Children are just learning about the world and everything they are told, they believe because they don’t know any better and are fully dependent on adults not only taking care of them but helping to gain new knowledge.
That is why they can be easily tricked into believing in Santa or that there are monsters under the bed that will take them if they misbehave or won’t go to sleep when their parents tell them to.
Also, they can’t fact check the information because they don’t have the experience to compare it to. Questioning and not believing things come later when, growing up, you get to experience new things and decide for yourself what you believe is true or who you believe is telling the truth.
Learning to doubt and be able to distinguish which sources of information can be trusted is essential. That is why children are told to not accept candy from strangers and taught to be cautious with people they don’t know. It is easier to teach a child that than to distinguish which people they can and cannot trust because it’s not that simple for adults either.
Another thing is when children try to explain things to themselves without having enough knowledge. That is how they get convinced that the world was black and white in the past, because that is how it is portrayed in older movies, or that islands float like one of the Twitter users included in this list thought in his childhood.
Just like how adults try to make sense of situations they don’t know the reasons for, children do the same, only that adults may make a more accurate guess, so it just comes down to gaining life experience and trying to learn how the world works.
This list is not the first time Bored Panda has presented a list of people believing ridiculous and stupid things when they were little. In this list you can find even more of people’s answers and maybe there you will discover a belief you can relate to.
Also, if you like content related to children, you can check out other lists on Bored Panda. Like this one in which children come up with fun phrases and euphemisms to say that they didn’t like the food they ate. Or you can click here and read about what weird things people’s children get obsessed with.
