When I was a child I wanted to grow up to be a cashier at the grocery store, because I thought all the money in the cash register was for them.

Raya

I used to think that when someone got fired it meant they were tied to the moon and people on Earth would throw torches at them.

Mike, Sarasota

When I was 5, we went to my dad's office after hours (it was probably around 7 pm). My mom told me not to touch anything, so I wouldn't break it. I was standing there really politely, my hands behind my back. (Incidentally, we had gone to pick up something that my dad had left and needed--he wasn't there, but the building security guard had let us in.) I got bored, wandered over to the window, and there was this little machine sitting there that printed checks. (For all of you young'uns out there, it was this odd thing that you stuck the check in the bottom, pushed manual typewriter like numbers on, and then pulled a big handle, like a slot machine, and it would print the numbers on the check in rainbow colors.) Anyway, I was bored, and I had been allowed to play with this thing before, so I grabbed some blank paper, stuck it in where the check went, and pushed some numbers. As soon as I went to pull the handle, the alarm in the building went off--and it was loud!!! The security guard ran out of the office, and my mom grabbed me to run out of the building--I was really scared! I thought that I had done it by playing with the check machine, especially after I had been told to not touch anything!!! And, I thought the police were on their way to take me off to jail! Needless to say, I never disturbed ANYTHING in my dad's office again!

Kimberly

I believed when i grew up i would be an inventor. I would invent the solar powered flashlight, and be the first to invent an oblect which alows you to breath under water by putting a fish head in your mouth.

THE Inventor

I used to believe that if you put on a pair of black rubber gloves you'll turn into a grave keeper.... I know totally stupid ah????

Anon

that when I growed up I would be a footballer but that was obviously rubbish as I can't play for toffee

Darren

once my dad told me that "if i didnt work hard, then i'd go on the dole" and for some reason i got it into my head that the dole was a big ship that came and took all the lazy people away "the good ship dole!"

popmonkey

I am an Air Force brat and my dad was always stationed at SAC bases, and he also did not drive. When stationed at Offutt AFB, SAC Headquarters, my dad told me that the missile in front of base headquarters picked him up for work in the morning. I never did ask how he got home after work. I have to admit my kindergarten teacher sure looked at me weird when I told her that "a rocket" took my dad to work in the morning.

Lizz Mehegan, Riverside, CA

My son had a belief that as soon as you owned shares, you automatically got your own desk and office and you'd be right for life! If only he knew then what he knows now!

Anon

I believed that grown ups got paid their whole salary once a year (sometime around Christmas I think, because I'd heard of Christmas bonus'). I was really shocked to hear that they only got little bits all through the year.

ani

my dad used to do electrician work for people at their houses. i went along with him several times, and the kids on the street used to come upto him because he wore a uniform. he used to tell them that there was a monkey inside the van. i knew there wasnt, but all the kids did.

stevie

when i was little, i didnt really understand the concept of job wages (like most american kiddies) and when we went to a store,i thought the clerk at the counter got all the money from whatever you bought (say you bought a shoe for 5 dollars,the clerk would get the money). then my mom said that they didnt get the cash from the things you bought,but they were payed on an hourly bases. so then i was confused. cause why were there were commercials for stores on t.v. if everyone was payed at an hourly rate?

anastacia beeverhousen

One childhood friend of mine was really rich and they had a maid. One day she told me that her mom had fired the maid. In my mind I imagined the mom firing a gun at the maid and killing her. I was horrified and reported it to my mom, but she just laughed at me.

Anon

When I was really little, I used to believe that when my dad went to work, he and all the other dads built the skyscrapers in the city.

Fiona

In the musical Fiddler On The Roof, for years I thought a 'matchmaker' was a person in a town who made matches for a living...Couldn't understand why anyone would do that for a living. I finally saw the musical in high school and hit my forehead mid act, 'duhhhh!'

Idiot on the Roof

when i was really small i thought that there was only three jobs in the entire world. so when people asked me and my two boy cousins what we wanted to be i would say "Nurse!"because i was the girl, and my cousins wuld say "fireman!" and the other, "police man!". its really wierd that i thought that because i didnt know any one in my family that was a nurse, fireman or police man

intelligent 4 year old

i used to beleive that the prefix "self" meant "un" or "not" (god knows why, but i was reminded of this because my son recently made a similar mistake so i cant be the only one - it just felt like it meant that)#
anyway - because of that my mum once asked me what i wanted to do when i grow up
i said "self employed"
my mum said "oh, great, so what are you going to be doing then?" and i of course, said
"nothing of course (like, duh) cos i had truly meant unemployed. needless to say this didnt go down too well ...
unemployment is an ambition i have tried diligently to realise and i am proud to say that i have indeed enjoyed several long sabbaticals in accordance with my childhood dream, with only short intervals of regular employment to spoil things

chrissydontsurf

Until I was 23 I honestly beleived that the practice towers at firestations were for firemen to stand on top of and watch for fires.

Ally

I remember when I was, well, younger than 5 years old (don't remember exactly), my mom left all day to "work at the polls." I thought she meant "poles", and I pictured her walking through a large room full of pipes checking for leaks.

Jason C.

When he was around five, my little brother always used to tell everyone that he wanted to be a bulldozer driver when he grew up. This was because he had once found a quarter in the dirt near a bulldozer at a new housing development we were visiting, and he apparently got the idea that bulldozers regularly dug up money and if he had one of his own, he could find all the money buried under the ground and eventually become rich.

Mandi