when i was little my sister told me that whenever i lied my tounge would turn white. so everytime i thought people were lying to me i would ask them to stick out and show me their tounge. i believed this up until my mum told me that it wasnt true.

liiiiiiiiiiiiz

When I was about 7 (in the '70's), one of our neighboprs had one of those metallic gazing balls on a pedastal in their yard. My brother told me if i touched it, it would explode. I spent many days waiting for the neighbors to leave and then creeping up to the ball in order to test the theory. I never did get up enough nerve to find out if it were true. In fact, to this day, I've never touched one.

Ann Y.

When I was little, my grandpa and uncle Mike scared the shit out of me saying that if I was a bad girl, they were going to take me to the baby market and sell me for another baby. My grandpa would show me this big building and say, "See sissy, there's the baby market, you'd better be good today!!" He'd even go out of the way to scare me by saying they only fed you corn cobs, beans, and brocolli (I hated all three of them) I learned that it was made up when I was about 11.

Stephanie

When my sister and I were around 6 or 7 , I told my sister that the sun bleached dog crap on the front lawn were fossils from dinosaurs and very rare, so she would always go fossil hunting loading up her pockets with dog crap. She did that for a couple years until our mom told her that she was tired of emptying her pockets prior to doing the wash. Fifty years have passed and she still doesn't trust me very much.

Garry

i was told when i was young that the cold spots on the ocean floor were the devil trying to suck you down needless to say i haven't been to or in the ocean since i was 7

jessica

We were told that if you lied, your tongue would turn black. My parents would make us stick out our tongues when they thought we were lying and say, "Yes, your tongue is black." We'd run for the mirror...but they told us that only grown ups were able to see the black.

Paula

My horrible cousin once told me that when girls turned 8 they changed into boys, and vice versa boys into girls. I totally believed him, and although I was a bit of a tomboy the thought of actually BEING a stupid mean boy with a stupid floppy willy horrified me so much I was in floods of tears for the rest of the day, it took my parents ages to convince me it wouldn't happen. It seemed so unfair, you know?

Charlytune

when i was a little girl, i noticed that my mother had a tattoo. when i asked her how she got it, she told me that it appeared on her ankle (thats where the tattoo is) after she had eaten several breath mints. (you know the ones with the little red and white swirls) so obviously, i thought that this was true so i persuaded her to buy me an entire bag of them. i finished that bag 45 minutes later. imagine my disappointment when my tattoo didn't appear! i cried for about 3 days. ;) but lucky me, i got the press on tattoos. (the ones that rub off with soap and water) hehehehehe ^_^

*pop*

When I was 5, my 10 year old sister told me that our family was once so poor, we had to live in a matchbox. I believed her!

Kate

I used to believe that if I told a lie my tongue would turn purple and so that way if my Mum thought I was lying she'd tell me to stick out my tongue and could always tell if I was lying or not by how quickly I stuck it out. God I was stupid...

Anon

I used to believe everything that my older sister told me. One day she told me that if i beat the commputer game money would come out of the slot of the printer and you would be rich. Imagine my state after my file was deleted and i had nearly won the game.

rich girl

my little sister used to chatter non-stop at night when we went to bed. To get her to be quiet, i would tell her every night "be quiet, or else the (random name of animal or made up creature) will come to get you!"

so one night, she is starting to chatter before the lights are even out, so i tell her "be quiet! or the wild wild wombats will come to eat you up!"

by now she had been catching on to my plot, so when my mom came in to tuck us in, she asked "mom, is there such a thing as a wild wild wombat?" to which my mother replied "yes, of course."

my sister broke out into hysterical tears, and i broke into hysterical laughter. it took my mom a good twenty minutes to calm either of us down enough to tell her what had happened.

mean big sister

When I was little my mum used to tell me that my eyes would turn green when I lied so I would stand in front of the mirror and say things like, "I am 100 years old" or "I am a boy".

My mum said it only worked for proper lies like, "It wasn't me" and "I didn't do it" and only mothers had the power to see this transformation

Rose

My brother once convinced me to drink a puddle of mud by putting a straw in it and saying it was a chocolate milkshake.

...He also filled a bottle with warm soapy water and threw it all over me and told me it was acid. I cried.

Anon

When I was very young my parents used to tell me I was found under a rock. Naturally, after being told this for years I believed it.
All was fun and games till we were at a grocery store when I was eight and an old friend of my mom's asked where I came from.

anon

My brother actually believed this. One day, we watched Pinochio, and my mom told him that when he lied, his nose would grow, just like Pinochio's... well, whenever he would say something, like "I'm hungry", or, "Lisa called me a name and hit me", he would touch his nose to make sure it wasn't growning... and still to this day, every once in a while, he taps his nose when he is talking...haha. He is almost 13 now...

Lisa

I have known my best friend for about 20 years but when we first met I couldn't stand her. I thought I was quite a clever child and I knew that 'twins' meant 'identical' so I was always angry with my friend because she used to say she and he brother were twins and I knew that was a lie because she was a girl and he was a boy. I couldn't understand why she lied so much or how she thought anyone would believe her!

Anon

When I was younger my Mom told me and my older sister that if we lied she could see the devil in our eyes. Whenever we'd lie we would check each others eyes to make sure he wasn't in there.

Stephanie

when my cousin was little we used to tell her she had a blue dot on her forhead when she lied so when she wanted to lie about something she would actually cover up her forehead with her hands!

um

My dad was in the Navy when I was small so I grew to love all things naval. We would watch all of the war films, especially the naval ones. There was one film which showed the men in the torpedo room wearing white masks on their faces whilst loading the torpedoes. "Why do they wear those masks, dad?" I asked. He replied, "That's only the men with false teeth - it's so they don't fall into the tube and jam the torpedoes." This is another one I truly believed and even relayed this knowledge to others!

Norma Rimington