Top 10 Dumbest Things We Believed As Kids
Oh to be young and gullible and full of wonder again. From monsters under the bed, to blue water, to brown cows producing chocolate milk, we can't imagine how we believed these for so long. WatchMojo counts down ten dumbest things be believed as kids.
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Top 10 Dumbest Things We Believed As Kids
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Oh to be young and gullible and full of wonder again. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’ll be counting down the Top 10 Dumbest Things We Believed As Kids. For this list, we’re looking at some of the most widely held but adorably wrong things people thought to be true as kids.
#10: Toys Come to Life While You Sleep
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“Toy Story” plays a big role in popularizing this belief, but even before that, kids were suspicious of their toys after lights out. With films like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “The Christmas Toy”, and “The Mouse and His Child”, the concept's cinematic history is rather long. Kids often develop a strong attachment to their toys, often projecting feelings and thoughts onto them. With that in mind, is it so hard to understand why their young minds would think of their toys as living things? Some parents actually encourage this with “Dinovember” - a month of staging toy dinosaurs to look like they caused a ruckus overnight.
#9: Water Is Blue
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Most adults know this is wrong, but try explaining it. In case you need a refresher, here goes: bodies of water absorb green, red, orange and yellow light wavelengths more readily, with blue and violet lightwaves being left behind in a process known as “selective absorption and scattering”. Great… now try explaining that to a kid. You see, children are visual creatures, and are therefore unlikely to understand when you point out something that clearly looks blue, and then proceed to tell them that it isn’t. And if they only recently learned to identify different colors, it’s probably best to leave it alone.
#8: You’ll Get Stuck or Sucked into the Toilet if You Flush While Sitting
Who knows where kids get this stuff? But anyone with experience using a toilet can tell you… neither of these are legitimate risks. This particular fear, baseless though it might be, isn’t a terrible one for kids to have, because in the end… it helps them cultivate better hygiene practices in the bathroom. You should always stand up and close the lid before flushing in order to avoid a mushroom cloud of microscopic fecal matter. Though kids are unlikely to follow that rule based on hygiene alone, fear of getting stuck just might work!
#7: Songs on the Radio Are Being Played Live
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Kids are generally quick to pick up on technology. But just because they can use tech, doesn’t mean they understand it. Controlling the radio in a car might be a thrill for a young child, but how many understand how radios actually function? Concepts like studio recording and, you know, time management are a little beyond them, so unless the concept of recorded music has been carefully explained to them… chances are that they assumed people were actually performing songs on the other side. The person talking between songs is clearly working in real time - why should the songs they present be any different?
#6: If You Swallow a Seed, a Plant Grows Inside You
This is pretty much the child-friendly version of a chestburster from the Alien franchise, and honestly, when you really think about it, it’s almost as scary of a concept. What would it actually feel like to have a plant growing inside you? If such a plant is strong enough to survive in an environment rife with stomach acid, then surely bone, muscle or skin wouldn’t be enough to contain its ambitious growth. “Rugrats” took this concept and ran with it in the episode “The Inside Story”, delving deep into this childish source of anxiety. But hey, why else would your parents tell you not to swallow the seeds?
#5: Chocolate Milk Comes from Brown Cows
This had to have started as a grown up fib. There’s no way kids just came up with this ludicrous idea on their own… right? Well, the classic cartoon cow is primarily white, and that is where milk, which is also white, comes from. And kids are visual creatures, so come to think of it, wouldn’t a brown cow be the most logical, obvious source for the brown variety of milk? Kids operating under this misconception must really value brown cows, given that, by extension, their milk would serve as the base for ALL chocolate. Sadly, many adults somehow still get this wrong.
#4: The Human Heart Actually Looks Like It Does on Paper
From a young age, children learn that the heart is the most important organ - not just from an anatomical or health perspective, but also in terms of its cultural significance. They learn to place their hand over their heart when making a promise, that the heart is a symbol of love, and that when you really care about something, you “put your heart into it”. Considering hearts matter so much, it’s little wonder we try to protect children from what they actually look like for so long - giving them a smooth, aesthetically appealing drawing as a stand in. The real thing… is pretty gross.
#3: You Can Get Cooties
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As far as children are concerned, this is just about THE biggest health concern in the schoolyard. How do cooties work? Well, given that they’re make believe, there’s some room for debate, but it basically boils down to this: girls have special germs and they transfer them to boys any way they can. It would seem however, as gender roles in the playground have progressed, that cooties go both ways, and that everyone is afraid of catching them from the opposite sex. Historically, it seems to have arisen from a genuine effort to avoid the transmission of infectious diseases and to emphasize cleanliness.
#2: There Are Monsters in the Closet or Under the Bed
Children have a thing about monsters; they just don't like them. It doesn’t matter how many times parents clear the area or turn on the lights, kids can't be convinced their room is safe. Remember when you pulled your arms and legs in tight, and pulled the sheets over your head? What were those sheets really going to do? At the very heart of this phobia is an evolutionary fear of the dark, or rather, a fear of the mystery that darkness represents. Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it isn’t there, or that it isn’t out to get you. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions: The World Used to Be Black & White Wrestling Is 100% Real People Are Actually In or Behind the TV
#1: Santa Claus Is Real
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We’ve got no one to blame but the parents for this one. This isn’t something kids simply believe in… it’s an international conspiracy involving millions of people. Be it Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy, parents and society in general put in the time and effort to keep kids believing as long as possible, because it’s more fun to raise kids in a world where magic can exist. We go to great lengths to come up with logical explanations to cover the many illogical aspects of Santa Claus, but it’s all worth it to foster that sense of wonder and imagination.
