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Twitter User Asked, “What Is The Dumbest Thing You Believed As A Child?” And 34 Folks Delivered
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
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#1
¡ Rachel ¡ 4 years ago
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 🤣
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.
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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.
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.
#10
Nicola Dimigen 4 years ago
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.
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.
#17
H Edwards 4 years ago
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.
#19
Claire Stanfield 4 years ago
Then The Wizard of Oz shows the exact moment it started being in color, haha.
#20
Sky Render 4 years ago
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.
#22
Truth Monster 4 years ago
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
#23
#24
Snorkeldorf 4 years ago (edited)
I understand......Romper Room. That lady never saw me or called my name either. I hopefully waited day after day. And no, my name wasn't Snorkeldorf back then.
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Mark Stewart 4 years ago
My Aunty used to think that although she did have alzeimer's at the time, apparently modern flat screen tv's look like windows to some sufferers so they think the people can see out. We always wondered why she switched the tv off when she got out of bed, it was so they wouldn't see her in her nightie bless her.
Judith Reilly 4 years ago
There was a local show in Portland, OR when I was a child. My sisters and I watched every day after school. "Mr Moon" introduced cartoons, nothing more. One day he said "Stephanie, Judith and Laurie need to brush their teeth better." It turned out my father knew him.
Marilyn leger 3 years ago
Sitting next to my grandmother one evening, we were watching a TV show that had a night scene with rain. Grandma immediately jumped up, ran to the door & wondered why it wasn't raining on her front walk.
Natalia Shoemark 4 years ago
Terrifying! Especially with the way Dora stares! Always made me uncomfortable as an adult!
Ryan Deschanel 4 years ago
When I was a toddler, a journalist once said "I can see you through the camera" but I did not understand the concept of "humor" yet... She made me slightly paranoid.
#29
Mayil Tagiyev 4 years ago
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.
#32
Huddo's sister 4 years ago
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
#33
Mayil Tagiyev 4 years ago
In my country, all senior women are considered to be witches who can hex you.
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Kenny Kulbiski 4 years ago
Watched my dad take his false teeth out and asked him how he did that. He told me you just have to press the secret spot in your mouth. I went around for a couple months sticking my finger in my mouth looking for the spot before my mother ratted him out.
Luiza Maxim 4 years ago
I never realized that the Winnie the Pooh characters Kanga and Roo are a combination of 'kangaroo'. I was walking randomly on the streets when I realized... 🦘
Lennah Palbachm 4 years ago
I had that realization too, and only recently 😅
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FailBunny17 4 years ago
I thought my mom could literally read my mind. Anytime I had done something wrong or was up to no-good and went near my mom I would mentally "scream" songs in my head to try to keep my mom from knowing. 🤣🤣🤣
Claire Stanfield 4 years ago
I used to think everything about a person was natural - dyed hair, makeup, fake nails, shoe lifts, plastic surgery. I thought some people just wake up like that and others don't. XD
McGovernor 4 years ago
In the words of the philosopher beyonce "I woke up like this flawless" serious though first time I saw a mascara ad I thought they had just invented it 🤣
Load More Replies... McGovernor 4 years ago
My parents used to go to PTA meetings. I found it strange that they went to my school to buy meat
CJ Bovee 4 years ago
My brother had me convinced the damn was a good word because you always heard it with the word god. Ya, we both ended up in trouble when I said that at my moms church ladies function.
Adam Sherrill 4 years ago
I thought it was okay because my dad had a friend who used some questionable language, and he said "damn" a lot, and never got told to not do that. We went on a hike one day, and I saw a beaver dam and said, "It's a damn dam!!" and me parents were very mad
Load More Replies...
Brunettechameleon 4 years ago
I used to think there was a singer inside the speaker whenever we played music.
Bobby Jean 4 years ago
I thought radio stations had all the actual bands at the station, much the way live TV shows worked.
Norma 4 years ago
Exactly! And I could never figure out how my parents knew all the words to the songs, since those people at the radio stations made up a new song each time!
Load More Replies...
