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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Random things you believed as a child light hearted

241 replies

NimbleHiker · 14/02/2026 15:36

I thought that my neighbours were moving their furniture about when it thundered. I thought that the moon was made of cheese. I thought that periods started on the first day of each month.

OP posts:

GrrrrEnergy · 14/02/2026 21:34

I thought the Eton Rifles song by the Jam was about eating trifles 🤣 I also thought that if a character in a movie aged, they would have to wait for the actor to grow up before being able to film the rest of the film.

Yourinmyspot · 14/02/2026 21:28

That when a pub said free house outside it meant you got free beer!

Flukingflukes · 14/02/2026 21:26

I thought that women became pregnant spontaneously. That’s what Sunday school does for you.

laloue · 14/02/2026 21:22

That the Malvern Hills (which I could see from my bedroom) were wheeled away for someone else to enjoy them …when it was cloudy or misty. Took me years to realise it wasn’t true. I love my Grandpa to this day for telling me that as I live in their presence once again. 😊

Happyher · 14/02/2026 21:21

My mum said if I swallowed a pin I’d have to eat bread and cotton wool. She also told me if I swallowed soap I’d be on the toilet forever. When she caught my brother eating Vick (no idea why!!) she told him his throat would catch fire and I sat and watched him waiting for it to happen. I was a 50s/60s child and our parents brought us up by sheer terror!! She also used to make us wear our jumpers back to front if we had a sore throat as the back was higher. We did only have hand knitted jumpers then so no tags to irritate us.

SandyY2K · 14/02/2026 21:19

That if I closed my eyes, I was invisible, but not when I was sleeping. Only when I was awake 😃 😀

PamelaJean · 14/02/2026 21:18

Wiseplumant · 14/02/2026 17:04

I used to be really confused if some died, did their body just disappear, if so why have a coffin? I can't remember how old I was when I knew the truth or how I found out as I was far to scared/ embarrassed to ask any of the adults! When my great uncle died when I was about 6 my grandma said that ' Jesus had called him', therefore I was terrified Jesus would decide to call me !

I had this same thought about being a nun. Someone told me they were called by God or something and I actually prayed to God asking him never to call me. Couldn't think of anything worse 🤣

Pollyanna87 · 14/02/2026 21:10

GrillaMilla · 14/02/2026 18:54

I always thought sex was when a man and woman rolled around together continuously whilst kissing. That's how they did it on TV anyway!

I thought that only attractive people had sex.

SweetCamomile2020 · 14/02/2026 21:06

@SmoothSquirrelThey do help with vision in low light so partially true. Sort of.

NinaGeiger · 14/02/2026 20:57

I thought twin towns had exactly the same layout, so like if one town built a new housing estate, the twin town had to as well

Pollyanna87 · 14/02/2026 20:55

pinkmustard · 14/02/2026 16:36

That it was illegal to drive with the light on inside the car.

Edited

I thought this well into adulthood.

greenpolkadot55 · 14/02/2026 20:47

I thought babies were made by a man and a woman pressing their belly buttons together

wishfulthinking25 · 14/02/2026 20:40

pinkmustard · 14/02/2026 16:36

That it was illegal to drive with the light on inside the car.

Edited

oh god, I still think this now?!

Babygirlmamahere · 14/02/2026 19:56

Before I learned about how babies are actually made i thought that when you got married you got given a baby and then asked for more if you wanted another!

Original poster

NimbleHiker · 14/02/2026 19:52

If i saw a to let sign i believed that the i was missing so the sign should have read toilet.

OP posts:

Vintageblueribbon · 14/02/2026 19:52

Toetouchingtitties · 14/02/2026 17:02

My brothers told me sausages were tiny baby pigs and grew into piglets

Some bright spark told my ds that sausages where actually pigs willies

(I think it was my brother,his uncle as he had form for this shite in his quest to turn everyone around him vegetarian)

I believed for years that I invented the word 'secret' (God knows why) until I mentioned this to my mother and she shouted at me for being silly

I really believed it until that moment and cried because she said I hadnt

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 14/02/2026 19:25

watermybegonias · 14/02/2026 18:41

We used to have the radio on for the news at lunch time. I thought there were lots of lovely people in the world, as so many of them were helping police with their enquiries. 😱

My Mum used to wear a hat and secured it with a hatpin. She would fiddle to get it right, and told me that was because she had had to have her head pierced and had to find the holes, just like with pierced ears.

I do not wish to reveal the age at which I realised neither of these statements were true …

I thought that watching my Nana put her hat pins in, that they went into her skull in specific points , I was maybe 6yo , didn't like to ask in case it was confirmed !

firehorse68262 · 14/02/2026 19:23

Chocolateandsleep · 14/02/2026 19:14

I really, genuinely thought my eyes would go square from watching too much television. I would sit feeling my eyes worrying 😂

I'm trying to convince my DC but they don't believe me 😭

firehorse68262 · 14/02/2026 19:22

Applecharlotte2 · 14/02/2026 16:40

It is!

Show quote history

I think it's not advised but not illegal. Well i just looked it up cos i thought that too 😆

WalkDontWalk · 14/02/2026 19:18

GreyCarpet · 14/02/2026 19:02

When I was little, Boots had a sign stating it was The Dispensing Chemist.

Being 6, I'd never heard the word 'dispensing' and assumed they'd just spelt disappearing wrong.

I was at the height of my Enid Blyton phase and believed that it meant Boots disappeared like the lands at the top of the Faraway Tree.

This belief was further compounded when I saw the Ponds Vanishing Cream - vanishing cream was used in The Wishing Chair books.

There used to be signs for jobs in shops that said 'Apply Within'. I was quite old before I discovered that it wasn't pronounced 'appley', like 'orangey'.

There were ads in my parents' magazines for Canadian Ginger Ale, so I assumed the country was called Canadia. and I still think that's a better name.

WalkDontWalk · 14/02/2026 19:14

HeadyLamarr · 14/02/2026 17:15

I thought the letter of the alphabet after K was 'elameno' (L, M, N, O as one letter said very quickly)

Double U is polysyllabic, elameno sounded plausible.

Can I recommend a very strange novel called Ella Minnow Pea?

Chocolateandsleep · 14/02/2026 19:14

I really, genuinely thought my eyes would go square from watching too much television. I would sit feeling my eyes worrying 😂

MoiraPlunkett · 14/02/2026 19:07

Someone told me that if receiving a knighthood from the Queen (Elizabeth II) and you failed to bow or kneel correctly, instead of tapping you on the shoulder with a sword, she would behead you with it. I was only about 5 and believed this, and wondered why anyone would take the risk of being knighted!

JuliettaCaeser · 14/02/2026 19:07

We looked after next doors chickens when they were away and had to lock them
in due to foxes. I genuinely believed foxes could kill people (like wolves in the fairy stories) and was terrified when my mum would set off to lock them in - risking her own life in the process but seeming oddly unbothered.