My Grandma's sister lived in a granny flat at the back of my Grandma's house. There was an above-ground pool behind the flat that I used to swim in.

When I was little, my Grandma's sister would watch from her front door and everytime I was about to jump in the ppol, she'd scream out, "LOOK OUT!! There's a shark in there with it's mouth open and you're gonna jump straight into it's mouth!!"

Because she used to do this, I used to think there were sharks living in the shadowy side of the pool (Eventhough I couldn't see them). I used to make my Pop come down and sit beside to pool all day just to make sure the sharks wouldn't eat me... haha

Jay

when I was little I thought that if you swam over the grate of a swimming pool in the deep end you would get sucked down under water and drown.

Anon

When I was about three, Southern Bell (one of the phone companies) had this commercial with an announcer guy and a woman at a hotel pool. The woman dove in and the announcer pulled this string and sharks came out of this holding cell, and the woman managed to get out in enough time. Because of that, I believed that there were sharks in a bin at every swimming pool, so a few months later when I started taking swimming lessons at the YMCA, I dove in the pool to go look for the sharks myself and was very mad when the instructors found me and wouldn't let me swim the rest of the day.

Funky Cold Candita

When I took swimming lessons I thought that if I didn't flush the toilet after using it, the pool would open up and swallow me. I always flushed.

becky

When I was about 2 or 3 hurricane Camille (I think) came close to the Tampa Bay area. My grandfather kept telling me to stay in the house, away from the porch, because there was a hurricane outside.

They were in the middle of building a pool in the back yard so I thought the pool had something to do with it. I kept thinking a giant KING (thinking he meant Harry King, not to be confused with Larry King) was coming out of the ground to because we had disturbed his place.

God I miss those innocent days.

Deron Braun

When i was around 4 we had a big pool in our back garden , i didn't know how to swim , meaning that my parents never even let me go near the deep end ( even if i did have those blow up arm things) ... after one close incident , my parents got me into believing that the reason why they didn't want me in the deep end was because a mean monster called Madame Hozze ( hozze meaning small pool in farsi) lived in the deep end ...and that she swallowed all children and that after they never saw their moms and dads again .. .i was traumatized ..and therefore didn't swim for years !

naz

when I was 4, my friend had a pool in her backyard. one day I really wanted to go for a swim, so I asked her if we could swim in her pool. she replied that a monster lived in it and that if we went in it would drag us in and eat us. I stayed away from her pool from that day and was afraid of swimming for a while after that.

val

when i was like 7 or 8 i believed that in pools the filters on the side would suck you in and never let you go so i would always go under the water so i would get sucked in

max

I used to believe that when I swam in a swimming pool too long I would grow fins and be able to breathe underwater, like a mermaid, and still be able to survive out of water!!

mermaidz_r_kewl

I used to think that those little things at the bottom of public pools that are water filters (I think) would suck our your intestines if you got too close, so I spent the majority of my childhood being really really frightened of public pools.

Anon

My friend was sooo scared of sharks ever since she was little. When I was like 11 I had my birthday party at an indoor pool. It was really warm and a part of it was really deep. Somehow she got the idea that there were sharks in the water, and would only enter the water if she had a kickboard!!

RAE

My parents were part of this club, and one night they took my sister and I to a get together. There was a pool table there and I honestly thought it was a little mini pool with water.

I had been worried because I hadn't brought my swimsuit.

Jenni

When I was about 9 I was at the house of a family friend and they had just had renovations and I decided to go the toilet in the extension.The first time i went and I flushed it, it made a funny noise so after that, whenever I ever went to the toilet there I never flushed the toilet as I thort the renovations werent finished and all my business would just land in their pool. I'm pretty sure they knew it was me that wasnt flushing!

Loz

When i was little my dad always told me there was polar bears in the deep end of the pool and if i swam in the deep end they would come up and get me! I believed him until i was finally old enough to hold my breath and go under water. Then i noticed he was lying and i started to jump off the diving board and play Marco Polo with all the older cool kids.

Nicole