“Children Are Born When Husband and Wife Eat Seeds Together”: Lifehacker Readers Recall the Silly Childhood Beliefs They Once Held

From playful pranks by grandmothers to genuine superstitions and bittersweet realizations about adults, childhood beliefs can be truly fascinating.

“Let Us Know” is a section dedicated to stories from our readers. Each week, we launch a poll and eagerly await your comments. This time, we asked about the strange things you believed as children. We received many charming, funny, and even poignant responses. Here are some of the most intriguing ones.

Anonymous

When I heard the phrase “Bread grows in the fields,” I took it literally. There was a type of bread called “Braided Bread” that looked just like a wheat ear.

As a child, whenever I saw wheat fields, I thought the ears were simply “Braided Bread” that needed to ripen and grow bigger. Then trucks labeled “Bread” would come to pick them up and deliver them to stores. I believed this was true for all kinds of bread, imagining fields where regular loaves and rye bread grew—I just hadn’t seen those fields yet.

Anonymous

Until early elementary school, I truly believed that if you lay on your stomach and heard your heartbeat, it meant you were pressing on your heart with your weight and it would soon stop. I no longer believe this, but I still can’t fall asleep if I hear my heart beating.

Maria Kulishkova

I used to think that days of the week never repeated and each had a different name. Later, I imagined that the most logical names were chosen and arranged into the current order of the week.

Anonymous

I was often told that children are born when a husband and wife eat seeds together. Pumpkin seeds would produce blond children, sunflower seeds would produce brunettes. My beliefs only wavered during school years due to neighborhood giggles and whispers, and were completely shattered during high school anatomy lessons.

Anonymous

As a child, it was believed stepping on a manhole cover brought bad luck. One day, I deliberately stood on one to prove it was nonsense. Later that day, I fell into a puddle and everyone said, “See!”

Evgenia Tenenbaum

As a child, I was told that leaving unwashed dishes in the sink overnight would cause bad weather the next day. So, during summer nights, I would carefully wash all the dishes to ensure a sunny day for going to the beach.

Anonymous

As a child, I thought all adults were wise because my mother taught me to respect and listen to elders. My first disappointment came in fourth grade. We weren’t wealthy, and my mother worked evenings cleaning at the school. I helped her sometimes.

One day, my Russian language and literature teacher praised me for helping. The next day, during class, she kindly but with a smile told everyone I didn’t need to write the assignment about future careers because I had already chosen—I would be a cleaner. It hurt deeply. I ran home crying, and my mother explained that not all adults are wise. And it’s true!

Anonymous

I believed in moon tanning. I spent a week tanning under the moon because I used to burn in the sun.

Olga Makarova

I was six and my sister eleven when we visited our grandmother in the countryside. She sent us to pick Colorado potato beetle larvae from the potato field.

That evening, grandmother was making jam on the stove. When I asked what it was made from, she said larvae. “You collected them for a reason,” she said. I pointed to the berries floating in the pot and asked how that was possible. She replied, “The larvae add a bit of sourness to the berries.” It was delicious jam made from larvae, and I proudly told everyone about it until I was 25—when my sister finally confessed they had been playing a joke on me.

Anonymous

As a child, someone told me that Pekingese dogs have bulging eyes because they often pop out and can even roll under the sofa. Owners supposedly have to put them back in with a spoon. I believed this for far too long.

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