this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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[–] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 83 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

There was a place by the beach called Helenback.

My siblings and I in the car: Where are we going?

Mum (shouting): Hell and back!

I was an adult before I realised it had another name.

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[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 71 points 3 months ago (3 children)

That there's a loving God.

Now it seems clear that even if he did exist, he's just above average asshole

[–] VelvetStorm@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I would argue that they would be fully evil depending on your definition of god.

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[–] Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world 59 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That Everyone the Police arrest is a bad person.

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[–] phanto@lemmy.ca 49 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I thought that dogs were boys and cats were girls. No idea why.

Its funny, my niece made it to like 8 thinking that aunts were adults and uncles were kids. She had one young uncle, and me. Called me "Auntie Phanto." I still haven't lived it down.

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[–] Xeroxchasechase@lemmy.world 45 points 3 months ago (9 children)

That prayers appease god to make things better.

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

it still blows my mind on a daily basis, the arrogance of humans to think they not only know what their creator-god wants but can sway "Him" with some fucking magic words

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[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 44 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That America was the greatest country in the world. And truly, not trying to be political, but honestly the propaganda in Midwest America was real. I didn't know anything about other countries - except for we were better. We figured it out, we built the best system ever and everyone else wanted to be like us.

Now those are the people I see overseas who are about to get punched in a pub.

[–] KaRunChiy@fedia.io 25 points 3 months ago (6 children)

That midwest propaganda is still around, just chewed out a coworker who said they'd be fine with everyone in Ukraine dying so that the US can 'have more money' and 'be independant'

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[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 44 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That our blood was blue, but turned red when exposed to air and light. All because a teacher told us so.

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I heard this one from a teacher as well when I was very young! And it may well have been the same teacher telling us that blood was made of white blood cells and red blood cells, and I knew from my deep work in relevant fields (paints and crayons) that this combination did not result in blue.

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[–] serpineslair@lemmy.world 41 points 3 months ago

I used to think that hair grew when it was watered - like a plant - and therefore showering was what allowed your hair to grow. No one ever told me that, I just assumed it to be true at a young age.

[–] esc27@lemmy.world 39 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Volcanos being caused by overpopulation in hell.

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[–] neidu2@feddit.nl 34 points 3 months ago

That my parents never had parents. Sure, I had grandparents and saw them daily, but I somehow never realized that they were my dad's parents.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 33 points 3 months ago (7 children)

I thought that women drank tea and men drank coffee, because that was what my mum and dad did.

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[–] circledsquare@fedia.io 32 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I believed that peas were the pupa of something similar to a butterfly or a moth. I refused to eat peas for years because I felt so bad eating little baby critters. I think my aunt might've "encouraged" me to think that.

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[–] lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I swear a social studies teacher told us that most rivers tend to flow north to south. Young impressionable child I was, I of course filed it away as a long-term core memory -- right there next to PEMDAS, FOIL, and so on.

Then I mentioned it in college and got fucking embarrassed.

[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 19 points 3 months ago

Similar, I had one declare rivers flow towards the equator. Which is slightly better than claiming they all flow N to S, but still inaccurate.

Rivers flow downhill. That's it. In case anyone else needs to check their mental model of the world.

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 3 months ago

I was taught the same. I got extra credit for memorizing that the Nile River was a "notable exception".

While I didn't go to school in Texas, our school district used material developed there. It figures.

[–] psion1369@lemmy.world 31 points 3 months ago (4 children)

My mom told me that Dad went to work to make money, and I actually expected to see money making machines when I visited him at the office.

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[–] dullbananas@lemmy.ca 30 points 3 months ago (9 children)

I thought that apt-get was a wrapper around the apt command

[–] TheRedSpade@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago
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[–] littlecolt@lemm.ee 28 points 3 months ago (7 children)

I thought that if you swallowed your gum, it would stay in your stomach forever, so you had to make sure to never do it because eventually there would be no room for food anymore.

Also, old CRT TVs had this static electricity sort of fuzzy feeling on the screen, and if you ran your hand over it, it would dissipate. I thought that by doing that, you were absorbing the TVs power and if you did it too much, it would eventually stop working.

Lastly, I believed with all my heart that all the pets you ever owned were waiting for you in heaven and it made me mad when my (very devout Catholic) grandma told me that pets and animals don't have souls and so they didn't go to heaven. I said if that was true then I didn't want to go to heaven! I'm atheist now, so I don't even believe that anyone goes to heaven, but if anyone deserves to go, it's all the kitties, puppies, and various rodentia I've loved in my life.

