grown-ups: family

We used to get a call from our grandparents in Europe every year on our birthday. My mother explained it was the middle of the night where they were.

Because of the bad phones lines then the voice on the other end sounded very soft. I thought they were whispering because everyone else was asleep, so I whispered too. That's why my grandmother always yelled through the phone "Speak louder! I can't hear you!"

I used to believe that my Dad WAS the Incredible Hulk...
When a frisbee or ball was launched onto our roof I would put a foot in each of my Dad's hands and receive a "boost" up onto the roof.

when i was young before christmas my parents would phone my grand parents claiming they were santa so that we would tell them what we wanted. i had always wondered how grandma and grandpa knew what i wanted.

When i was little, my dad would tell me if i didnt behave, he was going to send me to the gypsies.. I would get so upset he then changed his mind and would say "dont worry, they will get sick of you too and send you back". i believed this untill i was 12.

Whenever my sisters and I were being bad my mom would threaten that "Helga" was going to come babysit us. This so called babysitter was described as a horrid woman and we were terrified of her. As soon as she was mentioned we'd turn into little angles. The story of Helga kept us behaved for years.

I thought that once the parents of an older teenager determined that their child had learned all of the skills required to be an adult, they would tell their son or daughter, "Now you are on your own." On that day, the child would become an adult and no longer had to live with their parents or obey them. I think this belief came from a commercial where a father and son were roping calves and the father sent the son out "on his own" to do the job by himself.

When I was 4 years old I used to believe that when you have a new sibling he/she comes with presents for his/her big sister. So when my littler sister was born she came with a Barbie.

my sister thought that when people came to stay with us - friends, family, etc - they actually slept in the same bed as our parents. She then drew pictures of this at school when asked to describe what had happened at home that week.

I truly believed that everyone's dad was called Dave.

My Dad died when I was 1, but his mum, my Nan, used to visit regularly. My mum called her "mum", and she also called my Granny "Mum". As I couldn't remember my Dad, for years I puzzled over how my Mum could have two mothers! It was finally explained to me when I was about 8 and asked if one had given birth to half of her, and the other to the other half. It was only then that I clicked as to why my Nan talked about my Dad a lot and had pictures of him up everywhere!

Until I was well along in years I always thought our family was Irish because my dads birthday was March 17th

When I was little, I thought that Grandfather's were all missing fingers. Both of my Grandfather's were missing fingers on the same hand, one was missing one and one was missing two. I thought that according to how many Grandchildren he had he had to cut more off because the one who was missing two had 5 and the other one only had 3. My sister thought the same thing!

When I was a child, my father had a decorative airplane propeller that was hung on the wall. When I was very small I asked him what it was. He told me that it was the propeller for an airplane that he was building (this was made more credible by the fact that he was in the military). He said that he was collecting parts for the airplane, and when he had all the parts he needed, he would build the airplane in our garage. I was very excited that we were going to have an airplane; periodically I would ask my dad whether he was closer to building it. He would always tell me that he was still collecting parts. I believed this story for years; I think I was about 11 or 12 before it dawned on me that he was pulling my leg.

I used to believe…

That all adults were aliens and when I was in bed they reverted to real form tall thin shrouded creatures and if you looked into their cowls all you see was darkness

I used to believe…

ive always wanted to be a twin, and i used to believe that if i was always good, i would somehow become a twin (i always thought that twins were good children who were so good, they got their wish!)

When I was in kindergarten some kids in our class didn't believe our teacher when she said she had a father. It wasn't until I was five that I knew adults had parents.