Misconceptions that I had !!

[Raider5678]

At about 5 years old my mother told me babies "Came out of Mummies tummy" and at some point my mother showed me a programme of just that; a Caeserean section. I believed this for about 6 years until I was 12... and then found out. I was quite upset that my mother lied to that extent.

I recall having a large argument about that particular subject in kindergarten. I believed just that, and the other kid believed the truth.

[Tampitump]

Until quite recently I believed that the British public were smart enough to vote to remain in Europe. What a misconception!

I had the opposite thought and my beliefs were vindicated.

[hypervalent_iodine]

I don't recall anything misconceptions of my own (I'm sure there were many things), however I do remember once making one of my sisters believe that chicken nuggets were made from fish so I could have hers (she hated fish). She believed it for about a year (she was 5 at the time), until a babysitter heard her say it to someone else and corrected her. She was not happy.

[Raider5678]

I don't recall anything misconceptions of my own (I'm sure there were many things), however I do remember once making one of my sisters believe that chicken nuggets were made from fish so I could have hers (she hated fish). She believed it for about a year (she was 5 at the time), until a babysitter heard her say it to someone else and corrected her. She was not happy.

Though shall not teach unto others that thy chicken nuggets are actually fish nuggets called chicken nuggets for thou shall payith thee ultimate price for them. $1.99

[Delta1212]

As a child, I thought the song went:

 

"Then how the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee, "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, you'll go down in his story!""

 

I always wondered whose story it was.

[Sirona]

This is actually rather embarrassing but I used to think there were sharks in the deep end of the olympic swimming pool and that's why I wasn't allowed to go that far. I'd swim half way down the pool and begin to panic, trying to swim as fast as I could back to the shallow end. I thought they hid at the bottom of the pool, along the black lane markings.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Sirona

[Danijel Gorupec]

... making one of my sisters believe that chicken nuggets were made from fish...

This remembered me how I was quite grown-up when I decided to check how surimi looks in its natural habitat.

[Ophiolite]

This is actually rather embarrassing but I used to think there were sharks in the deep end of the olympic swimming pool and that's why I wasn't allowed to go that far. I'd swim half way down the pool and begin to panic, trying to swim as fast as I could back to the shallow end. I thought they hid at the bottom of the pool, along the black lane markings.

Well that's just silly! Obviously they would have been attacked by the giant squid.

[Function]

I suffered from nightmares and subsequent anxiety attacks caused by that bear in the Teletubbies for quite some years. I'd explain it fully, but let it speak for itself that in several countries, the episode with the bear and lion was banned from national television because of its traumatizing character.

 

Not really a misconception, but it screwed with my mind in that way that it still affects the way I sleep (I could explain this if some of you want me to, but I'm not going to hijack this post), and at a certain point, was so bad that I could not foresee, as a young child of 5-6 years old (yes, even then), if I would encounter that bear in real life or not. Especially when I was going upstairs all alone. In the dark.

 

Pretty sure that if my parents knew how badly I suffered mentally and what it did to me (if even I dared to speak out for it), I could've got a serious financial compensation for moral damage.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Function

[StringJunky]

I suffered from nightmares and subsequent anxiety attacks caused by that bear in the Teletubbies for quite some years. I'd explain it fully, but let it speak for itself that in several countries, the episode with the bear and lion was banned from national television because of its traumatizing character.

 

Not really a misconception, but it screwed with my mind in that way that it still affects the way I sleep (I could explain this if some of you want me to, but I'm not going to hijack this post), and at a certain point, was so bad that I could not foresee, as a young child of 5-6 years old (yes, even then), if I would encounter that bear in real life or not. Especially when I was going upstairs all alone. In the dark.

 

Pretty sure that if my parents knew how badly I suffered mentally and what it did to me (if even I dared to speak out for it), I could've got a serious financial compensation for moral damage.

Bambi should have been banned; look at the number of children that burst into tears with that film.

 

My biggest misconception was believing that, deep down, everybody was nice. I realised later that over niceness is just a veneer for people to get something out of you.

Edited November 5, 2016 by StringJunky

[imatfaal]

I suffered from nightmares and subsequent anxiety attacks caused by that bear in the Teletubbies for quite some years. I'd explain it fully, but let it speak for itself that in several countries, the episode with the bear and lion was banned from national television because of its traumatizing character.

