getting older

My daughter believed that the older you got the darker you got and that is how black people came into being. Her dad's family is Native American, he was dark, his mother darker and his grandmother even darker. When we moved into a new neighborhood with a black nex door neighbor, she kept referring to him as that really old black man. He was probably 40 at the time.

C Brown

When i was younger i thougth that when you grew up you could decide whether you wanted to be a girl or a boy.

Anon

When my brother had his sex ed at school (aged 10 I think, so I was 7) he came home and decided to share some of his newfound knowledge with me. Looking back now, I can see that he'd been told about puberty, and when it starts and what happens, but he'd either got a bit confused on one point or he had decided to wind me up.

Either way, he told me that nobody knew if they were a boy or a girl until they were 12 because that's when they start changing into a man or a woman. I was absolutely terrified for weeks that when I was 12 I would suddenly find out I was a boy and not a girl after all. In the end I decided to tell my mum and she sat us both down and put us straight!

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

When I was a fairly little kid, I thought that people grew up and then they grew down again. My very old great-grandmother was quite short, because she had a bent back, and she was never super-tall to begin with, so my parents and even my grandma towered over her. I assumed you started out small, and ended up small again.

Karen H

When me and my friend were about 16 her little sister ( about 10) asked her how old she was. My friend told her she was 21. Her little sister told her she was lying because ' that's daddies age' Not sure how long her little sister through her father was still only 21

Anon

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

I used to believe that children stayed little.

Mel91

i used to believe that kids were born kids and adults were born adults, there was no convincing me otherwise until i was about 13

frank

I noticed that there were lots of short old people so i used to believe that when you became an old person, you would start shrinking again.

Anon

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 used to believe that grown-ups, especially my parents, never cried. Really messed me up when it happened for the first time.

Lindsay

its not mine but an old frends- this is for you sarah.

she asked her dad if she could become a giraffe and he said yes when she was older. she belived she would be a giraffe till she was five.

Anon

I thought for about 10 years that my mom was only 33 yrs old, now past that age myself I tell my son the same !

Jo Mitchell

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 used to believe that if you were a boy when you were born then you grew up to be a girl & vice versa. Thanks Grandpa.... then my Dad tried to convince my kids of the same thing - luckily they were smnarter than me - imagine my embarassment when i went to school & told people that my Grandpa used to be a little girl!

HLS

I used to believe that if your parents kiss you on the forehead and say "You won't get older" Well, you know. You wont get older!

Anon

I know this one is very common, but I'm gonna submit it anyway. I, like many of us, used to believe that stupid little kids were the only kind of little kids that existed. We all used to believe that at some point. I mean when you see an anonymous 5-year-old throwing a tantrum, or an anonymous 5-year-old doing bawling, or an anonymous 5-year-old whining, of course you're gonna believe that stupid little kids are the only kind that exist.

Trisha Gaurav

I generally believed in happy endings!

Claire

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