Tenacious Squirrel 4 years ago
I just googled “pollywog” because I’ve never heard of the word. It says it’s a tadpole?!
Load More Replies...
Karen Gavin 4 years ago
I believed chocolate milk came from brown cows and regular milk came from black and white cows.
Rosesinmyhair 4 years ago
Thought when you had your photo taken holding a Koala at a Koala Park, they sent the Koala to you. When only the Photo arrived I cried.
Chloe *Leah* Pheonix 4 years ago (edited)
I LOVE coffee. Mom would tell me (even now) coffee stunts your growth. I looked it up and coffee actually has no effects to your height. She would tell me that's why I'm short but literally every assigned female on my mom's side of the family is either exactly or shorter than 5'0" so...
H Edwards 4 years ago
Sounds like my auntie (by marriage)... she's so neurotic about my cousin being small for his age, meanwhile her entire family are absolutely tiny and my uncle isn't that big either. I'm not sure why she expected her son to grow up to be 6ft+ with those genetics.
Load More Replies...
Ryyde Cade 4 years ago
I believed my pencil crayons were in relationship s: yellow and green; pink and turquoise. Also that blue and red were together and that that purple wanted to break them up, so purple was always put far away from them🤣🤣
Auntriarch 4 years ago
Oh my goodness, so did I! But in my world purple was with orange, so there were no shenanigans
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Uber Mensch 4 years ago
That the all the worms on the ground after a rainstorm were changed from all the small twigs that were blown loose.
oof 4 years ago
I thought that the tooth fairy took requests when retrieving teeth. When I lost my second one in first grade, I wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking if she could leave two sets of wings and two wands in exchange for my tooth so my best friend Emma and I could be fairies too(did not consult Emma on this). The entire existence of the tooth fairy was ruined when I woke up that morning to find my parents laying my fake toy wings down at the foot of my bed. Was very upset.
JewelLapoole 4 years ago
When my mum was younger, she used to believe that men gave birth to boys and women gave birth to girls, and that that was why she had a brother but no sister. She was apparently disappointed and annoyed to learn that no, actually, women give birth to both genders,
Lady Lava 4 years ago (edited)
My father used to say that some functionless little button on our car dashboard (now I think behind it was a hole for a lighter) was a remote control for traffic lights. When he pressed the button, our traffic light turned green, what a miracle! Of course he was just watching the order in which each light went green, and he chatted till the "right moment" came to push the button. But when I was a kid I really believed this!
MyOpinionHasBeenServed 4 years ago
I used to think Disneyland was just outside my city and my mom just didn't want to take me there. My Granny always said she would be but never actually did because I thought she wasn't able to drive outside the city. I live in the middle of Canada.
Patti Vance 4 years ago
when i was about 5 i remember thinking that when i was listening to the radio that all the bands that played were actually in the studio. kept wondering how they got them all in there and why they stayed as their music was played over and over.
Samantha Melnychuk 4 years ago
So, I when I was a little girl I somehow formulated the idea that if you slept with underwear on, you wouldn't get raped. I lived in Toronto during a serial killer couple's horrific tween rape/murder spree, and my parents always watched the news. I never told anyone about it until I was in my late teens when it was thoroughly debunked, and my little bubble of imaginary safety popped for good.
Shoshana Sherrington 4 years ago
Believed characters from my favourite books could see me through a magical portal in my mirror. To this day I don't get changed in front of a mirror
Adam Sherrill 4 years ago
I thought that the reason you stayed away from windows during a tornado was because the tornados would see you and destroy your house
JewelLapoole 4 years ago
I used to believe that if i chewed my bottom lip that teeth would grow there over time, but only for a short while, cause my mum said something like that. My sister believed it for awhile though...
Holly Allen 4 years ago
Thought you got to change your name for your birthday. I wish I could remember the name I had picked out for myself when I was little
Jeanene Rulason 4 years ago
My grandpa told me that green olives make hair grow on your chest. So naturally, as a lady, I didn't eat green olives for YEARS. Until I realized it was BS.
