My younger brother used to beleive that superheros and super villians were real. When I told him that they were made up characters, he thought that ALL criminals were pretend. He thought that everyone in the world was nice, and there was no such thing as jail or criminals, just in stories and on tv and movies.

luckyblackcats

I used to be afraid that someone was going to break into my house and shoot or stab me. So, naturally, I kept the covers over my head at night because everyone knows that pillows and blankets block bullets and knives!

Uni

One day, while my mother was driving I heard on the radio that there had been a shooting and that a certain man was helping the police with their investigations. I said to my mum "aww, that's nice". She nearly drove off the road through laughing so much. You see, I'm from Barbados, and the above phrase is used euphemistically to describe an arrest, whereas I thought some nice man from the village was taking the police around, introducing them to everyone etc

Andrea

when i was a lttle boy i used to believe
that metal detectors at airports could find out who was a bad person because older people told me that some persons tried to carry weapons on the plane.
so i assumed that everybody who was stopped at the security checks was a thief or murderer, even if they only had to unpack their backpack to show their personal stereos or whatsoever.

hans hansen

I used to believe that drinking, literally drinking like, anything, not just alcohol, while driving was illegal. I also thought that smoking ciggarettes while driving was illegal. I didn't find out about the drinking part untill I was in the car with my mom and saw her take a sip of coffee. I told her that she would get arrested and she explained it to me. I was about 8.

Anonymous

I could not figure out what the term 'assualt and battery' meant..what did a battery have to do with hitting someone? lol

Brandy Lynn

When i was little i used to beleive that the law was a big man with a white wig. i thought that if you had been bad you would have to go and talk to "the law".

Laia

When I was in 7th grade, during art class, me and my friends were painting and talking. I was telling them about this guy that went to jail for something stupid. I proclaimed he was a prostitute (rather loudly) and that he deserved it. I thought a prostitute was someone waiting to be prosecuted. Everyone in the class started giggling, even the teacher. I looked pretty perplexed obvioulsy, because my friend asked me if I knew what a prostitute was. I told her my definition, but when she was done telling me the real definition, I was pretty embarassed.

They still tease me about it to this day.

Yippee

I used to hear the phrase "drinking and driving" when i was young and being too young to know about drunkess i thought it meant any drink-- I'd see a lady drinking a bottle of water in her car and go "MUMMY THAT LADY'S DRINKING AND DRIVING!!" she'd always laugh at me and made me feel like crap & I didn't know why.

Gina

When I was about 8 I started "playing doctor" with the boy next door. A few years later I heard the term child molestor and when I found out what it meant I was terrified. I thought that "playing doctor" made me a child molestor and the police would find out my dirty secret and come drag me off to jail. I didn't realize that you have to be an adult in order to qualify.

erin

That when crooks where caught they were taken to a town or place called "custody".

Alan

We used to watch " America's Most Wanted" and I pictured the killers and rapists outside seeing us seeing them and how they were bad and I thought they would come kill us so we couldn't tell on them, or find them.

Scared

I used to think that my aunt had been in jail. While incarcerated, a rat came up through the toilet and bit her in the butt. As a result, she had a hairy butt. I was terrified of falling in toilets but was still able to use them. I did make sure, however, to SLAM the seatcover shut! PS My aunt was never in jail and does not have a hairy butt(that I know of) I believed this until I was about 10-years old when I made mention of it and my mother corrected me.

Crystal R. in Chicago

This is from the good old times when i was young and innocent and didn't know about french kissing - I always wondered about that strange kind of kisses the people on screen enjoyed and my mother told me it was illegal to kiss each other the "real" (child safe) way on stage and so they did id that way.

usedtobesoinnocent

When i was little I lived in an area where there were some kidnappings, and i was the neighborhood know it all. Well my parents told me that this kidnapping was happening and that the man drove a white van, so every time i saw a white van (the one w/o windows, you know the ones) I would hide, no matter where it was, especially under cars. Do you know how many clothes i ruined! I thought that all white vans would take me away and i would never see my family again.

SL

When the Yorkshire Ripper was still on the loose, I used to think that a prostitute was a woman who was once in jail.

Anon

I used to believe that arson was a flammable liquid, not the act of deliberately setting fires.

Joey Schwartzman

My parents used to use the phrase "naked as a jaybird". So when I first heard 'jay-walking' I thought they meant someone was walking down the street naked.

Deanna B.

I used to believe that suicide was a crime you could go to jail for because people would say "They commited suicide" like commiting a crime. I'm pretty sure I thought it was a combination of murder and robbery.

Spyke

I used to beleive the law "Don't drink and drive" meant i couldn't drink ANYTHING in the car. So i would always duck when i saw a police car.

Hesha