When I was about 9 I was laying on my stomach as my mother was shaking down the thermometer, when she accidentally smashed it on my dresser, sending glass and mercury flying onto the bed. She got me very nervous because it came into contact with my exposed skin and said it can "seep through and cause mercury poisoning," For the next few years, I tried to justify my grades in school by saying that I had "mercury poisoning" and it slowed me down.

Polly (from body functions : being ill)

When I was young, I used to think that Presbyterians and Pedestrians were the same thing. When my mom would drive by the hospital in our town, there was a sign that said "Pedestrian crossing" and I always wondered why they got a special crossing.

Amy (from religion : church)

When I was a kid, I used to believe that it was possible for people to clean their eyeball the same way cartoons do, to make them brighter. Well I've never tried it, but I was still keeping this idea until a certain age though!

Amel (from body parts : eyes)

When i was younger i thought germs and bacteria were the same size as me

Tasha (from science : physics)

My cousin told me that if you look into my grandma's cat's eyes, you can see the future.

I believed it but was afraid of getting scratched in the face by doing so, so I never tried it.

Anon (from animals : cats & dogs)

When I was little I was taking a bath one day and noticed that i was getting hairer. I freaked out and called my mom into the bathroom, asking her if I was turning into a dog!! She just stared at me like i had 5 heads and said no. Luckily, I never became mans best friend.

Andrea (from body parts : hair)

When I was a youngster, I re-call travelling in our car and seeing signs saying, 'Dual Carriageway' and I thought this was a place. I could never understand why we never got there!

John Green (from the world : places)

i used to beleive that there was a left sock and a right sock. Every morning my sister would tell me my socks were on the wrong feed and i would switch them

Anon (from grown-ups : family)

I watched a lot of SciFi and adventure TV when I was a kid (a brother who was 8 yrs older and into that stuff helped). One day I asked my mom where the oxygen tanks were. When she asked me what I was talking about, I explained that the house HAD to be equipped with oxygen tanks because otherwise, when we closed the windows in the cold weather, we'd eventually use up all the air and we'd suffocate. But we'd survived many winters quite nicely, so there MUST be oxygen tanks in the house somewhere. Mom laughed and explained that the house wasn't airtight, that plenty of air got in. I was a little relieved and a little disappointed, I'll admit. The house seemed so...ordinary after that.

A Non-Ymus (from at home : around the house)

my nan had 9 out of 10 fingers amputated and so she used to tell me that she picked her nose and the cockroachs ate them. :S i actually belived her...

Bea (from bad habits : picking my nose)

Sometimes, when my father was annoyed with me, he told me to "get off his case" about it. For a few years, I always responded "but dad, I'm not sitting on your briefcase!" (He had a briefcase that he took to work, and I thought it was the "case" that he was referring to!)

kero9x (from grown-ups : family)

i used to believe if i was in a plane, i'd be able to reach out, grab part of a cloud and eat it

BOXXXY (from transport : aeroplanes)

Apparently, my mom and her friends were very ladylike. Until I was about 23 and living with my fiancee, I was utterly convinced that females were physically incapable of farting.

Jaede (from body functions : farting)

When I was 5, my dad was a cop. He was involved in a high-profile drug sting, and as a result, there were death threats on him and on my family. We got used to him checking the door with a pistol in his hand.

One night in December, Dad went outside for a few minutes to "check around" as he did frequently. Suddenly, I heard bells and a loud, "HO, HO, HO!" coming from my bedroom window! I shrieked and ran for my mother in terror, and Mom asked me, "What's wrong, honey?"

My panicked response: "Mommy, we've gotta stop Daddy! He's gonna shoot Santa!"

Jaede (from make-believe : father christmas)

One day, Mum caught my little sister playing with some of our Dad's things and exclaimed "If your father saw you doing that, he'd have kittens!" As soon as Dad (who's quite bug) got home that night, my sister ran to put her ear to his belly and, even years afterwards, was convinced that she could hear cats meowing and fighting in there!

Cat's in the Cradle (from grown-ups : family)

I used to believe that everyone had their own special day of the year called a 'birthday'. During my 1st grade Show and Tell, I told my class that I was special because I was born on my birthday!

elizabeth (from people : birthdays)

When I was about 5 my older sister and I were playing in our sandbox, she told me that if I stuck my thumb in the sand and sucked it, it would taste like chocolate!

Emma (from food : nasty food)

I believed that the word "contents" was a verb and meant "explodes". Why? Cans around my parents' home all had printed upon them the same thing: "Warning: contents under pressure". I figured that if you squeezed the can, it would explode. I handled all cans very carefully for a very, very long time!

Rhonda (from at home : around the house)

I used to believe that the people who "colored" The Simpsons ran out of skin-toned crayons.

Anon (from media : cartoons)

When I was very small my parents told my twin brother and I that if we told a seagull our names they would let us catch them. That would lead to two small children chasing seagulls around the beach shouting their names as loud as we could.It never would but we kept believing it would ( maybe we were supposed to speak in Seagull)

Anon (from animals : birds)