Kar Red Roses 4 years ago
🎇🎆 I somehow concluded that fireworks were created spontaneously in the sky by invisible “fireworkers” - floating, hard hat + overalls wearing magical laborers
Agnes Jekyll 4 years ago
A boyfriend believed women could not fart. I believed that if I could fit an object in those little holes in the receiver of the telephone, it would travel to the person on the other end of the line.
Jesse HogiesAngel 4 years ago
i am surprised i didnt see the one about if you swallow a watermelon seed one will grow in your tummy. i know its not true but i still avoid the seeds lmao
Ryan Deschanel 4 years ago
I thought that contracts had supernatural powers. Like, you could legally buy or give anything, from years of lifespan to sins, through your soul, relationships, responsibility... And that the princess of Wales was the daughter of the king of Wales.
Monday 4 years ago
After watching the little mermaid I was convinced that some evil adult would one day make me sign a contract that made them look like me and they would take over my life....the imagination is a crazy thing.
Load More Replies...
ZAPanda 4 years ago
No idea why you got downvoted, it's as irrational as many of the things here.
Load More Replies...
cj be like 1 year ago
I had never heard of Echidnas until I started getting into Sonic, and with all the "magic chaos emeralds and talking speed rodent" stuff, I thought that Knuckles' entire species actually didn't exist and he was an animal completely made up for the sake of the games -_-
fuggnuggins 3 years ago
A naive belief is not a stupid belief until you possess the information, context, perspective, experience enough to contradict, or at least to challenge or warrant an honest doubt and yet maintain that belief, god-boy, flat-earther, political teamster, gender-verbose, sciencist. A cult is a cult.
Heather Honer 3 years ago
My cousin's used to tell me that I had an uncle blowhard whose guts exploded all over the attic of my grandma's house from eating too much raw cookie dough. The firemen had to come and hose him off the walls but I wasn't supposed to ask grandma about it bc it would make her sad. Same cousins also told me that my aunt Georgia had a pick claw scar on her butt bc a yeti was in the biffy hole, but again, I shouldn't ask her about it bc she'd be embarrassed. Didn't actually think these through until I was twenty!
Beks Czar 4 years ago
Black & white cows made white milk; brown & white or all brown cows made chocolate milk. I totally believed my mom and being from Wisconsin, cows are everywhere! There was even a small cow farm in town, so I thought that's where our milk came from. And because B&W cows are the large majority, when we'd pass a farm that had brown/white, I'd think they were a real special farm because they made both. But I never asked where strawberry milk came from. 😄 .... I also thought if we ran over a lit cigarette someone tossed in front of us while driving, the tires would catch on fire. I was a very anxious passenger at night, when you could really see the lit end and the ashes bouncing everywhere when it hit the road. I would close my eyes & pray we wouldn't run over it. But I never asked my mom if that could happen, like why wouldn't I ask and save myself from the anxiety 😶
Just Browsing 4 years ago
As a kid I believed: you can achieve anything you set your mind to; I would have a job and family of my own by age 32; people are inherently good.
Kenny Kulbiski 4 years ago
Watched my dad take his false teeth out and asked him how he did that. He told me you just have to press the secret spot in your mouth. I went around for a couple months sticking my finger in my mouth looking for the spot before my mother ratted him out.
Luiza Maxim 4 years ago
I never realized that the Winnie the Pooh characters Kanga and Roo are a combination of 'kangaroo'. I was walking randomly on the streets when I realized... 🦘
Lennah Palbachm 4 years ago
I had that realization too, and only recently 😅
Load More Replies... FailBunny17 4 years ago
I thought my mom could literally read my mind. Anytime I had done something wrong or was up to no-good and went near my mom I would mentally "scream" songs in my head to try to keep my mom from knowing. 🤣🤣🤣
Claire Stanfield 4 years ago
I used to think everything about a person was natural - dyed hair, makeup, fake nails, shoe lifts, plastic surgery. I thought some people just wake up like that and others don't. XD
McGovernor 4 years ago
In the words of the philosopher beyonce "I woke up like this flawless" serious though first time I saw a mascara ad I thought they had just invented it 🤣
Load More Replies... McGovernor 4 years ago
My parents used to go to PTA meetings. I found it strange that they went to my school to buy meat
CJ Bovee 4 years ago
My brother had me convinced the damn was a good word because you always heard it with the word god. Ya, we both ended up in trouble when I said that at my moms church ladies function.
