I was confused between babysitters and kidnappers. I couldn't understand why people would rather have someone watch their kids who sits on them and hurts them than someone who makes them nap.

Anon

i used to belive that if you swore you would be arrested

kd

When i was very little i thought "to sue" meant "to murder" I thought if someone stole from someone else, the victim could say " i sue you!" and they would be killed.

Erin

When i was 4, and had just started school, I learnt that people could breath through their noses (it never clicked in my head before!)
When i went to bed at night, I was always scared of being robbed and attacked, so I thought that if I lay perfectly still and breathed through my nose, a burglar would believe that I was already dead. I thought that all burglars were thick and that they didnt know you could breath through your nose! To this day, out of habit, the only way I can sleep is if I concerntrate on staying still in bed.

22 year old still sleeper

I used to believe that thrift stores were where thief's came to sell all the goods they stole. I couldn't figure out why the police didn't just wait outside the store to catch the thief's.

thrift does not equal theft

When I was 10-12 and the world news would talk about "Software Pirates" or "a person was arrested for pirating computer software" I thought they seriously meant the pirates from the seas and I thought that the pirates from the boat were planning to steal videotapes, software or music.

Anon

When I was about 6 I was afraid that someone might break into our house and kill us while we slept. I figured they would use an axe, for some reason, so I always slept under four or five blankets, for extra protection.
Anytime it rained, I didn't worry about the killer that night, because I figured he would wait for a non-rainy occasion.

this is just the beginning...

i used to believe from the ages of 5-12 that if you put too much toothpaste on your toothbrush that you would be sent to this all boys camp (whether you were male or female) where they would teach you the correct ammount of toothpaste to puton your toothbrush. i was only informed two years ago that it was a fake place that my mom made up just so we wouldn't go broke from me using too much toothpaste.

hygenic child

When I first heard the term "Yardie", I thought the name derived from the fact that they ran their criminal business from their front yard.

This would have been perfectly understandable if I was 8 or 9, but I was about 18.

Jim, UK

I used to believe the crime of "Murder" was when when someone had been killed by being shot up bottom with a shotgun.

LS

I thought that "statutory rape" were meant to rape a statue.

Anon

When I was little and I heard rape mentioned on TV, I misheard and thought they were saying "rake." I assumed it must mean hitting somebody with a rake. I wondered why this crime would have its own name, and why people would get in so much trouble for it.

Not afraid of rakes anymore

I had a friend who thought a serial killer was someone who went to the store, looked at a random serial number, and killed that many people.

Anon

Our family lives in Douglas County, in Colorado, where there is this one correctional building. when i was in the second grade a boy in my class told me that that building healed all the pregnant criminal women, and when there babies were born the women could leave but the babies had to take their place in the correctional place.

i'm a second grade joke

I shared a bedroom with my sister and the water tank was in the loft above and it would make shushing noises and I never knew what it was but I thought there were burglars outside our bedroom door whispering shush to each other.

Anon

I used to believe that in war movies, the soldiers of the bad side (for whichever war was the subject) were played by criminals, and the US side used live ammunition.

Ed

We had a juvenile detention center right down the road from my house, and my father used to say that they'd send me there if I was bad. I'm not sure if I ever wholly believed this, but it sure looked like a cold and scary place. I really didn't like the idea.

Laura W.

I used to believe that Bill Stickers was a real person! I thought he must have been really bad because he had his name plastered all over town and they kept saying he will be prosecuted.I felt sorry for him. I used to imagine what he looked like. Maybe he was on the run from the police or something.

Christine M, Wigan

When I was little I was convinced that if I went to sleep with my feet sticking out from my cover, then if a murderer came into the house and saw them he would kill me. For some reason, I decided that murderers were bound to break in one day. I still can't sleep without my feet tucked under!

rosemary

When I was little I wanted to learn to ride a bike without the training wheels. My dad told me that if he took them off my bike he could never put them back on beacause it was against the law. I cried and cried untill finnally my grandpa told me he was lieing.

Kayla