I don’t have any kids, but I remember a time when one of my old friends thought trick-or-treating was “Trickle Treating” and it wasn’t until she was 12 years old that she was corrected on it! It was so funny at the time.

Share the weirdest thing you have misinterpreted or misunderstood as a kid or now!

#1

I used to think as a child that when people got divorced, they dressed up in their tuxedoes and wedding gowns and walk backwards down the aisle until the priest/ judge pronounced them unmarried.

Report

#2

So you know that goes hit me with your best shot? For years, I thought it said hit me with your pet shark!

Report

#3

I thought 2020 was going to be a good year

Report

#4

My mum asked me if I wanted to go boating with her at my school, which I thought was awesome. I had an elaborate vision of all the playgrounds filled with water with rubber ducks floating past, and pictured shooting down the accessibility ramps like a waterslide.
Although it turned out my school was being used as a polling station and my mum was voting, not boating.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#5

I thought that people liked me, for like 11 years

Report

#6

That when someone is following you on social media they follow you everywhere you go in real life. (I was 9 when I thought this XD)

Report

#7

constipation instead of condensation UwU

Report

#8

I thought that everything from movies and books is true when I was young. Imagine that. One example is I always talked to the animals I saw them (from the jungle book). I thought that if someone dressed in black and wore sunglasses, they would be spies or a bad guy. I would interrogate them and let's just say that it was embarrassing

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
#9

Ok so when I was 19 my brother and I lived together in an apartment bc neither of us could afford to live on our own. This guy came to stay with us just for the weekend (we felt bad bc he said he had no where to go). Anyways we had a pantry in our apartment and we were storing this metal bed frame in it but it kind of stuck out a bit and we kept banging our foot on it. So one day my brother comes home ( he’s older than me) and I’m there with that guy when my brother knocks his foot into the bed frame again. He starts yelling at me saying I need to get rid of the damn bed frame (it was mine) by tomorrow. Now at this point the guy we’d let stay the weekend had now been there for a week. So knowing that my brother avoids confrontation with anyone outside of his family I start thinking this must be code for make sure this guy is out by tomorrow. So the next day I’m asking all my friends if they’ll take this guy bc he still has no where to go. Unfortunately I find nothing. So my brother comes home and I say bro I’m sorry the guy is still here and he’s like wtf are you talking about and I’m like you know you used code for the bed frame and he’s like no I literal just meant the bed frame

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#10

this was recent about a week ago a had a thought. if people in England call moms mums, do they call dads duds?

Report

#11

When I was in second grade we were learning math. My teacher asked me what 400+300 was. I said "200!". I was amazed to find out that there are, indeed, numbers bigger than 200.

Report

#12

I used to think that my parents were just robots when I was about 4-y-o and I thought that they were like robot bodyguards or something. I don't know why I thought that lol

Report

#13

Pusheen the Cat . (P-uh-sh-eeeen) is my all time favorite cartoon and Plushie (I have like 50 plushies).
When i first got introduced to Pusheen the Cat I thought her name was pronounced "POO-SHEEN". as if the POO WAS SHINY.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#14

You know that song Get Lucky by Daft Punk?

Well

When it came out I was like 7 or 8 and I thought the lyrics said “Muh-muh-muh-Mexican sun, Muh-muh-muh-Mexican sun, Muh-muh-muh-Mexican sun, Muh-muh-muh-Mexican lucky”

My parents never told me otherwise

Report

#15

Traffic lights changed colors because tiny workers lived inside and controlled them.

Report

#16

A couple of years ago when I was in middle school the teacher sat me next to this super popular kid who I'd never even spoken to. Don't know how it came up but he asked me if I was a furry. I thought he asked if I was fluffy and said yes because I was confused and now I will never speak to him again...

Report

#17

My teacher: We're doing a party! Come here on Sunday and wear a costume! And you, Noelle, you said that you'll bring ice cream, right?
5 year old me: Yes!
SUNDAY
Me: *shows up wearing an ophthalmologist costume* I BROUGHT THE EYE CREAM!!!

