What do you remember from your childhood that you now realise you really misunderstood?

When I was very young, I overheard an adult conversation about marriages being annulled. I thought that this meant that the government could just randomly send people to a couple's house and tell them 'Your marriage is null; one of you must get out!' I was scared that they might do this to my parents.

I'm told that when I was about 4 or 5, my Mum once said, ' I wonder where your Daddy is' and I suggested, 'Maybe a fox or a wolf ate him'.

I went to a group like that too. I thought it was brilliant as I was no longer the worst. It didn't matter that I couldn't tell left from right because some of the other children couldn't tell backwards from forwards either. I remember the teacher telling us all to "jump left" and all of us jumping in different directions and crashing into each other. My dc do sensory circuits which I think is similar.

Gosh yes, seems absurd expecting a small child to process that. Thankfully our teacher refrained from going into the symbolism at all, or I think my eight-year-old brain would have combusted!

At primary school, I attended a lunchtime group once a week where we did things like skipping, forward rolls, hopping, balancing, and so on, which I thought was rather fun. I learned years later that this was a remedial group for gross control! 😳

@JudgeJ that's cute. I bet that tickled your teacher.

In Primary school in the '50s we knew that our teacher was Welsh, from Swansea and one day I asked her how long it took her to drive from Swansea to Bolton every day!

I thought that foxes were big, fierce creatures that would eat me up, like the gingerbread man. I was actually quite disappointed when I saw a real fox for the first time, at the age of eight, and saw how small they are!

I think of Triffids.

I still have an image in my head of a giant piece of broccoli striding across when I see 'Heavy Plant ,Crossing's!

on The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe I remember being told by an adult when I was reading the book as a very young child, that Aslan was Jesus Christ.

I was inordinately confused by this as Aslan was a lion and he dies on a stone slab and was not crucified. It bothered me for a long time because it really lodged in my brain.

It took a few years before I understood that CS Lewis wrote heavily relying on Christian parallels and that Aslan was Christ in an allegorical or suppositional sense.

No, that's a joke.

It should be a big glass tunnel

I still believe he went shopping!!

My mums friend, Judith must have had pregnancy cravings for boiled eggs as she constantly ate them and then she had a baby. I put 2 and 2 together and did not eat boiled eggs for years 😂 Even after I knew how babies were made I still didn’t chance it!

Thank you susie, for your origins of words.
🕑

Exactly! @Pemba At least he was trying to listen!

A friends kid thought they were giving out orange cordial to drink 'This is Miwadi' (this is my body). Catholic mass, not sure if it's the same phrasing in other churches.

Ohh! Of course. Thanks.

Leper/leopard. 'That guy' presumably being Jesus.

@Dontlletmedownbruce can you explain?

A few years ago DS said on the way out of mass 'I can't believe that guy got to touch a leopard!!'

I always was afraid of spiders, still am. When I was little someone told me there are giant spiders in Africa. Of course I didn't think that the larger spiders are giant relative to regular sized spiders, I thought the spiders were as big as the giant in my giant and the beanstalk book or other fictional giants. I am ashamed to say my knowledge of Africa was very limited by charity ads and Band Aid, so I imagined Africa as this place with nothing but deserts and huts where emaciated half dressed people lived in terror of giant spiders who could come crashing through their homes at any minute.

I got very confused about Bergerac working for the Bureau des Etrange. Couldn't understand what exchanging currency had to do with anything.

On a similar note, as a young child I didn't understand why they kept on about hiding the fallen Madonna with the big boobies. It wasn't until I learned about the Nazi looting in the war that that made any sense.

Kind of reminds me of the story my uncle told about learning about Judaism in school. He couldn't quite understand the frequent reference to rabbits, and the amazing things Jewish rabbits did. Of course, it was the Rabbi, but he always read it as 'rabbit'.