True things you told your folks as a kid that they *never* believed

Can you think of any examples? Fanciful sounding or mundane, it doesnt matter which!

(sorry if this has been done before - it isn't the easiest of searches to phrase constructively)

There used to be a kids' TV programme on the BBC in he 70s and 80s called Animal Magic.

One of the presenters was called Terry Nutkins. My mother point-blank refused to accept that Terry Nutkins was his real name, no matter how many times I assured her that it was.

"Oh yeah! Pull the other one! His name can't possibly be Nutkins. On an animal show no less. He's obviously called himself that after SQUIRREL NUTKIN, hasn't he?"

what do they call that phenomena of your surname directing your career path? Or apparently.

Nominative determinism. Like Cressida Dick

I misread this thread title as "Things you told your kids that they never believed"..

Like that time when I told Amber (three at the time) that hair pulled back off the head into one bunch, tied, was called a "Pony Tail"

"It Is Not!" she smiled.

I did convince her that it was.

Also, some time later, I told Amber and ALice that not only was wanting to sit in the front of the car next to the driver was called "Shotgun", but that there were all sorts of rules set down over years about how to call it (cannot call "Shotgun" before being in sight of the car, etc)...

Anyway, for a different thread, I guess.

I remember trying to explain to my parents that on Ordnance Survey maps there are paths shown that are not public footpaths (such paths are represented by a line of black dashes, as opposed to the green dashes of public footpaths), but they wouldn't have it and insisted that any path shown was a public right of way.

that the Black Sox scandal was in 1919. my dad didn't know or like sports, yet he insisted the scandal happened in 1929 and angrily fought me on it every time I tried to correct him.

also my dad still believes to this date that the car explosion in Bullitt was real, that the drivers made a mistake, and that they died in the accident (in reality it was just a traditional stunt, explosive charges timed and rigged, and the drivers were fine).

he insisted they really died and that they left the scene in as an homage to them (really? SNUFF would be left in a film as a tribute?)

i had a social studies teacher in 5th grade who in hindsight clearly had some sort of learning disability and literacy issues. classes would almost entirely consist of him reading to us from the textbook very slowly, sometimes monosyllabically: "THE. MIDDLE. EAST. IS. A. DESERT. REGION." etc, or sometimes he would go silent for minutes on end as he read it silently. (he was not elderly, looked to be in his 30s, so failing eyesight or something didnt seem to be an issue.) i would tell my parents i thought there was something really wrong with him and try to describe it but they always thought it was just general "my teacher is boring" complaining.

I remember trying to explain to my parents that on Ordnance Survey maps there are paths shown that are not public footpaths (such paths are represented by a line of black dashes, as opposed to the green dashes of public footpaths), but they wouldn't have it and insisted that any path shown was a public right of way.

I am now picturing dubmill's folks being confronted by an angry farmer with a shotgun shouting "Get off my land!" to finally disabuse themselves of that particular notion.

"But HE started it!" And it was true; he DID start it.