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#18

First, you don't have to be a kid to misunderstand things. I mishear things all the time. But once my mother was telling me about this little girl at this preschool she runs, and was telling me how the little girl was dressing up as a character from the musical Hamilton, and I asked "isn't she a little young for that?" my mom said "Yeah, but I think her family tries to push media with lots of racism." She actually said "Yeah, but I think her family tries to push media with lots of different races in them.

Report

#19

persfective instead of perspective =|

Report

#20

I'm a church going Catholic. When I was at school when I was about 6, during a religion class, our teacher asked what were the different names we had for God? I said "Peter." "No" our teacher said, Peter was the name of one of the apostles". "But that's what the everybody calls him at the end of Mass" I said. She asked me what I meant. I said "well the Priest says "go in peace to love and serve the Lord" and everybody says "Thanks Peter God." She then informed me that what everybody said was "thanks BE TO God not Peter God".

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
#21

When I got my first zit, it was on the inside of my armpit and it kinda hurt. I showed my mom because I thought it was a spider bite. She told me it was puberty. I thought puberty was a type of spider so later that day I looked up “puberty spider” it was really weird.

Report

#22

Funny story. Not anything too serious tho. My mom has this scar on her chin, and one night I was wondering about it. I asked her what it was from and she said "From skiiin'", but it sounded like "scan" instead of "skiiin'". It went on like this for a while, and eventually she was like "FROM SKI-ING". We still laugh about it to this day.

Report

#23

I used to pronounce Depeche Mode Dah-peach-ee mode because I had never heard anyone say it before. My parents got a laugh out of it though.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#24

That when my parents say maybe it means no...

Report

#25

I don't know how old I was when this started but I was definitely a kid - pre teen. Fast forward 20 years or so and I'm singing along to Billie Jean playing on the radio in the car and my husband bursts out laughing. He actually can't talk for laughing. Eventually he tells me I've been singing the wrong lyric all these years. For the best part of two decades I'd been singing the line "But my father is not my son." Only then, in that moment, did I realise the total nonsense of that lyric and wondered why on Earth I hadn't questioned my take on it before. Duh!

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#26

i used to think cheeseburgers and hamburgers with cheese were different. if i got a hamburger with cheese, i would eat it up but DON'T YOU DARE COME ANYWHERE NEAR ME WITH THAT CHEESEBURGER.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#27

I’m 12 years old and until now I had no idea that faux fur was pronounced like, Foe fur. I. Was. In. The. Regional. Spelling. Bee.

Report

#28

pasghetti vs spaghetti

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#29

I thought gay meant happy

Report

#30

When I was about 5, my parents and I were on our way home when I suddenly really needed to pee. My father stepped on the gas as we were still about 25 mins away. Pretty soon it was getting to be too much so my mother told me to squeeze my cheeks and hold on. It really got hard to think past peeing so I whined. My mother looked in the visor mirror to see me gripping my face tightly with tears forming and burst out laughing HYSTERICALLY. Since she had meant my butt she lost it at the sight of me and we got to pull over so my father and I could pee. She didn't need to since she just had. Lol

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#31

For the longest time, I thought that My Chemical Romance was an anime series. It's a rock band.

Report

#32

When I was a child my grandmother has 2 close friends who we always called Aunt. I thought they were my grandmother's sisters. She did actually have 1 sister. One day I heard her talking on the phone telling someone that she only had one sister. I was confused because all that time I thought she really had 3 sisters.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#33

OK so my sister and i went to vote for the election and before she put her ballot in the envelope she asked me, "Should i get this back?" and i replied no, because that would make sense. So the next day i go to go put them in the mail and her ballot isnt in her envelope, and i ask her, "why isnt your ballot in the envelope?" and she says, "i asked you if i should send this back and you said no!"

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#34

I thought Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp were the same person for years. I knew Johnny Depp's name and for some reason thought Orlando Bloom looked enough like him that I thought he was Johnny Depp as well.

Report

#35

I thought that the invoices for light (electricity), (electrical) current from the socket and (electricity) power for the TV were three different things.

Report

#36

When I was a small child, I thought the turn signal only worked, when the car knew where it was going.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#37

I thought people liked my jokes. Lol apparently the joke was on me.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#38

When I was little I thought that it was called 'Easter' because only people in the East celebrate it. I live in the West.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#39

I though Tails was a girl, not a boy.

