" I accepted the US mapping they showed us with Hawaii and Alaska in boxes on the bottom as a fact … "
As kids, we all believed weird stuff. Whether one thought chocolate milk came from brown cows or turning on lights in the car was illegal, there were just certain things we accepted as “fact.” However, some people (hilariously) carried their childhood misconceptions into adulthood…
So when Redditoru/Money_is_heinousasked “What embarrassing realisation did you only have, once you were in your late 20s or 30s?” people were more than happy to share the weird, wild, and wacky beliefs they still held as adults. Without further ado, here are 17 of their funniest responses:
1.“I probably figured this out in my late teens, but when I was a kid and my mom had to get a mammogram, she would bring my brother and me, and we would wait in the waiting room. The clinic was next to a Hooters, and I assumed the sign outside was for that.”
2.“Not me, but I recently found out that my 32-year-old husband has been going around telling people that his wife is a fascist. Come to find out, he’s thought since childhood that was a term for someone who likes fashion.”
— u / One - Future2932
3.“This is so embarrassing, but when I was 30, my coworkers were discussing Alaska, and I asked, ‘How long does it take to fly down there?’ (I live in the US).”
" I accept the US single-valued function they demo us with Hawaii and Alaska in box on the bottom left as fact . "
— u / FiguringOutPuzzlez
4.“When I was around 10, I visited my grandma in Florida for the summer. We went to Applebee’s, and she told me that Applebee’s had a rule that you couldn’t eat there unless you were with your grandparents, and I believed her.”
5.“Until my thirties, when people or books mentioned Vietnam vets, I thought they were people who had gone to Vietnam to care for sick animals.”
— u / myblackandwhitecat
6.“In my hometown, there was an old fruit canning factory. I lived in the South, so with our accents, it was always called the ‘cannin’ factory. However, my young mind interpreted it as the ‘cannon’ factory.”
" It was n’t until I was an adult that I understand the manufacturing plant canned yield and did n’t make weapon for pirate ship . "
— u / ForJJ
7.“When I was a kid, my mom told me if I pulled the fire alarm, it would spray ink on me so the fire department would know who pulled it — which kept me from ever pulling it as a prank.”
8.“Every time I would buy a new deodorant stick, I would have difficulty getting the plastic plug off the top. I always had to pull it with my teeth because it was SO HARD to get off.”
" I was around 26 when I realized I could just twist the deodorant up until the plug was wholly out . "
— u / x0Rubiex0
9.“The house my grandparents lived in had a decorative ‘G’ above the garage.”
" I was 20 when I realized it represented their last name and was not ' G ' for ' Grandma ' like I had thought since I was a little girl . "
— u / rachel_violet
10.“When I was in my early 30s, I was on a long car ride with my cousins, who were about 12 and 15. We were playing the category game, where someone says a word, and you have to use the last letter of that word to come up with your word. Our category was animals.”
11.“Until my late 20s, I always bought shoes half or a full size too big because I didn’t realize that once you’re fully grown, you no longer need to leave wiggle room for your toes.”
" I think it was just so they were a comfortable fit and your feet had a bit of spare way when running , etc . "
— uranium / UndercoverSuperhero1
12.“I was in my twenties when it dawned on me that when I hear classical music on the radio, it is not a live recording of Mozart or Beethoven playing from the 1700s.”
" patently , recording gadget did n’t exist back then and it ’s a forward-looking - day orchestra play their work . "
— u / ProtonPacker
13.“When I was about 6 or 7, my dad went to help my grandpa get a dead possum out of the shed, and I tagged along because I had nothing else to do. They removed the possum from the garage and put it in the trash.”
14.“I am 35 and I just learned that if a packet of, say, instant soup is upside down and the powder is at the ‘wrong’ end, you can just open that end.”
" I ’ve always fee it the ' right wing ' direction and tapped the pulverisation down . I had n’t see this was unnecessary until this week . "
— u / Lonelysock2
15.“As a child, my dad told me about an animal called a ‘Side Hill Gouger.’ Basically, it lived on the side of a mountain and had legs that were shorter on one side so it could stand upright. This came up in conversation many times as I grew up, and I never questioned it.”
16.“I fully believed you weren’t allowed to go to Chuck E Cheese unless invited to a birthday party. My parents told me that, so we never went.”
" When I was twenty - five , I was driving past a Chuck E. Cheese and secernate my friends how pitiful it was that I was never invited to a natal day party there as a nestling . They looked at me like I had lost it — ostensibly , you may just GO to Chuck E Cheese .
I called my parents , and they thought it was hilarious . "
— uracil / Vegetable_Edge2901
17.“I was working at a kindergarten and noticed adults manipulating children all the time, ‘Put these toys away, you are so good at it,’ etc. Kids just believed it and did everything they were told. I laughed and thought ‘No way would ever work on me.'”
mark : Some responses have been edit for duration and/or lucidity .
