Top 10 Biggest Childhood Myths

Don’t go outside with wet hair! You may have been told. But this is actually one of those occasions where your parents were wrong. Sure, it might not be the most pleasant feeling to stand outside with soaking wet hair on a freezing day. And it’s certainly recommended you bundle up. However, there is no evidence to suggest that wet hair attracts viruses and increases your chances of getting sick. Even the cold weather itself doesn’t directly cause someone to become ill. There’s a common misconception that there’s a causal relationship here.

Did you ever irk one of your parents by turning the interior car light on as a kid? Surely you had your reasons for doing so, whether it was to see the fruit snacks you were eating or poke your sibling with greater accuracy. Your parents may have insisted you turn the light off, going so far as to say it’s illegal. According to some in the automobile industry, many drivers believe this to be an actual law because of what they were told as children. In reality, it’s not. Some parents out there might believe they’re telling their kids the truth about this made-up law. Other parents are probably just lying so the kid shuts that darn light off.

If you were a big swimmer as a kid, there may have been times when you were having so much fun that you didn’t want to leave the pool. Unfortunately, the human bladder doesn’t always make that easy. The notion that relieving yourself in the pool would make it change color was a scary one. Everyone would know! How embarrassing! But the truth is the chemicals in pools don’t react to urine by changing color. While it’s true peeing in the pool should be avoided, this widespread color explanation doesn’t hold water.

Yes, wearing a hat in the freezing cold is a good idea. But no, it’s not because you lose at least half of your body heat through your head. This common myth may have originated from an old army manual, which overstated the amount of heat lost through an unprotected head. Research shows that the amount of heat lost through the head, depending on environment and clothing, tends to be roughly proportional to the head's surface area relative to the total body. It works out to around the 10-15 percent range. While children have larger head-to-body ratios than adults, it’s still a false notion that they lose most body heat through their heads. Your parents probably just wanted you to stay warm.

Maybe the noise of cracking your knuckles bothered your siblings or parents. But their efforts to get you to stop may have been based on fiction. If they told you it could have really harmful effects on your finger joints, such as arthritis, all they did was help a myth spread. Evidence shows there is no truth behind the notion that cracking knuckles leads to arthritis. This common tension-releasing action has been proven to be generally harmless based on multiple studies. If you didn’t already know the truth about knuckle-cracking as a kid, now it’s been cracked for you.

It’s true that staring at the TV from close proximity could cause eye muscle fatigue. However, the notion that doing so will significantly harm your eyes in the long-run lacks proof. TVs don’t emit high enough radiation levels to seriously impact your vision. This is one of those situations where your parents probably were just looking out for you, wanting the best for you. It could have just been an effort to make you take a break from SpongeBob for a while and go outside. Whatever the case, many of us were given this unfounded advice growing up.

Did your parents ever tell you that you can’t have any more candy because it would keep you up at night? It’s a widespread belief that sweet treats will have kids bouncing off the walls. However, a multitude of studies have shown that sugar doesn't actually cause hyperactive behavior in children. Many people make false associations between sugar consumption and hyperactivity, failing to recognize other factors at play. Although the link isn’t truly there, children can also begin to perpetuate the misconception that it is. Kids like sugar — and may even have biological urges to consume it — so it’s not necessarily surprising that this myth developed.

After finishing that tasty sandwich or piece of pizza as a kid, you were probably ready to hop back in the pool on a hot summer day. But wait — you have to wait at least 30 minutes, maybe even up to an hour, to go swimming again. That’s what you were told. Sorry, but the adults were wrong about this one. It turns out there is no scientific evidence to back up the claims of significant muscle cramps or increased risk of drowning. Unfortunately, that means all that waiting before jumping back in the pool wasn’t really necessary after all.

The notion that gum could stay in your stomach for years after swallowing it was a frightening thought. Maybe a classmate told it to you. Maybe a sibling or parent warned you about it, or you heard it through whispers in the classroom. It made sense. It seemed plausible. After all, gum isn’t meant to be eaten, just chewed. However, the idea that gum stays in your stomach for seven years has been debunked. Medical experts have deemed it mere folklore. Although not digestible, gum passes through your system at a similar rate as regular food. While it’s called chewing gum for a reason, the seven-year concept is nothing more than a playground rumor.


Let us know in the comments which of these myths you thought were true until today!