I dont remember the age, but it was before Kindergarten, thought men came into the house at night to load the next days shows into the TV.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
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    I thought that when the clerk at the checkout asked, “would you like cash back?” That you could say yes and they would just give you cash straight out of the register for nothing lol.

    I figured that most people were very honest and didn’t need the money, so they would just say no thanks and leave it in the register for somebody who really did need it.

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      Similarly, I thought one could get more money by asking for change. You give one bill, you get more bills and coins in return, it’s gotta be more, right?

    • ch00f@lemmy.world
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      I thought grownups got paid every day and “pay day” was just a special day when you got more money.

  • 11181514@lemm.ee
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    So many things…

    I didn’t understand how lie detectors were supposed to work so I thought you could hook someone up and ask something like “does god exist” and you’d be able to get answers to all of life’s big mysteries.

    I thought there was a left and right sock

    I thought wolverines were mythical creatures

    I thought if I tried hard enough I could somehow become older than my older brother like it was just a title or something

    Thanks to DARE any time I saw a skittle with the S missing I thought it was drugs even in a newly opened package

    I could go on…

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      I wanted an older sibling as a child and I remember trying to convince my parents they should have another baby. In my mind, if I just waited (my age +1) years, I’d then have an older sibling. It never ocurred to me that I would also age during that time…

    • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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      Your comment about your brother reminds me that in kindergarten I thought that the line order (alphabetical) had something to do with status. My last name starts with C so I was pretty close to the front, but I had a friend with an A for a last name, so I really wanted to move up.

      I told no one of this of course until long after I’d grasped how alphabetical ordering worked myself.

    • prd@beehaw.org
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      My son was PISSED when I explained how his older sister would, in fact, always be older. He was sure he’d catch up.

  • boatswain@infosec.pub
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    I remember thinking that women gave birth to girls and men gave birth to boys, and being really worried because I (as a guy) didn’t want to give birth.

  • TrenchcoatFullOfBats@belfry.rip
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    My dad told me that walnuts were owl eggs.

    He got in trouble when I stole all the walnuts in the house and wrapped them in nose tissues to keep them warm so they would hatch and I would have baby owls.

  • GCanuck@lemmy.world
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    I was trying to figure out what caused wind. I noticed the leaves moving when the wind blew, and I knew that a fan (handheld) also moved wind. So it stood to reason that trees moved causing the leaves to move which caused the wind. And naturally it must be earthquakes that caused the tree to love. And then I thought, we’ll there must be a master tree that started the wind, and the most “logical” place for that tree would be the North Pole.

    So, that there was a tree on the North Pole that caused all the wind.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    That sheep and goats were same species. I thought sheep were the girl versions and goats were the boys, like hens and roosters.

    Wasn’t until well into my 20s that I finally ran into something that put the spotlight on it… IIRC it was some Farmville type of videogame, which included males and females of both sheep and goats. To me, that stood out the same way a “female bull” or “male cow” would have, so I had a little chuckle at the obvious ‘oversight’. Realized shortly after that I was, in fact, a fucking idiot.

  • SBJ@sh.itjust.works
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    I used to tell my kids that the ice cream truck only plays music when they are out of ice cream. My kids are older now and know the truth but think of all of the money I saved.

    • June@lemm.ee
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      I turn 40 in March and still have no idea what I’m doing. I just make it up as I go.

      • Hobo@lemmy.world
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        Sucker! I have a whole 6 months to figure it all out before I turn 40. I’m a terrible procrastinator so I’ll probably just wait until the night before to start really working on it though.

  • spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works
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    I thought black and what television was black and white because history happened in black and white. I suppose that means life in colour happened after the invention of colour tv

    • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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      I know a disturbingly high number of adults over 40 that refer to every dog as he/him and every cat as she/her no matter how many thousands of times they are corrected on it.

      • Haywire@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Have you been around girls and boys. This makes perfect sense. I think the science might be wrong.

  • arby@lemmy.world
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    When I was five or six, I think I must have dreamed that my dad could turn his head around 360 degrees. A few days later I was in the car with my Dad and asked him if he could really turn his head around. He responded “not now, I’m driving.” I took that as a yes. It was years before I realized the truth…

    • nittiyh@lemmy.world
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      I laughed so hard 😂 not even questioning wth you’re talking about, just going straight for the worldview altering statement. I can only wish I had that much wit and humor.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    If you were cold then you would catch a cold.

    You had to wait an hour after eating because if you swam after eating then you would sink.

    Carrots will allow me to see in the dark if I eat enough of them.

    If you did a bad thing then the universe would make a bad thing happen to you.

    If you dropped food on the ground and picked it up quick enough it didn’t have germs.

    • Spaghetti_Hitchens@kbin.social
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      Carrots will allow me to see in the dark if I eat enough of them.

      This was (and is) a very successful British WWII misinformation campaign. The Brits didn’t want it known that their aircraft had radar - which allowed them to find enemy aircraft at night. So they embellished carrots’ benefit on night vision to cover up their technological advantage.

      It worked. Don’t feel bad for believing it. Everyone believed it.

    • Io Sapsai 🌱@lemm.ee
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      If you were cold then you would catch a cold.

      There is a startling amount of people here (most people I know) that believe this. I work in healthcare and we constantly have arguments about the AC in summer for that exact reason. Yeah cold weather can make it easier to catch a cold but it’s interesting to see how many people believe that you need to get warm to avoid catching a cold.

      Carrots will allow me to see in the dark if I eat enough of them.

      Partially true. If you’re vitamin A deficient, your night vision worsens and carrots can help with that. But you won’t get Minecraft night vision

        • Io Sapsai 🌱@lemm.ee
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          That’s true as well but you can’t store drugs at 35°C. Good ventilation and regular disinfection takes care of the germs.

        • djmarcone@lemm.ee
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          An ac system with dirty humidifier portions or stagnant water from the condensate system being plugged can start growing things like mold in the wet filthy areas and cause legionnaires disease or other health issues.

          A properly functioning ac system just cools and dries the air.

          There is a belief that going from hot and humid summer air to cold and dry ac air and back, constantly all day long, can make you sick.

          I have no idea if that is true.

          A central hvac system could potentially move particles of infectious materials from one room to another but whether that would make someone sick is debatable due to how short lived virus particles are and other factors.

          Some commercial systems utilize ultra violet sections and hepa filters to kill and stop airborne contaminants and allergens.

      • Haywire@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The carrot thing came out of world war ii propaganda which was intended to keep radar gunsites secret.

    • aksdb@feddit.de
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      Believing in karma isn’t bad, though. If it helps being a better person, then why not.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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        It didn’t help me be better at that age because I lacked the forward thinking ability to weighthe consequences. It did make me scared that something bad was going to happen after I’d done something bad. Which is kind of good I guess.

    • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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      99% of Indians still believe the first one. They also believe that if you don’t immediately dry your hair right after a shower you’ll catch a cold. Sneezing and coughing without covering your mouth though? That’s ok.

    • Haywire@lemm.ee
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      The world believed carrots made you have better vision. It is an interesting story and worth looking into.