When I was five or six my dad told me that if I ate the hole in the donut I would get a hole in my belly and the donut would come out. I loved donuts and would eat as close to the hole as I could with out breaking it. I did this for about five years even after many people including my dad told me it was not true. I remember being very scared the first I ate the entire donut.

G. L. (from food : general)

My mom used to wrap our presents and put them under the tree as she bought them. This, of course, made my brother, my sister, and myself question the existence of Santa. When asked about it, my mom said that there were just rocks in the boxes and that Santa came around to put the real presents in on Christmas Eve. This was, apparently, a completely reasonable explanation for us that we accepted for years to come.

Jess (from make-believe : father christmas)

When I was a kid I always believed if you put nail varnish on you would become a women, I am 23 and i still fear nail varnish.

Anon (from grown-ups : getting older)

When I was little I must have asked my dad why birds don't get electrocuted when they sit on the wires. His answer was "because the electricty only runs on the bottom of the wires". I believed that well into my 20's until I learned differently!

Stevie (from animals : birds)

When I was a child I assumed that firemen started fires. I was extremely frightened when a fireman came to my kindergarten class.

Derek (from grown-ups : work)

I never knew why my grandma would stir her tea, so I came to believe that stirring a drink in a circular motion would cool it down, while stirring it in a side-to-side motion would heat it up.

Anon (from food : drinks)

When I was around 7, my stepdad told me that the sausage used on pizza was really rabbit droppings. I only believed it for a couple more years, but I think it affected me subconsciously because sausage is still the only pizza topping I don't like.

Adam (from food : general)

When I was about 5 (in the mid 70s) there was a Juicyfruit gum commercial in which people danced around and picked packs of gum off of a giant Juicyfruit tree. I dug a hole in our backyard, buried a pack of Juicyfruit in it, and faithfully watered it for weeks before my mom finally set me straight.

Lisa (from food : chewing gum)

When I was young, I squeezed my own orange juice sometimes and my parents informed me that orange pulp was good for you. I confused this with orange seeds and one day put an orange seed in my dad's coffee when he wasn't looking saying "it's good for you!" He subsequently almost choked.

Seeds (from body functions : eating)

After watching "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" I thought that cartoon characters were just people in cartoon costumes.

Ryan (from media : cartoons)

When I was little an aunt told me I was so cute I should do tv commecials but I said no because I didn't want to be forced to go to the tv station to do the same 30 seconds of acting over and over and over again... (I thought tv commercials were live)

Jhex (from media : tv)

I used to beleive that if you farted while running
you would run faster, So when i raced my friends
i always tried to fart.

Yvona balsacke (from body functions : farting)

When I was about 10 or 11, I had a HUGE crush on Jon Bon Jovi. A girl in my 5th grade class had told me that he lived in the next town over. I wanted to believe her but wasn't quite sure so I sent an extremely mushy fan letter proclaiming my love to him to the address she provided me. when it got sent back to me marked "no such address" I was mad... I actually paid the girl for that address

Jasonchic (from music : pop stars)

I used to believe that the lobsters inside of Aquariums in supermarkets were bought by people and kept as pets.

Josh (from animals : general)

When I was about 7 or so, my aunt had passed away. So for about the next 2 years, on her birthday I'd have my mom buy a balloon filled with helium, I'd write Happy Birthday on it, and let it go, thinking she'd eventually get it.

Genny (from death : people)

When I was little, I thought some people (I didn't notice it was always women) had naturally bright red fingernails. I felt sorry for them, and was grateful that mine were clear.

Kaye (from body parts : general)

I used to believe that if I got a pet penguin it could live in the freezer.

Dippingmytoes (from animals : general)

When I was little my parents told me that the holes in Swiss cheese came from mice. After the mice were done eating their share of the cheese, it was our turn to eat it. I didn't eat Swiss cheese for years.

Anon (from food : nasty food)

When I was about 7 and had just lost a tooth, a friend broke the news to me that my mother was the tooth fairy. I thought she meant my mother was the tooth fairy for everybody! I was in complete awe and asked her where she kept all the teeth.

Anon (from make-believe : fairies)

For whatever reason, when I was young, it was usual for us at my house to get a Christmas tree a little too tall to fit in the living room. So my father would cut off a bit of the top to make it fit. For years, I thought that was what was meant by "trimming" the Christmas tree.

Sophie (from at home : around the house)