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

Ditto my husband

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast
@BellaCiaoBellaCiao

That reminds me of something a few years ago - the mother of one of DS's school friends telling me they were going to breed hamsters. I wondered if DS would like one as a pet. No, they were breeding them to feed to their pet snakes.

@Bodeganights
I knew lots of words because I read so much, but I didn't necessarily know how to pronounce them. So on here a few years ago I found out how to say hyperbole.

Even though I know how it's pronounced now I still see it as hyperbowl 😭🤣

Segue - Seegoo

Melancholy - I thought the ch was the same sound as church

I'm sure there are loads of others 🤣

I didn't discover this one until I was 19. I was at uni and had a blind friend I used to help by reading textbooks to him from a course we were both on, and that word cropped up in the text. He fell about laughing and I felt like an idiot.

I read lots of magazine articles and booklets about periods.
i genuinely believed that you could only get your period at the start of the month! This was because there would be a diagram showing the menstrual cycle set out over a month, and it would always start at the first of the month.
That being day 1, of course!

I remember a friend talking in hushed terms about a girl we knew who’d started her periods and I said that can’t be, it’s not the start of the month!
Duhhhhh!

I was 12 and intelligent, I just took what I’d read very literally 😂

That’s horrible

Indeed! I think I always have ha ha 😂

My DS's primary school organised a trip to a local synagogue and DS was very excited because he thought he was going to the cinema.

This reminds me of my very first curry. A friend of my mom made it, to an adults taste. It was inedible for me. I tried so hard but my eyes were watering and my mouth on fire. My mom was so upset with me, she kept saying just eat it, we dont waste food. But I really couldn't. It was so upsetting for 8 year old me.
Can confirm I like pretty hot curries now.

I too thought for a long time the to let signs were just badly spelled toilet signs, like the "i" kept falling off, I did wonder why it was just the "i" .

I couldn't say squirrel, apparently I would say skirrel, I once said to my parents (while I was in the back of the car with no seatbelts, what a time to be alive) what shall we do in autumn, but I said autu em en.

I knew lots of words because I read so much, but I didn't necessarily know how to pronounce them. So on here a few years ago I found out how to say hyperbole.

I think I was an adult when I first heard this song. If you're younger when you first hear it then you are going to think "Wtf?"

@neilyoungismyhero I am sorry you experienced that. It sounds to me like your mum was criticising your gran for not putting you in your usual pretty clothes. Your gran was probably just stressed and being pragmatic.

Yes, of course he was!

Wasn't he?

Expect so, it was common in the old days. When my brother's pet mouse had babies my dad flushed them all down the toilet 😭

Why on earth did he drown them! 😡

So did I 😂🤦‍♀️

That could have added yet another level of intrigue - especially if a gentleman wearing Lederhosen happened to go into the toilets at the same time as your Uncle

ME TOO on WH Smith!

"shake hands" obviously

We were out with an uncle & aunt one day. The uncle said he was "just going to shake hans with the bloke he enlisted with". I was so upset that I wasn't allowed to go to. And why did he meet his mate in the gent's toilet?

On my 3rd birthday I was given a soft toy dog that I called Lassie. I loved her to bits & when my mother took me out in the pushchair Lassie had to come too & sat on my lap.

On one such outing we encountered a group of men who were sporting full traditional Scottish outfits. I'd never seen anybody dressed like that before so was both amazed and a bit scared.

As they walked by one of the men smiled down at me and said “well there's a bonnie wee lassie.” This remark caused me to go from scared to full on bawling because I was so shocked and horrified that a total stranger could know my dog's name. It seemed very sinister and spooky to me at the time.

Cats aren't female dogs apparently

First day at primary school and first day of ever wearing any kind of uniform. I was so worried that my mum wouldn't be able to pick me out of all the identically dressed children. I spent the night before awake and scared that it would be my last night in my bedroom and that the next night I might get taken home by different family.

She still teases me for asking "Will you know which one's me?" on my first morning. Thankfully, she did.

to this day he sends me pictures of his dainty pasty bits with a picture of a monkey.

That could be easily misinterpreted as being rather less innocent than intended

I did this.
I wish I knew why