14 Childhood Beliefs That Turned Out to Be Completely Wrong

Childhood is a magical time when our imaginations run wild, and the world feels like a place full of endless possibilities. As kids, we wholeheartedly believed in things that, looking back, seem hilariously misguided or downright bizarre. We all had ideas that turned out to be completely wrong.

In this article, we’ll dive into some of the most ridiculous childhood beliefs that turned out to be completely wrong. Get ready to relive those moments of sweet, silly ignorance!

1.

• "As a child, I genuinely believed that if I dug deep enough in the backyard, I could reach the other side of the world. I spent hours with a shovel, convinced I’d end up in another country. Reality hit when I barely got past the dirt." © yourdigigirlfriend / Reddit

2.

• "I was convinced that the moon followed our car everywhere because it had a crush
  on my mom." © Complex-Pass4023 / Reddit

3.

• "Once I was playing with some toys and my mom was talking on the phone to her friend. I guess they were talking about kids growing up and having families some day because my mom puts her hand over the phone and asked me if I wanted kids some day and if I wanted boys or girls.
  I gave it some thought and said that I wanted one boy and one girl. For the longest time after this, I thought that it had been completely decided, like my mom was just on the phone with whoever you call to place an order for kids, and my order had been finalized." © Bran_Solo / Reddit

4.

• "There was no color in the world when black and white movies existed." © Thanossing / Reddit

5.

• "When I was a child, I asked my grandad why he was bald. He told me that he went to a zoo and a giraffe licked the hair off the top of his head. I never questioned this throughout my childhood.
  When I was about 19, I was out with my friends, and we were talking about going bald. I said, “My grandad went bald because a giraffe licked his hair off,” and instantly realized how ridiculous it was once I said it out loud." © Neither-Engine-5852 / Reddit

6.

• "When I was a kid, my mom explained to me that we all had belly buttons because that’s how our moms fed us before we were born. So I thought when you got pregnant, your belly button opened up, and you just put whatever you wanted to down there. Like, I thought women were just shoving chicken legs in their belly buttons.
  Plot twist: I’m a Postpartum nurse now." © snarkyrn15 / Reddit

7.

• "I used to believe that when your luggage went on a conveyor belt at the airport, that your luggage would go all of the way to your destination on that conveyor belt." © Apprehensive_Sand343 / Reddit

8.

• "I believed that actors/TV characters would have to come back into a studio for each rerun of a show/movie. I would always be so amazed that people would have the time to go into a room with a camera multiple times a day just so I could watch them do the same thing over and over again." © DaKing4001 / Reddit

9.

• "When I was young my parents told me that if I kept leaving the fridge open then I would freeze the whole world and then no one would like me." © ChuBennette / Reddit

10.

• "My grandma used to drive me out to a lake and let me dig for rocks. I often found beautiful polished stones of every different color. Amethyst, turquoise, obsidian, etc.
  At my cousin’s wedding, when I was about 28 years old, he mentioned, “All those times, grandma would buy rocks from the hobby store and bury them for us…” I instantly remembered grandma making comments like, “Try digging a little more to the left.”" © TopicHefty593 / Reddit

11.

• "For some reason, I thought every car that was made had to do a crash test. Probably because my dad once told that our car had a very good rating in the crash test.
  I was amazed by the fact that all cars were repaired so well before being sold." © Diesell23 / Reddit

12.

• "Not sure if this was just a UK thing, but as a child I had some of those gooey jelly alien toys that came in plastic eggs and the big rumor on the playground at the time was, if you put a boy alien and girl alien in the same egg and put it in the fridge, they would make a new baby alien overnight. I told my parents about it and told them I was doing it.
  While in bed, my parents added the extra “baby” alien overnight. So when I woke up and found the third alien, I lost it! Went into school and told everyone. For years, I swore blind it was true and really happened. It was a very heartbreaking day when I realized what had happened..." © thatgreengentleman92 / Reddit

13.

• "You know those animatronic dinosaurs at museums?... I knew they were robots, but as a child I was convinced that the robot was unaware of its animatronic status. I believed that if the robot wanted to, it could and WOULD step over the barrier and eat me and everyone else. This fear was compounded when my dad - more than once - picked me up and pretended he would drop me down the other side of the barrier." © kalewhisperer / Reddit

14.

• "I believed that we had to change our names during different stages of our lives, like we have a toddler's name, a teenager's name and an adult's name." © Chogisoo / Reddit

Looking back, it’s amazing how our childhood beliefs were shaped by imagination, misunderstandings, and the occasional tall tale from an older sibling. While most of those ideas have faded away, they left us with funny memories and a reminder of how wonderfully curious we once were.
After all, growing up wouldn’t be the same without a few ridiculous misconceptions along the way!