Inspired somewhat by John Sherck’s post about life as seen through the eyes of children, I thought I’d share a couple of mistaken notions I had as a kid.

As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, my father worked for a major oil corporation for most of his working years. When buying gas for his own car, he would usually try to fill up at one of his company’s gas stations.

I noticed that every time he’d fill up, that he’d use a credit card. For the longest time, I thought the credit card was something only given to employees and that they showed it when they gassed up, so they’d get their gas for free! I’d thought it was an employee fringe benefit! My father died laughing when I asked him about this one time.

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As a kid, I never believed in anything like the stork bringing babies. I’d always been vaguely aware of the sex act, despite never having witnessed such a thing.

The misconception came in when I thought this was something only done to have babies, and even then, it wasn’t a purposeful thing. I had the bizarre notion that when a couple wanted to have a baby, they merely went to bed together naked and kind of just rolled around together in their sleep.

Needless to say, this was one misconception that was quickly cleared up for me, both the idea that people did it only to make babies, and the idea that it happened only by accident.

I just shake my head now that I ever believed such a thing.