Sometimes teachers do at least pretend to take these apparent "tall stories" seriously. When my daughter was about 6, a girl in her class used to say things like "My dad is Barney the dinosaur" and "My uncle is a robot". The class didn't believe her about the robot (they apparently accepted the Barney one), so the girl brought a postcard of a robot into school to show, and the teacher said (with a little wink) "Let's thank X for bringing in this interesting photo of her uncle."

Last year, my daughter was checking out old schoolmates on Facebook and saw photos of this girl's 18th birthday party....with entertainment by two mime artists in robot masks. So maybe it was true after all. No sign of Barney, though.

- jeanie