around the house

When I was little I remembered seeing movies where there were peeping toms... so I was paranoid that someone would see me "naked"... so I had a ritual before takin a shower... I'd cover the ancient and plugged up keyhole on the door, check every edge of the window curtains. And, of course, I'd get in the shower and close the shower curtains before taking anything but my socks off...

But also, if I wasn't naked then noone could spy, right? So I made sure I at least had a hair elastic on my wrist!

ever-dressed girl

When I was little there used to be a ceiling fan in my room with a design on it that resembled some sort of evil man's face. I used to throw huge fits when I was put in my room by myself and I would scream "Man in the fan" and no one knew what I was saying until one day My dad figured it out and used it as a type of punishment. He would be like "If you don't be good I will leave you with the man in the fan. It worked for awhile.

Anon

There is this old fashion desk/bookcase who's legs look like feet. So when I was a little kid I thought that if I ever went near it, it would start chasing me and eat me or something. And unfortuanatly, it was by my bathroom so whenever I needed to go, I had to get my mom or dad to watch and protect me from the desk. Haha.

Anon

When I was young, my brothers would take the grill off of the heating vent and stick their foot in it... They'd start screaming "the suckin things got me! The suckin things got me!" and I would scream and cry because I really thought they were being hurt. I was also afraid of vacuum cleaners.

Amy

When I was a kid I was completely mystified about how the refrigerator light turned on at the exact moment you opened the door. I formulated the theory that there was a little man in the fridge who turned on the light as you opened the door. Also, if you did something bad like leaving the fridge door open or leaving the milk carton on the counter, I was convinced that he would punish you by making your favourite foods in the fridge go bad.

Mr. Cardgage

When I was about six my mom read me a story about a dragon that lived in a fireplace. We had a clock that made a very loud chiming song at the time and somehow I associated this with the dragon. So every hour when the clock chimed I made sure to be far away from our fireplace and if I was anyplace close by I would freeze until the clock was done chiming. (I guess I thought the dragon could only see me if I moved) After the clock was done chiming, I would go about my merry way.

Jillian

My mother had an awful way to get us to put our clothes away: "The fire inspector will be coming by today. If clothes are laying around, he'll note it as a hazard to vacate the house. And our house insurance will go up."

Snake Lady

At the risk of feeling stupid, I'm gonna admit that I wasn't all that young when I had this misconception -- after all, bag clips or chip clips haven't been around all that long. Anyhow, I used to be really puzzled about bag clips with magnets on them. The magnets are never strong enough to hold a bag on the refrigerator with any substantial amount of chips or other content in it. So I wondered why they bother to put magnets on the clips if they aren't strong enough to hold a bag on the refrigerator. Eventually I realized that the magnets are to hold empty clips on the refrogerator so they'll be convenient for when you need to put one on a bag, not for hanging actual bags on the refrigerator.

Anon

i believed that a little man in the fridge turned the light off and on when you shut and opened the door. I was always trying to open the door quick enough to see if i could catch him at it...never did catch that rascal.

lisa

When I was younger my grandma once told me that my grandfather (who had died years before) turned the lights on for us at her house. When I got a little older I realized that her lights were on a timer.

Allison from Lisle

When I was about 4, I used to be terribly afraid of dust bunnies. This came from a belief that anything that moved was alive. For instance, balls were alive because they could roll, etc. One time I went to this person's house and a dust bunny was blown towards me. I ran away from it in terror and grabbed my mom, telling her that the scary gray thing was coming to eat me.

anonymous

When I was small, I used to believe that if you pull the label off of a pillow, FBI agents would jump out of the nearest closet and arrest me.

Cat

I kind of jumped to a conclusion on this one, but until I was 8, this is what i though: Do you know those sattelite and phone towers with the blinking red lights? I used to think they were missiles and thats why they put the fences around them. I moved to a house that was near one when I was 7 and i cried because my room was the closest to the tower, I thought it would explode and blow up my room.

Anon

I used to beleive that when when you sold your house you just swapped house with the person who brought it of you so everyone had a house to live in.

Emma

there was an evil side of the bed and a good side of the bed. I slept on the good side, of course. I used to put up walls of stuffed animals to seperate the sides and keep me safe before i went to sleep, so that nothing from the evil side could sneak over and get me. I didnt even walk on that side of the room untill i was like 12.

ng

My dad used to tell me a little green man lived in the attic and would hop around creating a banging noise. My brother and I were terrified and would go nowhere near the attic ladder.

I found out later that the attic window had a broken shutter that would bang on windy days.

Frodo Lives

My mother told me that if I lay too close to our electric radiator (heater) my brains would melt.

robyn c.

I used to think that if you had a garage sale that meant you were selling the garage!

~Curtis~

In my house is a crawl space. Its a little panel on the wall by the floor. You unscrew it and go down under the house. We store old junk down there and I've never been down there, only my parents have. In the back is a huge black panther statue. I used to think I wasn't allowed down there because the Panther would eat me.

Emily

I remember when I was 8 yrs old and just moved into our new home... My mother took me into the laundry room and showed me the red switch plate which was the emergency heat for the boiler... She told me that if I touched that and flicked the switch that the whole house would blow up!! Well I never touched that switch! p.s. I was always in trouble!! LOL

Joyce