 

Not really a misconception, but it screwed with my mind in that way that it still affects the way I sleep (I could explain this if some of you want me to, but I'm not going to hijack this post), and at a certain point, was so bad that I could not foresee, as a young child of 5-6 years old (yes, even then), if I would encounter that bear in real life or not. Especially when I was going upstairs all alone. In the dark.

 

Pretty sure that if my parents knew how badly I suffered mentally and what it did to me (if even I dared to speak out for it), I could've got a serious financial compensation for moral damage.

 

Gonna have to find it on line and watch it when I am drunk - only ever seen Teletubbies in passing and it looks pretty spaced and hoopy at the best of times

On the point of young terrors - I sneaked downstairs and watched Salem's Lot when I was far too young; slept with the curtains closed for reasons of irrational fear for about 20 years after that.

[StringJunky]

 

Gonna have to find it on line and watch it when I am drunk - only ever seen Teletubbies in passing and it looks pretty spaced and hoopy at the best of times

I think Teletubbies caused concern because they didn't talk properly and young children emulated them resulting in poor early speaking skills, apparently. I have watched many Teletubbies and Thomas the Tank Engine videos multiple times; Ringo Starr is a great storyteller.

Edited November 5, 2016 by StringJunky

[Function]

Here's the malicious malefactor.

 

The lion was my buddy btw, because I knew he'd shred that bear apart. (Note that the bear sounds even more evil in Dutch and the lion sounds a bit .. stupid, a bit snobbish)

 

Fun fact: I believe this is the first thing to have taught me how to turn off a telly.

 

 

Another young terror: my parents were so responsible they found it okay to let me watch Poltergeist and The Ring at the age of 6-7 years old. Guess what. I hate clowns now.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Function

[koti]

 

Another young terror: my parents were so responsible they found it okay to let me watch Poltergeist and The Ring at the age of 6-7 years old. Guess what. I hate clowns now.

In 1981 or 1982 there was a "secret" cinema in the US embassy in Warsaw. It was the cold war times and martial law was introduced in Poland in 1981. They were showing american films for the people who had the means to get in.You never knew what youre going to see...one time my Dad took me there and we watched "Fantasia" a great animated film which stuck with me for a long time. Another day we went and the showed..."Alien". I was 7 or 8 years old. My loving, responsible Father stayed with me through out the whole movie while I shat my pants multiple times. Couldnt sleep for a year after that. Edited November 5, 2016 by koti

[Sirona]

Well that's just silly! Obviously they would have been attacked by the giant squid.

Oh, I was scared of giant squid too! Except I knew they lived in the ocean. The misconception about squid I had is that they liked to wrap around my ankles and looked suspiciously like seaweed. Maybe that's why my parents liked to take me to secluded beaches, to save themselves the embarrassment of a hysterical child running out of the water shaking her leg in horror. *Sigh*

[Tampitump]

As a child, I thought the song went:

 

"Then how the reindeer loved him, and they shouted out with glee, "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, you'll go down in his story!""

 

I always wondered whose story it was.

if you'd heard "like Columbus" at the end every time, you'd have your answer. Lol

[Lord Antares]

 

I am shamefully aware of being a monoglot.

 

Didn't you speak Russian in another thread?

[imatfaal]

 

Didn't you speak Russian in another thread?

 

Только несколько слов.

 

I have no fluency in any other languages and it does shame me. I work in an international business in which I speak only English to colleagues of multiple nationalities most of whom have English as a second language, some have it is a third... but in any foreign language I have to spend a several minutes checking just a few words.

[MigL]

I can read and converse with much difficulty in French, while I am fluent in English and Italian, as I was born and lived my first 8 yrs in Italy.

To this day, when I add and multiply in my head, I do it in Italian, because that's how I learned it in elementary school.

[Externet]

Until about 7, I was convinced that as a norm, all my little friends spoke as me, a language at home with their parents, and another among us while playing and at school...

 

I have no recollection at all how did I speak/understand/learn the second language used at school by 5 - 6.

 

I did not realize until about 14; that I actually spoke/understand two different dialects at home, one with my parents and another with grandparents. And I was studying english as third language on the side by then.

 

By 17, I was reading ciryllic. Forgotten now without much use.

 

By 20, I could understand easily 80% of a fourth language from television programs.

 

The interesting part is how they do not become mixed...