This is really embarrassingly stupid, but when I was young (really old enough to know better though!) I noticed that many older women had breasts which had begun to... sag. Since I knew some animals had their teats closer to the belly than the chest (like cows) I seriously concluded I had found one more proof of evolution, i.e. that past generations were physically more akin to animals in this one area. I wonder why-- I wasn't usually nearly so dumb!

Walter

"I thought Grown-ups were always Grown-ups. And that children would always be children. What a major disappointment when my mother showed me pictures of herself as a child. I knew than that I too would have to grow up one day. Now that really sucked."

Karin Lyn

when i was younger, i didn't like it that my brother was older and therefore stronger and cleverer than me. one day someone told me that i would be as old as him some day. i thought that meant that when he was about 20, i would catch up and be 20 aswell. i'm still waiting

The Dipper

I use to think that if you were pretty from the grades 1-5th grade then when u get to middle school you would become real ugly..

till this day.. im still unsure

My brother told me that I would turn into a boy when I got older. It made me cry.

Sarah

When my sister and I were little my dad had a white spot on his beard. When we would ask him what it was he would tell us he spilt milk on it. We believed him until we were 11 and one of our friends old us it was because he was old. We were devastated!!

Keely

My dad was born in 1943 and was drafted into the Army during Vietnam; he was discharged two years later. So for years I believed that every adult male had to be in the military for two years. I really dreaded it for a long time.

Andrew

When my dad was very little, just two or three, he was in a white family living in an all-black neighborhood. And in fact, even his dad (my grandpa) had a very dark tan and pitch black, curly hair. So, he thought that when you grow up, you turn black. He eventually figured out that there must be something wrong with that theory because his friend, Nate, also two, was black.

Rachel

I have two older brothers and so I thought that when you grew up you were a girl then a boy then you could be whatever you wanted to be (a man or a woman).

Anon

My sister said this last year... when she was 18! I don't know if this counts but she believed it when she said it and didn't get why I was laughing at her until I explained it to her very slowly.

Apparently she's always been under the impression that since she's one year older than me, she has known me for one year longer than I've known her.

Anon

My uncle told me (and my cousin) that when you hit puberty your body changes gender. He was always telling us stories about "when he was a little girl..."

Jo

I used to believe that grown-ups are know-it-all and couldn't wait to become one. Now I'm 18 and I know than many kids are smarter than adults.

Antonia

I believed that my clothes shrunk in my wardrobe over time, rather than me growing out of them. I thought everyone was born a certain size and had to buy new clothes when their current clothes had shrunk too small to fit anymore!

Em

Every holiday I was amazed at how long my parents could sit and talk to my uncles and aunts and older cousins. I was sure that once I got older that would somehow seem more fun than going out and doing something. But it still doesn't.

dave bug

I used to believe that everything was known, and adults knew everything, and that the only reason I didn't was that I was just a kid. I still remember how upset I felt when my mom said, "Well honey, Mommy doesn't know everything!"

Zorak the Mantis

When me and my little sister were younger i told her that once you turned 13 you turned into a TEENAGER, for some reason she came to think that TEENAGERS were bad, so when a friend of ours came to visit and told her that she had just turned 13 and was now a TEENAGER, my sister ran away in tears and refused to go near her for a week. Funny thing is, my sister is now 15 and knows that being a TEENAGER ain't as bad as she thought!

cordee

When I was about 10 my neighbours voice broke and he went through all that dreadful squeakiness! I was really worried, believing that I would have to go through it too. I confided in my best friend who told me not to be so stupid - girls voices don't break!

Julia

when I was little I used to think you had to have a baby before you got married!

Supergirl

When I was about 4 years old, my older cousin who was a boy, told me that boys were always older than girls, and I believed him until I was about seven years old.

Kate

when i was four years old, i asked my mum how old she was. she said '21', as lying about one's age was common among women in those days (and, of course, still is!). When, two years later, her birthday arrived, I sent her a card saying 'happy 23rd birthday, mummy!'. She was 44. i guess when you are a small child one adult looks very much like another - whether they are 16 or 61!

lindsay