general

i used to think that if you flushed the toilet, whatever is inside would go out the shower because my dad always said not to flush when he was taking a shower

Lea

When I was younger, my parents, sister and I went to the local diner, and when I went to the restroom, I came out and told my mom that there was a bathtub on the wall, little did I know at the time that it was actually a urinal.

Ron

I used to think that the 'vacancies' sign outside B&Bs / hotels meant that they had toilets (because of the vacant / engaged sign on public toilet doors!!) I never understood why anyone would go to a hotel with a 'no vacancies' sign.

Ali

My friend told me once that when she was little she went to a public toilet and saw blood in the toilet. She ran out to tell her mother that she was convinced someone had been murdered and the body was hidden in the cupboard in the cubicle wall.

Anon

After a very confusing explanation of sex and reproduction from my older brother (he was 11 and I was 9) I was convinced that babies could come out of your bum at any time. Therefore it was essential to check the toilet pan for babies before flushing.

Martin UK

My brother,Myles Kidd, being Scottish and having recently learnt to read, once went into a Ladies loo, believing the sign to read "Laddies"!

Tania Bradshaw

When I was at kindergarten we used to get a day a year where they hired clowns to entertain the kids. One night I had a bad dream, in which one of said clowns drowned in a toilet. On recounting this to my kindergarten teacher, she told me that there was a monster in every toilet that only eats clowns. I believed every word of it and to this day I associate clowns with lavatorial drowning. The woman scarred me for life!

Morgan

when I was little I thought I was the only person who pooed, and my parents payed all the stores and resturants to install toilets just for me.

Anon

When I was little, I used to think that when you went into public restrooms, there were people hiding behind the mirrors who could see everything that went on in the bathroom. I used to glare at the mirrors as I washed my hands and tell the people (by talking to mirror) that I wasn't going to go to the bathroom because I knew they were there.

Jenn

My father used to say playing the lottery was just flushing your money down the toilet. I actually thought there were people who went to toilets, threw their money in and flushed! I never understood why people wanted to do this until I was about 10.

Chloe

I used to think that my family was really poor because we didn't have a urinal in our bathroom -- just a toilet.

toon

I used to beleive that there was a large man in the sewer that caught all of the excrement from all of the toilets and sorted it into boxes. I hoped I would NEVER get that job

C.

When I was little, i 4get how old...but i saw this commercial about those poor children in Africa or something, and like they'd show u where they lived and it lookd like thats where all human waste went cuz the streets were like flooded and muddy with garbage. So i felt really bad and every day after school i'd come home and go to the kitchen and make them "somthing to eat" like i'd mix baloney and ketchup with salt and pepper, or some concoction of that sort and then i'd dump it all in the toilet thinking im feeding all the poor children in Ethiopia. lol...

Christine :-)

I used to believe that whenever I went into the restroom in public, everyone outside instantly stopped whatever they were doing and all paused to listen to the speakers which were placed all around the store so that everyone could listen to me in the bathroom. Of course, everyone went back to normal once I came from the bathroom.

Raven

When i was young we had a toilet that didn't flush very well and my mum always told me to take a saucepan up there with me when I complained about it not working.

She meant that I should fill it with water and throw the water in the pan as I flushed to help. I didn't know this and for years used the handle to mash my number twos round the u-bend before returning the saucepan to the kitchen cupboard ready for dinner . . .

Nowadays there is always an empty vase in the bathroom to avoid any mis-understanding.

Mike Frost

Once at a bowling alley, my friend and I (both females) needed to use the restroom. We were about 8 or 9 at the time and weren't really paying a lot of attention. So we go into the bathroom, do our business, and then washed our hands in the neat looking sinks, with bars of soap instead of those dispensers. Turns out we walked into the men's bathroom and used the urinals as sinks (complete with the neat waterfall effect) and the urinal cakes as soap. Didn't realize the mistake until YEARS later.

Anon

I'm English, and in England we call restrooms toilets. One day, me and my family went to an american-style restaraunt.When I went to to the toilet, it said 'restroom' on the door. I was scared to go in because I thought i would disturb the people who were resting.

clo

You know people say the toilet flushes backwards in Australia I thought they were directly connected
so I would write notes to Australia and flush them down the toilet apologizing for my waste and some times attempting to make small talk.

jef polkowski

I used to believe that toilet seats were for kids only and that adults sat directly on the bowl.

Evan Klyne

The phrase 'Recycled toilet paper' always worried me.

Anon