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[–] kindenough@kbin.earth 27 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That people with a beard where poor people. I always felt sorry for them not able to afford a shaving kit.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 months ago

The preferred term is hobo-chic actually.

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[–] Eiri@lemmy.ca 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Oh yeah I had a few.

  • That the moon you see during daytime is actually Mars (I then repeated that to my big sister and she believed it for an embarrassingly long amount of time)
  • That the "up" arrows on traffic lights were for planes
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[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 25 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I used to think "change" you got from a store was just the business being nice and making sure you didn't walk away without any money.

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[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

As a very young kid, I thought there was a very hungry monster that lived inside vacuum cleaners. The switch was just a lever to open a flap and expose the monster's sucking hunger.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

I used to believe that if you just work hard you'll get ahead in life

[–] thelsim@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Traffic lights were hand operated.
The small town where I grew up had one pedestrian traffic light for crossing the main road. There was a small brick shed next to that traffic light with no windows and a little door. When I was little I was convinced that was an operation's center where someone worked to turn the lights red or green.
In reality it was a power substation for the neighborhood, but I was seriously convinced that behind that door was a man looking at a TV screen and operating the traffic light at the right moment.
When we went to a larger town nearby, where there were traffic lights without a convenient mysterious building nearby, I told myself that the traffic light people were most likely working under ground, peeping through the drains.

I.. was good at making up answers for myself instead of just asking my parents.

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[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I didn't understand time zones, but heard about "losing" or "gaining" hours when flying, so I thought that time moved differently while you flew, depending on if you were flying with or against the spin of the Earth.

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[–] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago (2 children)

When I was young and hanging with my great aunt's church friends, we were walking to the store. I went to link arms with my great aunt and her friend was like, "Hey, that's dangerous. You can't defend yourself. Someone could jump you." From that point, I assumed that anyone who was linking arms was, like, giving a show of dominance. Like, "Yeah, we're linked up, because we can still take anybody even with only one arm." Didn't change that mindset until I was in middle school after I tried to explain to my friend how dangerous walking with her boyfriend was because "how would they defend themselves." 🙃

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[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I thought rabbits and hares were the same species but just the male and female name similar to cow and bull.

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[–] eightpix@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago (4 children)

That my parents knew what they were doing, made good choices, and were reasonable people.

No, no, ... and no.

That I'd grow up to eat candy, collect baseball cards, play video games, and read comic books.

No (type II diabetes runs in my family), no (wtf is a baseball card anyway), no (video games were replaced with homework permanently), and — well, actually — yes.

I love a good comic book, graphic novel, and/or animated series.

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[–] allidoislietomyself@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I used to think that the whole world was in black and white, just like all the old pictures and movies I had seen, then at some point we discovered color and turned it on! After that there were no more black and white pictures and movies anymore.

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[–] Presi300@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That Europe is a separate country where all the politicians live

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[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For a long time, i thought that people thinking that the pyramids were made by aliens was a joke and that the number of people who truly believed it was 0

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[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I used to think the poles holding up traffic lights were hollow, and there was a person sitting inside throwing switches to change the lights while looking at a watch to keep the timing fair.

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[–] goober@lemmy.world 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

We found a dead baby bird. Was told most animal babies don't live to adulthood. Knew people were animals so it was likely me and most of my friends would be dead by 21

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[–] AXLplosion@lemmy.zip 16 points 3 months ago

I was like 6 years old when my dad randomly told me that if a player dies during a football game, the others players have to eat him before the game can continue.

I never watched sports so I didn't even question it lol

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 16 points 3 months ago

That my grandma's name was "grandma".

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 15 points 3 months ago

That enough hot water bath could work just as well as sunbathing for getting a tan. Hey, both things can burn your skin, it's perfectly logical!

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That my family cared about me and supported me.

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[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago (7 children)

That the Gulf War was in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the only one I knew!

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[–] billbasher@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago (4 children)

The crust on bread had more nutrients than the center. My dad didn’t want to cut my crusts off lol.

My uncle always swapped the words breast and best so my cousin mixes them up sometimes to this day. He said ‘breast friend’ at his brother’s wedding

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[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ass cheeks were shit tanks.

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