Adam Sherrill 4 years ago
I thought it was okay because my dad had a friend who used some questionable language, and he said "damn" a lot, and never got told to not do that. We went on a hike one day, and I saw a beaver dam and said, "It's a damn dam!!" and me parents were very mad
Load More Replies... Brunettechameleon 4 years ago
I used to think there was a singer inside the speaker whenever we played music.
Bobby Jean 4 years ago
I thought radio stations had all the actual bands at the station, much the way live TV shows worked.
Norma 4 years ago
Exactly! And I could never figure out how my parents knew all the words to the songs, since those people at the radio stations made up a new song each time!
Load More Replies... Tenacious Squirrel 4 years ago
I just googled “pollywog” because I’ve never heard of the word. It says it’s a tadpole?!
Load More Replies... Karen Gavin 4 years ago
I believed chocolate milk came from brown cows and regular milk came from black and white cows.
Rosesinmyhair 4 years ago
Thought when you had your photo taken holding a Koala at a Koala Park, they sent the Koala to you. When only the Photo arrived I cried.
Chloe *Leah* Pheonix 4 years ago (edited)
I LOVE coffee. Mom would tell me (even now) coffee stunts your growth. I looked it up and coffee actually has no effects to your height. She would tell me that's why I'm short but literally every assigned female on my mom's side of the family is either exactly or shorter than 5'0" so...
H Edwards 4 years ago
Sounds like my auntie (by marriage)... she's so neurotic about my cousin being small for his age, meanwhile her entire family are absolutely tiny and my uncle isn't that big either. I'm not sure why she expected her son to grow up to be 6ft+ with those genetics.
Load More Replies... Ryyde Cade 4 years ago
I believed my pencil crayons were in relationship s: yellow and green; pink and turquoise. Also that blue and red were together and that that purple wanted to break them up, so purple was always put far away from them🤣🤣
Auntriarch 4 years ago
Oh my goodness, so did I! But in my world purple was with orange, so there were no shenanigans
Load More Replies... Uber Mensch 4 years ago
That the all the worms on the ground after a rainstorm were changed from all the small twigs that were blown loose.
oof 4 years ago
I thought that the tooth fairy took requests when retrieving teeth. When I lost my second one in first grade, I wrote a letter to the tooth fairy asking if she could leave two sets of wings and two wands in exchange for my tooth so my best friend Emma and I could be fairies too(did not consult Emma on this). The entire existence of the tooth fairy was ruined when I woke up that morning to find my parents laying my fake toy wings down at the foot of my bed. Was very upset.
JewelLapoole 4 years ago
When my mum was younger, she used to believe that men gave birth to boys and women gave birth to girls, and that that was why she had a brother but no sister. She was apparently disappointed and annoyed to learn that no, actually, women give birth to both genders,
Lady Lava 4 years ago (edited)
My father used to say that some functionless little button on our car dashboard (now I think behind it was a hole for a lighter) was a remote control for traffic lights. When he pressed the button, our traffic light turned green, what a miracle! Of course he was just watching the order in which each light went green, and he chatted till the "right moment" came to push the button. But when I was a kid I really believed this!
MyOpinionHasBeenServed 4 years ago
I used to think Disneyland was just outside my city and my mom just didn't want to take me there. My Granny always said she would be but never actually did because I thought she wasn't able to drive outside the city. I live in the middle of Canada.
Patti Vance 4 years ago
when i was about 5 i remember thinking that when i was listening to the radio that all the bands that played were actually in the studio. kept wondering how they got them all in there and why they stayed as their music was played over and over.
