When I was a very little girl I wanted to be -- surprise -- a ballerina. My parents and I were at a Chinese restaurant one day and when the fortune cookies came my Mom took one for me and read me the fortune: You will grow up to be a ballerina.

20 years later it hit me, and I confronted my Mom about it. She remembered that day, too, and confessed she had made it up. Now when we're eating Chinese food I get to tease her about "the big lie" :)

JS

my mother always told me that she can tell when im lying because when you lie you tounge turns black

Anon

I used to believe that when I told a lie my nose would get bigger and bigger. I also used to believe that if I ate an apple core a real apple tree would grow in my tummy and poke out my ears!

Anon

I believed that when you lie your head falls of your neck.

Dick

About four years ago my brother and I were talking and we somehow got onto the conversation of cross-dressing (he was around ten at the time). For some reason I told him that Ronan Keating (the singer) was cross-dresser. I never thought any more about it until one night about a month ago when he mentioned it and I reluctantly had to inform him that I had been joking! The poor boy had believed that for four years!

ellie

When I was little, my older brother told me that if I looked inside the gem of a class ring, I would be blinded forever. I believed him, why would a big brother lie?

Kristi

When I was little, my ma made me go to Sunday School. For whatever reason, I got the idea that if you told a lie, then God would punish you. I once told a friend who had inadvertantly told a lie (she said she hadn't touched something when she accidentally had), that God would come round and burn down her house and kill her parents because of what she'd said.
Scary preaching Kid! It's a good job I don't believe in God anymore...

Beth

When I was younger my brother told me that I would bite off my tongue if I didn't stop drawing in all the books.

Andrew

I recently had this conversation at the dinner table with my 7 year old brother...

me- Sit down and eat your supper.
him- Why?
me- Kuz you should be glad you've got a butt. Just think about all of those poor little children in Africa... they don't have enough money to afford butts. They can't even sit down.
him- How do they poop?
me- They can't! They just get bigger and bigger till they explode!

He believed me for awhile, till our mom told him the truth.

Brittany

My parents used to make me believe that if you lie to anyone (especially your elder) then you would go to hell and the demons would cut out your tongue.
I didn't care though ;)

mandy

my aunt used to tell her children that she has a house somewhere, as big as a palace and done up like one, and whenever the children asks about it she would say that it was still in building. and they believed her and waited for the day to move into the palace.

rain

When I was about 6 or 7 my brother told me when you make a snow man it comes to life at night and eats the kids that made it. I never made a snow man after that until my mom told me the truth and I hit him upside the head for that mean lie.

Shannon H.

When I was younger around 8, I went fishing with my dad and his friends. His friend would cast my line, hold my pole for awhile, and then walk back to his. Soon I had a bite. I was so excited, and bragged that I was a good fisherwoman. I'm 26 now, and I just found out last year that the friend was hooking the fish for me, and letting me believe I caught it. I was crushed!

Heth

My Mum told me that a boy I was friends with had his feet bound so that they would not grow too big, I beleived this till 2 years ago. I am now 21.

Anon

I used to eat alot, and my mom would never make enough for me and my brothers. So while they were young I would tell them that I put poison in their food and that only I have the antidote. Sure enough they would cry and stop eatting and I would take their food.

Hungry older brother

When I was in grade school, most of my enemies just happened to be kids who rode the bus to our school, so I developed this huge mistrust in them. One day I was playing out at recess with a friend of mine and pointed at something in the grass using my middle finger because my hands were full. Another kid (an older, BUS KID!) said she was going to tell on me for using the 'bad finger'. I remember being oblivous and asking what I did. She told me the middle finger was bad and I said I didn't believe her, to stop making stuff up. Haha, I was a dumb agressive kid.

Angry Sar

My big brother let me into a little secret when we were kids... My plastic red ankle length wellies were the same a the ones sported by Jesus Christ Our Lord in his famous water-walking stunt('just ask Father Callaghan' he says). Furthermore, they work even better on the bonfires. I'm 31 and still have 3rd degree burns up the inside of my shins, Father Callaghan is long gone and Big Brother is no much smaller and a lot less convincing.

Mr.Foo

When my cousin was young we told him that when he went into grade two he had to get a very large needle in the backside and only boys had to get it. We told him that if he didn't get it the police would take him to jail and he cried. Later that night we had his older sister call the house and pretend that she was a doctor making his appointment with his mom. He was soo upset that he slammed his door and cried. It wasn't until he went to grade two and never had to get the shot did he realize that we were just playing a prank.

Anon

there was this kid in school called wendy when we were 7 in the mid 70s, and the bands Abba and Brotherhood of Man who won the Eurovision were very popular, she told everyon her mother was the brown haired one out of abba, and when it was brotherhood of man thateveryone liked better she said her mum was in that too, and thats why she knew all the dances i beleived her too, and i was dead jealous, i went home and said to my mum, its not fair why isnt my mum a pop star who can show me how to do dancing and make up and have lots of money my mum laughed her head off when i told her but i still beleived wendy not my mum!

crissy

My poor dear friend "Al" had a belief until he was 31 that is just so sad. He came from a family of abusive alcoholics that were extremely dysfunctional. One day we were out at some event in a park - it might have been a 4th of July picnic - and it came out that he honestly believed that all the families and kids that appeared to be having fun and getting along nicely with each other were only playing their proper public roles. In his family that was how everyone was supposed to act in public so the "social workers wouldn't get them and take them away". But all the way til that conversation at the age of 31, he believed that all the happy families were just play acting. I think he may still, to this day, have a few doubts on it. Its so sad that anyone has to grow up in a way that could allow them to believe that and for so long.

A friend