The Dumbest Thing You Thought as a Kid

circa 1950: Two children sit drinking sodas in an American drugstore. (Photo by Orlando /Three Lions/Getty Images)

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What's the dumbest thing you thought as a kid?

Part of being a kid is coming up with theories on how and why things work. And almost all of those theories are TERRIBLE when you look back at them.

People on Reddit are sharing their answers to the question: "What was the dumbest thing you thought as a child?" And here are some highlights . . .

"I used to believe night is brought about by clouds. Dark ones, of course."
"That if you drink while peeing you'll keep peeing until you stop drinking."
"That all companies with a 'TM' trademark were owned by my family, because those are my initials."
"Grandparents were assigned to families. Like, I didn't know my grandma was my dad's mom."
"I was under the impression that there were tiny rats that lived inside of my stomach and when they ran in their wheels for exercise it would make me need to pee."

We took this to our listeners and the text results were hilarious, here are some of our favorites:

"I used to think that bands would travel from one radio station to another to play their songs."
"There was a radio tower that we could see from our front window. On Christmas Eve I would stare at the red light on top because I was sure it was Rudolph's nose and Santa was getting closer.
"My brother thought that if he masturbated he would go blind. So he learned Braille."
"My brother wasn't quite as evil as the ticking time bomb However he did tell me when I was four or maybe five that every time I flushed the toilet monster would wake up and if I didn't leave the bathroom immediately it would drag me back down into the sewers so I just quit flushing much to the chagrin of my parents."
"When I was younger I'd play with my belly button when I was scared and my mom would tell me 'you're gonna make your skin fall off!'
"My cousin had me believing that big foot was real "
"My daughter thought the power plant off of I75 was a cloud factory when she saw the white smoke."
"My dad would stand by the side of the tv, look behind it and say he could see the back of the people on tv. "
"I thought If you are a piece of chocolate the immediately at a piece of a veggie they would cancel each other out"
"At about age 7 my cousin convinced me that the world was spinning super fast (so I spent months feeling dizzy"
"My niece thought that ham came from hamsters"
"When I was 5, I was sitting on the couch, picking my nose. My mom then told me after she caught me, "you do that again, your finger will get stuck in there". From the age of five....ive never picked once cause I was afraid of it. "