around the house

I used to believe that paper was 2D because it was so flat once I learned what the second dimension was.

Sam Shiels

Most smoke detectors have a blinking red LED light to show that they're on and working. When I was younger, I was terrified of this light because I thought that if I saw it while it was blinking, there was going to be a fire. My fear was so bad that if I noticed the light while in bed, I would hide under the covers so that I wouldn't see it and there would be no fire.

Rob

The house my mom lives in now used to be my great-grandmother's and it's a two story home. When I was roughly 9 years old my mom told me that there was a little demon sitting on the landing of the steps waiting for me to come up so he could grab my ankles then eat me.

I know she said that to keep me from going upstairs and getting hurt but it was years before I went to the bathroom without running and slammng the door because it was at the bottom of the stairs!

Ravengoddess

I used to believe that if I slept close enough to the wall, it would somehow hide me in case someone tried to kidnap me.

Sarah

I could never figure out how my mother could find me when I hid under the kitchen table. Also, when I was 3 or 4, I thought I could hide behind a pole like cartoon characters...if I couldn't see them, then they coudn't see me. The key was to make sure that I couldn't see beyond the pole.

hidden in plain view

when I was a child I used to believe fly on the second floor

Anon

When I was younger and wanted to pik out outfits for myself that included, for example, sweatpants and a Rainbow Bright nightgown, my parents told me I couldn't go out dressed like that because I "would look like a Joad." I used to believe that a Joad was a regular noun and that it meant someone whose clothes didn't match. I didn't realize until 10th grade English that it was the family from the Grapes of Wrath.

Meg

I used to believe that when I turned off the light in my room, my floor would fill with what I'd call "gremlins" that would suddenly zip off and hide whenever I turned on the light. I used to step carefully towards my bed and was fairly convinced all the gremlins were watching me and avoiding my feet. There were hundreds of them, all with huge eyes and grinning faces, all knowing they were tricking me.

I used to try and trick them by spinning and suddenly putting my foot down, or flipping the light back on suddenly.

I never saw them.

Matthew McMahon

I used to believe that if I wasn't on a rug in the kitchen while the microphone rang, the I would sink into the floor.

got that sinking feeling.

When I was 5, my Mum's ex told me when I misbehaved that my Grandmother had set up microphones in every room in the house and could hear everything that I said. I believed this until I was about 9 or 10 and until then was constantly paranoid about what I said even when I wasn't misbehaving.

OK

i used to believe that there was a shadow monster lurking in every dark room so id run really fast whenever i had to go through the dark. im pretty sure i started believing this after i watched a particularly creepy scooby doo episode when i was about four. i believed this for the majority of my childhood and have been weirded out by the dark ever since.

mollie

I used to feel sorry for inanimate object like floors and couches for always being stepped/sat on. When I told my aunt, she asked me if they talked to me. I never told anyone ever again, and eventually it went away. I grew up to be an extraordinarily empathetic person, and sometimes, I might still wonder how the walls feel. :)

Mandy

When I was younger, I'd go to my grandparent's place to swim in their pool. Sometimes my Grandpa would forget to take the pool cleaner (like an underwater vacuum) out of the water when we went in (our family calls it the creepy crawler). I would become so distressed, and start crying because I thought the creepy crawler was going to suck me up and eat me alive!

Sally