On the way to my grandparents lake-house my aunt would always point out the large prison on the left. There was large red and white flagpole out front and I never looked past it, because I believed the flagpole was the prison (and thought it was a faraway tower). I wondered how they fit all the bad guys on top of each other.

Anon (from the law : criminals)

My mother had dentures from just shortly after she got out of high school. Therefor I grew up watching her take her teeth out every night and of course she explained that she got them when her teeth fell out.

Until I was 10 years old I thought everyone's teeth just fell out at a certain age and then you got dentures.

I was really bummed when I found out the truth. I'd had big plans to get an extra set for myself with fangs.....

Dennis (from body parts : general)

My cousin and I are 11 days apart. She and I were always competing in everything together. As we started to develop, a friend of the family told us, if we ate a lot of carrots our boobs would grow. According to the friend, that was why carrots were pointy. My cousin and I would eat a bag of baby carrots every day or 2. To this day our ongoing joke is that she must have ate more carrots than me.

shawn (from body parts : general)

My son once asked my wife what she was doing. She said she was making develed eggs. He asked for one. She said they weren't ready. He said he would wait until she put the devil in them.

Patrick (from food : dangerous food)

I used to believe that when your foot was falling asleep, your brains were actually falling down into your foot.

Anon (from body parts : general)

When I was a kid during world War II, my grandmother was a keen knitter and it seemed she could create almost any shape from those flashing needles, of which she had many different types. On finding a huge pair about 15inches long, I asked my Dad what they were for, and he told me, "For knitting battleships for the Navy". Now, as every four year old knows, Dads know everything, so I accepted this as just another incomprehensible adult explanation that I still couldn't really understand. Then I saw my Mum scouring a frying pan with some metallic stuff, and she told me it was called steel wool. So that explained everything - of course you could knit with wool made of steel, so my Dad was right again and my grandma was as brilliant as I always knew she was.

Swanny (from grown-ups : family)

I used to believe a honeymoon was when newlyweds flew up to the moon and scooped honey off the moon to keep it in a jar forever.

Halli (from grown-ups : marriage)

When I first came to the U.S. I was 5 years old and it was winter. A few days into the move to our apartment in NYC it had snowed overnight. When I first saw the snow I thought it was piles of sugar all over the streets. I asked my dad why there was sugar all over the streets, he laughed.

Ahmed (from nature : weather)

When we were little and on a trip, my Dad would keep us quiet by telling us to look for "Spam animals". These were cute little fuzzy creatures with big eyes that lived on the top of hills and where spam meat came from. It would keep me, my sister and brother busy. Sometimes we even thought we spotted some.

Melissa (from animals : general)

My poppop told me that the reason I had freckles was because flies came in and pooped on my face at night. I believed him for years. :(

Amy Brown (from body parts : skin)

Atomatic toilets had people inside of them watching to see when you are done.

Anon (from body functions : weeing & pooing)

When I was a kid I used to believe that sharks kill by slicing you with their dorsal fin. That was because of it's shape and the the way it looked as it slices through surface of the water. It didn't even occur to me then that they actually ate you.

R.Angeles (from animals : general)

i used to believe that z's came out of your mouth when you slept. so for many years i pretended to be asleep and open one of my eyes the tiniest bit to catch those cheeky z's escaping.

Lauren (from body functions : sleeping)

One time when I was doing spelling homework and my dad was correcting it I said "I'm sure I got all the right letters in the words even if they aren't in the right order" That did NOT work!

Alberto Richardson (from language : spelling)

When i was younger , before i under stood the concept of Gasoline runs engines, i used to believe lawn mowers used to run off of grass....... well i know now.

Brian (from at home : around the house)

I used to believe that if you photocopied a piece of blank paper, the copy would make a new piece of paper. I thought that I was the first one to come up with this and was convinced my family could save millions of dollars in paper :)

Lauren (from science : technology)

When I was little I expected every word had an abbreviated version i.e. hamburger to burger, etc. I made my parents drop to the floor laughing when I was 7, asking them "Don't only old people live in condoms?" I thought I was talking about condominiums.

jDub (from language : speaking)

I used to believe that "exotic dancers" were girls who did choreographed dance routines with wild animals. I wanted to be one until I was like 11, when I found out that "exotic dancer" was a euphemism for stripper.

Kate (from grown-ups : work)

One Christmas I noticed that my mom and Santa had the same handwriting. When I pointed this out to my mom she said, "Santa has lots of helpers." It suddenly all made sense. My mom was one of Santa's helpers and she didn't go to work because she was secretly making toys somewhere. Maybe even in our house! I never did find the secret toy factory in my house.

Anon (from make-believe : father christmas)

i used to believe that if i ate mushrooms they would grow on me

gwen (from food : dangerous food)