" for 9 years, I won him at a local fair and he would stay at my grandma's house if we went on holiday. He sometimes looked different after a holiday at Grandma's house 🤣

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Children are just learning about the world and everything they are told, they believe because they don’t know any better and are fully dependent on adults not only taking care of them but helping to gain new knowledge. 

That is why they can be easily tricked into believing in Santa or that there are monsters under the bed that will take them if they misbehave or won’t go to sleep when their parents tell them to. 

#2

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Vicky Z
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't know about the carpet but the dirt is for sure growing and i swear I'm not feeding it!!!!!

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#4

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Nicola Dimigen
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I grew up with cats, and my mom was a vet, so we were very informed. It was also really cool because she would sometimes show us pictures of her operations after she came home, which was often at the dinner table. It was great.

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Gay_Forg
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought this and I had a male cat, I thought he was the only exception so other cats could have kids

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A Jones
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I never believed this one. But as a young child I did however believe that some cats can be purple due to cartoons.

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Lorraine R
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In a lot of folktales, the dog is a male and the cat is a female.

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Doris Bennett
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought that "ONE HORSE OPEN sleigh" meant that a poor 'ripped' open stuffed horse was pulling Santa's sleigh!

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backatya
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't know I always heard girls call boys pigs. Not all boys are fat but whatever

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Meif’wa Fan
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandpa messes with me by saying that because he keeps messing up our dog and cats gender

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Kim Contreras
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm 65 and often refer to my boy cars as she and my girl dog as he. Just seems to come naturally.

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Raven DeathShade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oddly enough, though we have only had male cats and female dogs, we still get a bit confused XD. We had two kittens at one point named Guinivere and Morgan. Both boys.

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Ryan Deschanel
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What? Really? And what about reproduction? Did this person think that dogs impregnated cats that eventually gave birth to dogs and cats in the same time?

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Xandra
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A three or four year old doesn't really think about impregnation much. At least I didn't at that age, when I believed that about cats and dogs. Cat is a feminine noun and dog masculine in my language, and a lot of other languages, as far as I know.

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zoponex
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm almost 60 and have several cats and I still think it's kinda true.

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Somewhat-Guilty
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OMG!!! I had to break this to a 24 year old once. I honestly thought she was joking lol.

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Also, they can’t fact check the information because they don’t have the experience to compare it to. Questioning and not believing things come later when, growing up, you get to experience new things and decide for yourself what you believe is true or who you believe is telling the truth.

Learning to doubt and be able to distinguish which sources of information can be trusted is essential. That is why children are told to not accept candy from strangers and taught to be cautious with people they don’t know. It is easier to teach a child that than to distinguish which people they can and cannot trust because it’s not that simple for adults either.

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#6

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Another thing is when children try to explain things to themselves without having enough knowledge. That is how they get convinced that the world was black and white in the past, because that is how it is portrayed in older movies, or that islands float like one of the Twitter users included in this list thought in his childhood.

Just like how adults try to make sense of situations they don’t know the reasons for, children do the same, only that adults may make a more accurate guess, so it just comes down to gaining life experience and trying to learn how the world works.

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#10

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Nicola Dimigen
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to believe the more numbers there were, the faster it went. I used this method at a day home to stop arguments about toys with my fellow children. It would be like "Can I play with the ______________?" "Sure, just give me 6 trillion hours." And then after one second we would give it to eachother.

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#11

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Yort
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m really happy to see so many people besides me thought quicksand would be a huge issue at some point in life. Seems like every tv show had some quicksand emergency.

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This list is not the first time Bored Panda has presented a list of people believing ridiculous and stupid things when they were little. In this list you can find even more of people’s answers and maybe there you will discover a belief you can relate to.

Also, if you like content related to children, you can check out other lists on Bored Panda. Like this one in which children come up with fun phrases and euphemisms to say that they didn’t like the food they ate. Or you can click here and read about what weird things people’s children get obsessed with.

#12

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Yort
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same, I thought if you had good scuba gear you could swim under the smaller ones. I didn’t get why submarines didn’t just go under the continents?

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#15

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Yort
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mom’s dad said that eating bread crusts would give her curly hair.

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#17

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H Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This was one that a lot of people genuinely believed. The story goes (not sure if true or apocryphal) that it was a rumour invented during WWII after the invention of radar. Not wanting the enemy to know why our pilots could suddenly 'see' so well in the dark, someone came up with the idea that they eat enormous amounts of carrots and it improves their night vision. As radar was a war secret at the time, the British population were fed the same line, and the story stuck.

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#19

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#20

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Sky Render
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's plenty of adults who still think that everyone can read their mind! I can only assume that's why they never use their turn signals.

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#21

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AniaSD
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I thought so too, except it was some years before Toy Story was released :)

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#22

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Truth Monster
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

in lungs, maybe. 2010, pea plant in lungs https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-10945050 ; (disputed) man named Sidorkin had 2 inch long fir tree in his lung. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/photos/photos-medical-marvels-2024849/image-7351759

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#29

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Mayil Tagiyev
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But the true is if you suck your thumb for too long, your upper and lower front teeth will deformate and then you'll have a deformated jaw.

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#32

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Huddo's sister
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's so weird that in the UK toad in the hole is a pastry with sausages, but in Australia it is bread with a hole cut in the middle and an egg cracked into the hole and fried

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#33

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Mayil Tagiyev
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In my country, all senior women are considered to be witches who can hex you.

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