family

I used to believe that my aunts were actual ants since they were often pronounced the same. I was too scared to give them hugs.

Teri Shanlynn

When I was about 5, I was certain (for no particular reason) that someday my parents would abandon my brother and me during the night. Every night for quite some time I would wake up of my own accord, go down the hall, and peek into my parents' bedroom, and every night they would be there sound asleep. I would go back to bed and sleep soundly for the rest of the night.

Then one night I went and looked, and sure enough, they had done it. The bed was made and they were gone. Oddly, I wasn't afraid, because I had been expecting it. However, I had been told that if ever anything went wrong and my parents weren't around to help, I was to go to the neighbors' flat upstairs and ask them for help. So I did this, in my PJs (I was used to going up and down the stairs by myself) and told the lady that my parents had left us. But they hadn't. They were with her -- they had put us to bed and gone to the neighbor's for all of ten minutes for a drink.

Somehow finding them there left me permanently reassured, and I never "checked on them" again.

Never abandoned

My dad told me that he won a boyscout award/trophy in knot tying. His winning knot? The braid. My dad told me he invented braiding and got a trophy for it! I actually went to school and bragged on my Daddy.

The facade all came crashing down around me when, in the middle of my show and/or tell speech, the teacher asked in front of everyone....."So did your dad teach the Indians how to braid their hair?"

And they say children can be cruel.

Cedda

Both of my grandmothers are named connie, so when i was younger, i thought that all grandmothers were named connie. I went on for years calling all of my friends grandmothers connie. I was clearly a specail child.

Jasmine

i believed that since my dad's name was "bill" and my best friend's dad's name was "bill," that if you were a dad, your name was "bill."

bryn

When I was a kid and I asked my mother why my dad went to work, she would say "to make money."

So I thought his job was actually making money.

Steve G. in Kokomo

i used to believe that boys came from their dads and girls came from teir mothers. i had two older sisters and one younger so i told my dad he shouldn't be afraid to have a boy. i kno have two more yonger sisters. he's still scared

Kathy

When we were little my mum used to tell me and my sister that if we were bad she would take us back to the shop where she got us and change us for nicer children. We believed her for a long time!

Anon

when i was about 5 i used to believe that my grandmother was really an aligator in a human skin, and when she went home at night alone, (she was a widow) that she would take off her human skin and lick her lips, thinking of who to eat next!

Anon

Both of my parents fathers died long before I was born. I grew up thinking that grandfathers were these really cool old men who went on adventures. For some reason, I would tell stories to my family of "When I was a grandfather".

I guess I was just trying to fit in... all my friends had grandfathers.

Kyle

I noticed when I was about 8 or 9 that my Great Aunts had smooth legs and wrinkled faces. I concluded the bottom half was the Aunt and the top hald of them was the Great. Aunts were younger and "Great" was older just like Great Grand Ma. I didn't realize they had on support hose, until I ask to touch their legs....Then I was really confused.

Lori

I used to believe that I was a princess and that my parents were the king and queen of some country in Europe and the people I was living with were just protecting me till they got back.
They still haven't come.

Dani

I used to believe that my mom was extremely old due to a black and white picture of her riding a carriage. Ten years later I finally figured out it was one of those old time photos from an amusement park!

nikki

Every Christmas and every time I lost a tooth, I used to get letters from Santa or the Tooth Fairy..... I would gloat to all the other kids how our idols were sending me letters and no one else.

Then I found out it was Grandmother writing me the letters the whole time, and I was furious. I thought it was her way of not letting Santa or the Tooth Fairy come into our house.

w00t.

when i was about six i noticed my dad had a scar quite low on his belly. i asked him about this and he told me that a samurai had sliced his belly open with his samurai sword.
i truly believed this until i was about nine when i noticed my grandad had a scare in the same place so i asked him if the samurai got him too. i had to ask my nan why my grandad thought it was funny that a samurai sliced his belly. i was really disappointed when i was told it was an appendix scare lol

Melinda

When I was 3 in nursery school, my grandmother picked me up one day. I called her Mimi instead of Grandma. The teacher who was running carpool asked if Mimi was my Grandma, and I said no repeatedly. The teacher gave Mimi a mean look. Mimi then rolled down the window and said, "Ask her if I'm her Mimi." I screamed "Mimi! You're here!" I guess I didn't know that Mimis and Grandmas were the same thing.

Anon

When I was little I overheard a conversation about someone "losing their child", as in before it was born. But I was convinced this woman had lost her child like you lose your keys. I was appalled that she would be so careless! Also, I was a bit afraid that my mom would lose me sometime...

joana

When I was younger my grandfather and uncle got in a fight and my grandfather got punched in the eye. When I asked why his eye was all swollen they told me he sneezed and his eyeball popped out and had to be put back.

Anon

Eavesdropping on a conversation between my mother and grandma, I heard them talking about them babysitting my cousin, Fiona. My Grandma said to my mother "Oh she's so good I could eat her!" damn she got some weird stares from me when I was six

my grandma is a cannibal

When I was four, my parents told me we were going to collect my new little brother from the adoptin home, we're all adopted in our family, for quite a few years I believedthat babies came from homes

Alison