# Childhood understandings that were wrong. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282 "2007-03-24T03:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/61 "2007-03-27T18:55:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, along the lines of money, I used to think that writing checks were like instant money, an endless supply of funds. When I wanted something that my mom couldn’t (or just didn’t want to buy for me) she’d tell me that it’s too expensive. “So why don’t you just write a check?” I thought. She tried to explain to me that a check has to be backed by actual money in the bank. but this concept was lost on my six-year-old mind. I have to wonder what kinds of impressions ATMs leave on young children today. I had that problem too. About once every two weeks my mom would say"looks like I’m out of money, got to go to the bank". We would go to the bank, she would write on a peice of paper asking for some money, and they would send it through the neat little tube. I was so freakin pissed that my mom didn’t ask them to give me some money, no matter how much I asked her to. I thought she was so selfish, cause she woudn’t ask them to give me some too while she was there. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/62 "2007-03-27T19:12:12Z")
[QUOTE=dwc1970] [li]When I heard about the “dog pound” I thought they literally pounded all the dogs for punishment. I thought it was like a prison for bad dogs.[/li][/QUOTE] “Humane”? I hear it’s dog-pound-you-in-the-butt prison. ---
**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/63 "2007-03-27T21:12:01Z")
[QUOTE=AHoosierMama] Poopock (guessing at spelling) is the Serbian word for belly button. My 2 year old calls it her “Pooh Cock”. Hope we can clear up that misunderstanding soon! :eek: [/QUOTE] Serbian? Never knew that! Pupik is the Yiddish word for belly button. I wonder how the words came to be so similar? (and your two year old sounds adorable!) -Wallet- ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/64 "2007-03-27T21:40:43Z")
All of the pictures of human chromosomes I had ever seen had them lined up in rows, paired up side by side with the X and Y bringing up the rear.[like this on the wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karotype) I thought they were in the cells all neat and side by side. Then in college, I saw a picture of someone painstakingly cutting out the pairs (out of a picture) and matching them up. Oh. So that’s how it is. I still like my way better. ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/65 "2007-03-27T22:58:26Z")
I also thought the sperm made its way to the egg by kissing. I remember overhearing my mother saying that her and dad were talking about having another baby but decided to wait a little while longer, and I envisioned the sperm taking a time out in dad’s arm or someplace until he was ready to kiss it over to mom… Wow, that sounds incredibly more screwed up than I ever though it did. My favorite one though is when we went to McDonalds and mom would order little brother and I food and say “Two large fries and two small fries” (before the day of value meals). I thought this meant that in my little paper bag of french fries I would get **two large french fries** and **two small french fries** , and the rest were just there to fill up the bag. So as I ate them I had to find the longest two and the shortest two and think “There’s the ones mom ordered…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Agonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@Agonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agonist)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/66 "2007-03-27T23:34:15Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] My sister thought there were two separate Indian tribes, the one she heard about called the “Sue” and the one she read about called the “See-ox.” [/QUOTE] This “mistaken synonym” phenomenon should have a name, it seems to happen often enough: chaos, pneumonia, Sioux… I The most recent one for me is macabre. Pronounced “MACK-a-ber” and (until recently) not at all connected to “mac-AWB”. I discovered that mistake in my early 30’s. ---
**Author:** ![PuddingCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@PuddingCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PuddingCat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/67 "2007-03-28T14:53:09Z")
Most of mine were pretty tame. I thought a man had to pee into a woman to get her pregnant. I also thought that sex sounded pretty dull and that when I’d “done it” once or twice I’d get bored and not bother again. From a misleading parent point of view, I once asked my Mum how you got to be Prime Minister. At the time Margaret Thatcher had been in power for a number of years and she told me “You have to be the Queens sister”. Of course, this stayed with me for a number of years and I used to think it very unfair that the Royal family got all the good jobs 😉 I have a friend though who at the age of 16 still thought that women pee out of their anus… trmatthe ---
**Author:** ![Whiteknight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whiteknight/32/4962_2.png) [@Whiteknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiteknight)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/68 "2007-03-28T15:29:15Z")
I thought that when a man and a woman want to have a baby they get married and wish really hard. My sister also said that her kindergarten teacher was out because she had to go to a hardware store (workshop). I also thought that the exclamation “They’re gaining on us” was “They’re ganging on us,” since I’d heard so much about the evilness of gangs on the news. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/69 "2007-03-28T15:36:35Z")
Surely I’m not the only who thought you could grow fruits and vegetables in your tummy by swallowing the pits. Or, is that so universal that it doesn’t merit mentioning. I also had a hard time associating the Italian word for goodbye with “ciao” And it was only recently that I realized that regarding the famed sports venue in New York that the “Garden” was modified by a location named “Madison Square” and NOT that it was a “Square Garden” modified somehow by “Madison” ---
**Author:** ![rhythmonly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@rhythmonly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhythmonly)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/70 "2007-03-28T19:29:24Z")
No, you’re not the only one. I never ate Watermelon as a kid because of that. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/71 "2007-03-28T19:57:56Z")
You know that boxer who, years ago, floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee? I thought his name was Muhamma Dali. Also, when other kids would talk about how they wanted to kick someone in the balls, I thought balls were butt cheeks. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282/72 "2007-03-28T21:42:55Z")
[QUOTE=dwc1970] [list] [li]I had a lot of misconceptions about sex and where babies come from, but that would take an entire volume to write, so I’ll just summarize by explaining that I thought babies in women were conceived simply by being around men. I didn’t know they also had to get naked and do stuff. When I got a little older I understood the copulation part but thought that it was the man’s urine that impregnated the woman. I was 11 or 12 before I finally got it all straight.[/li][/QUOTE] In grade school we where taught what sex _was_ but not how to do it. It was explained to us in a very matter of fact way “The man puts his penis into the woman’s vagina…” But they didn’t tell us there was a bit more to it then that. I coupled that with hearing (again in sex ed class) about wet dreams and decided that for a woman to get pregnant the man would put his penis inside the woman’s vagina and just…well…leave it there. If he had a wet dream that night, she would get pregnant. It wasn’t until I saw scrambled porn did I figure out that there’s more to it then just parking it there all night. Being a Catholic school, they also told us you CAN’T get pregnant before your married, never once did they say you shouldn’t get pregnant/have sex before your married. For the longest time, I just assumed that if your not married, you physically couldn’t get pregnant, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out the mechanics behind that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-understandings-that-were-wrong/397282.md?page=3)