When I was about 7 or 8 I thought that when my parents told me not to get near our pool cover was not because I would drown with it pulling me down but rather there were sharks under there. So when it was back half way I would literally take goggles and try to see them on the other side of the pool but stay really close to the shallow end wall.

Anon

my Dad told me ice rinks were defrosted every evening and turned into swimming pools

neil

I used to believe that swimming pools could only run/be built facing east-west because the water would fall out if it ran north-south. Not sure where that came from, but I know it still comes up when we are with family friends....

LJ

When I was small I was in the back garden with my brother ( about 8 years older). There was an old unused paddling pool out there, half full of water, that I was poking with a stick. Big brother told me not to poke but I did anway and the water came flowing out. "Youve done it now mate, the water went done that crack and now the world's going to end" "oh no" I said "how long will it take?" "3 years, 4 at the very most" " Oh!". Using my rudimentary maths skills I worked out how old I would be when The End came and what I would do with the time left to me. He was my Big Brother and I beleived him.

Billy Baghead

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

When I was 10 or so I saw the movie Jaws. I believed that he could some how transfer from water to water, such as the ocean, to my bath tub, to my pool or even a puddle(specially the big one at the end of my drive way). So when I went swimming, (some how) I saw Jaws and would flip out and literally almost drown myself. I honestly believed that I was being eatten alive in my shark infested pool.

Oh those silly years of giving my parents heart attacks with my over active imagination.

Baby

Our family used to watch Dr Who every Saturday and the episode about the Green Death (the one which looked like slime and would crawl over you and make you glow in the dark and then kill you) affected me for many years.

It took me years (not kidding) before I could swim over a grate on the bottom of the swimming pool without having a panic attack bc that was where the green death came from.

Ironically, I became a collegiate swimmer so I guess I got over my grate phobia at some point.

Liz

I believed that the Kreepy Crawlie used to clean our pool, would follow me around the pool and eat me.

Mother-of-2

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 family and I always went to the same pool growing up, and it was the kind where you have to shower before getting into the pool. I thougth the shower water put a protective shield on us, so we wouldn't melt because of the chlorine.

Anon

My son came home from school and announced that I must go out and buy him some verrucas from the chemist in order for him to go swimming with the school. He insisted the whole class were getting them. I explained to him about the little plastic socks people sometimes needed to wear to the pool..............

Lisa

i used to believe there were invisible sharks in the deep end of the pool, thanks to my older brother.

Melissa

I used to believe that the smurfs lived on the other side of the pool filter at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. When my older brothers dove into the deep end and didn't come up immediately, I thought that the smurfs were bringing them to their enchanted world to meet the other smurfs! I was so jealous.

Lia

I used to think that drains in pools and bathtubs were deadly. I never went anywhere within more than seven feet from one in fear of being quickly sucked in and having my body cut up into many tiny pieces to go through the little holes. My dad dropped a penny once near the drain and went to go get it to prove to me that it was OK to go near it - I came pretty close to tears as I saw him swim toward that drain, I thought my daddy was dead meat :(

Gina

I used to believe that those vans you see with the ladder on the back that leads up to the roof actually went up to a pool that was on top of the van.

Lisa

An older cousin told me that if you peed in the pool, the pee would solidify, drag you down and drown you. From that day on, I just kacked in the pool instead...

Anon

I remember when i was very little, about 3, my cousin came over one day (she has VERY blonde hair), and her hair was all green. my mom said it was because she had gone swimming, and the chlorine caused her hair to turn that color. i was SO scared that my hair (which is brown) would also turn green if it ever touched the water in a pool, so for the longest time, i completely avoided going underwater. i had this fear for many years, and one day during swimming lessons when i was 5, a boy hugged me while we were still in the pool. when he did this, i toppled over, and my head got wet for the first time in years! i was traumatized and thought my hair would turn green instantly. i started crying so hysterically that the instructor let me leave early. what a childhood!

KT

I used to believe that beyond the floating markers in a swimming pool or a lake, that lined off deeper ends of the water, that there were sharks there and i was terrified to go past them for years.

phayd2dark

I used to believe that if I went in the public pool with the boy from our school who was missing a leg - that mine would fall off too. So I didn't get in.

Anon

When I was around 5 or 6, I remember asking someone what the big bubble was under the pool cover in my neighbor's backyard at the end of my street. The person told me it was a giant fat lady under there hiding, waiting to snatch up any little kids and eat them. So, everytime I would go by that house, I ran like hell.

RP