Report

#40

not me but my brother, he was singing a song and just dancing and being weird but then I hear what he was saying. he was singing to the song The man by the killers but instead of singing your looking at the man, he was saying you're looking like a man.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#41

I used to think The song SuperFreak by Rick James said “she’s a brick house”..... I was in my 20’s and sang the lyrics to someone and they died laughing at me and then corrected me.... oops

Report

#42

When I was a kid I thought "No Drinking and Driving" meant you could not drink _anything_ while driving. My parents bought bottles of water for us all to drink on a car trip and I panicked because I thought we would all be arrested.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#43

When driving with my son in the car, he heard sia's "cheap thrills" song come on the radio (he was big time into her music then), and piped up "Mum, turn it up! It's Cheese Frills!" Omg it was funny and adorable, I corrected him later that arvo so as not to hurt his feelings

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#44

I have two. One, when I was a kid, I thought 'thank you for this day' in prayers was 'thank you for the stay' as in thanks for not killing us today. I mean I thought it was kinda hardcore but y'know
Two, I thought 'x degrees outside, with a wind chill making it more like x degrees' on the PA system at school was 'x degrees outside, with the windshield making it more like x degrees' like they were taking the temperature of the glass? And that made a lot of sense to me actually I believed that until fifth grade

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#45

Well...
1. That 2020 was gonna be a good year...
2. That people actually liked me for me...
3. That I was a good friend...
4. That I had friends...
5. Yeah... that's about it...

Report

#46

i thought the life of a teenager was easy. now i know being an adult in going to be bad

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#47

OK, so (I think) we have an accent. We say "-in'" instead of "-ing" at the end of a lot of words. Again, I don't know it it's just something from where we live or if it's something everywhere. My mom has a scar on her chin and I asked her about it. She said "it's from skiin'", but "skiin'" sounded like scan. So I was like "not 'scan', scar". And it went on for like 5 min. She eventually was like "I GOT IT FROM SKI-ING!" We still laugh and joke about it to this day.

Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#48

I thought that the word lesbian was actually "lesbianD" and pronounced it that way for many years until a friend finally realized it and corrected me.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#49

Well, there was this new Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Ride and me and my family were pretty hyped about it. We waited until around midnight to get on so my mind was eaten by a slug. One of the empire officers asked me how many people were in my party so I counted everyone behind me and said 26. He wrinkled his nose and went to the other "party" and they said 3--that's the story of a Gen Y who embarrassed himself in front of the empire. The rest of the ride was fabulous and would have been better if people didn't laugh when they see me. :)

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#50

That tubing actually meant they stuck you in a big plastic tube with air holes and would float you down a river

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#51

In German, the word for sky is "Himmel" and one colloquial term for penis would be "Pimmel".
So when a student of mine would come up with the answer "Himmel" to one of my questions, I misunderstood and told him that the correct word for it was penis. Should have seen those faces, wondering whether their whole life had been a lie.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#52

My MIL has an Buffalo accent. One day they had donuts and she held a donut stick and offered it to me. Do you want a "penis donut"? The donut did look a bit phalic-like but still! Why would she call the donut a penis??? I asked several times what she was saying to which she kept saying, a "penis donut, do you want a penis donut"? Finally after more discussion it was discovered that she was saying, "peanut donut". And yes on close inspection the donut was indeed dusted with finely pulverized peanuts. So yes, I did accept the peanut donut but I did turn down the penis donut.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT
#53

I used to think that there were tiny people in our digestive system that cleaned waste with tiny brooms and send it out into the toilet. I always wanted to be a surgeon so I could see those tiny people. I was like 5 y/o.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#54

I thought king-sized sheets in England were called "presidential sheets"

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#55

I have a friend who says fusstrated instead of frustrated. She can be frustrated a lot so she often says it. Gentle correcting has no impact on how she says it, so I just accept it as a little quirk.

Report

Add photo comments
POST
#56

i thought harry potter was a horror until i was about 5 some times it was a bit scary but harry potter is my favorite series

Report

Add photo comments
POST
ADVERTISEMENT