Samantha Melnychuk 4 years ago
So, I when I was a little girl I somehow formulated the idea that if you slept with underwear on, you wouldn't get raped. I lived in Toronto during a serial killer couple's horrific tween rape/murder spree, and my parents always watched the news. I never told anyone about it until I was in my late teens when it was thoroughly debunked, and my little bubble of imaginary safety popped for good.
Shoshana Sherrington 4 years ago
Believed characters from my favourite books could see me through a magical portal in my mirror. To this day I don't get changed in front of a mirror
Adam Sherrill 4 years ago
I thought that the reason you stayed away from windows during a tornado was because the tornados would see you and destroy your house
JewelLapoole 4 years ago
I used to believe that if i chewed my bottom lip that teeth would grow there over time, but only for a short while, cause my mum said something like that. My sister believed it for awhile though...
Holly Allen 4 years ago
Thought you got to change your name for your birthday. I wish I could remember the name I had picked out for myself when I was little
Jeanene Rulason 4 years ago
My grandpa told me that green olives make hair grow on your chest. So naturally, as a lady, I didn't eat green olives for YEARS. Until I realized it was BS.
Kar Red Roses 4 years ago
🎇🎆 I somehow concluded that fireworks were created spontaneously in the sky by invisible “fireworkers” - floating, hard hat + overalls wearing magical laborers
Agnes Jekyll 4 years ago
A boyfriend believed women could not fart. I believed that if I could fit an object in those little holes in the receiver of the telephone, it would travel to the person on the other end of the line.
Jesse HogiesAngel 4 years ago
i am surprised i didnt see the one about if you swallow a watermelon seed one will grow in your tummy. i know its not true but i still avoid the seeds lmao
Ryan Deschanel 4 years ago
I thought that contracts had supernatural powers. Like, you could legally buy or give anything, from years of lifespan to sins, through your soul, relationships, responsibility... And that the princess of Wales was the daughter of the king of Wales.
Monday 4 years ago
After watching the little mermaid I was convinced that some evil adult would one day make me sign a contract that made them look like me and they would take over my life....the imagination is a crazy thing.
Load More Replies... ZAPanda 4 years ago
No idea why you got downvoted, it's as irrational as many of the things here.
Load More Replies... cj be like 1 year ago
I had never heard of Echidnas until I started getting into Sonic, and with all the "magic chaos emeralds and talking speed rodent" stuff, I thought that Knuckles' entire species actually didn't exist and he was an animal completely made up for the sake of the games -_-
fuggnuggins 3 years ago
A naive belief is not a stupid belief until you possess the information, context, perspective, experience enough to contradict, or at least to challenge or warrant an honest doubt and yet maintain that belief, god-boy, flat-earther, political teamster, gender-verbose, sciencist. A cult is a cult.
Heather Honer 3 years ago
My cousin's used to tell me that I had an uncle blowhard whose guts exploded all over the attic of my grandma's house from eating too much raw cookie dough. The firemen had to come and hose him off the walls but I wasn't supposed to ask grandma about it bc it would make her sad. Same cousins also told me that my aunt Georgia had a pick claw scar on her butt bc a yeti was in the biffy hole, but again, I shouldn't ask her about it bc she'd be embarrassed. Didn't actually think these through until I was twenty!
Beks Czar 4 years ago
Black & white cows made white milk; brown & white or all brown cows made chocolate milk. I totally believed my mom and being from Wisconsin, cows are everywhere! There was even a small cow farm in town, so I thought that's where our milk came from. And because B&W cows are the large majority, when we'd pass a farm that had brown/white, I'd think they were a real special farm because they made both. But I never asked where strawberry milk came from. 😄 .... I also thought if we ran over a lit cigarette someone tossed in front of us while driving, the tires would catch on fire. I was a very anxious passenger at night, when you could really see the lit end and the ashes bouncing everywhere when it hit the road. I would close my eyes & pray we wouldn't run over it. But I never asked my mom if that could happen, like why wouldn't I ask and save myself from the anxiety 😶
Just Browsing 4 years ago
As a kid I believed: you can achieve anything you set your mind to; I would have a job and family of my own by age 32; people are inherently good.
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