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

I didn't like food when I was little - now realise it was sensory issues.
I had a life threatening illness when I was 6. I then decided that my food was poisoned and that was why they were always trying to make me eat it, but I had superpower immunity to the poison. My parents were kind and loving, this was very fuzzy logic.

I heard my mum talking on the way home from picking me up at school, to some of her mum friends. She said something like 'my heart missed a beat' and from that moment on for YEARS I was afraid that hearts could do this. I worried that my mum's heart would miss more beats and she would die, or that my heart might miss a beat and something bad would happen. I'd lie in bed listening to my heartbeat and wondering if I'd notice if it missed one...

Another one I just remembered.
Was walking my DC to school this morning, when my eldest announced that when she was younger she'd always thought there was lava under the pavements. "But that was when I was 5 mummy, I didn't realise you only get lava in volcanoes. I know now!"
She's 9, so I'm glad she didn't have to live in fear of walking down the street for long!

Both my grandads have the same name (which start with G) and I just assumed it was another name for grandad/grandpa. I also didnt realise that one of them was actually technically my step grandad until I was about 10, I made an assumption he was my blood granddad as he married my grandma before I was born and my dad never talked about his bio father who died young.

My parents never talked about my dad's father, and we were never that close to his side of the family (contact was Christmas / birthdays and an annual visit) so I might have twigged a lot sooner if circumstances were different.

I didn’t understand the concept of cashback when asked at the till until I was in my twenties 🙈

We were taught look right,then left,then right again. Or maybe you're not in the UK,and they drive on the right where you are?

I can feel the relief just reading your post!!

Depending on your age and the size of the shop that might have actually been quite a lot for a morning. Maybe why he mentioned it and it stuck in your mind?

I am !
Sorry got my left n right mixed up 🤣

Hopefully you're not in the UK? 😆

Thunder - don't worry its just the clouds banging together

My dad having road rage whenever another driver did wrong - he'd flash at them but I always thought he was trying to beep the horn but it wasn't working🤣

As a child I had a neighbour who lived across the road with her 4dcs, all in primary school with me. The neighbours husband was in prison and my mum was a single mum also so they helped eachother out. This neighbour was really eccentric and full of energy but had a nasty temper at times, a lot of school mums were scared of her as she would go off the rails if any child even looked at hers in the wrong way.
One morning I went round to her house and she had completely redocrated her living room and downstair bathroom over night, and even though she hadn't slept she was still wide awake and raring to go. I remember being in awe of this lady, her husband was in prision and she was alone with 4 DC but she smashing it.
It wasn't until I was an adult going clubbing, seeing the behavior of those on cocain did I realise this neighbour's secret.
I googled her ex husband and sure enough he was in prison for drug dealing after their house was raided and loads of coke was found.

I was visiting my mum's friend with her. The friend was very proud of her son who was a newly qualified teacher, still on probation.

By then i'd learned not to question other adults, so waited until we got home to ask why the friend was so proud of her son who'd been released from prison and how could someone who'd been in prison be a teacher.

We moved dozens of times when I was a dc... Realised it was either my dm was dodging debt or had worked her way through all the local men and it was time to move on...
Once got attacked my a relative of her latest bloke. His dw knew and it went on for decades.

One bloke got taken out by a hitman... She kept good company my dm....

I remember leaving primary school one day and I heard the teacher say to a friend's Mum, "It's the last day tomorrow." I must have been about five. I actually thought she meant that it was the last day of the world. I remember laying in bed that evening and worrying and worrying. I opened my curtains and looked out for signs that the end of the world was coming (I remember thinking that maybe the sky would be a funny colour).

In the end I went downstairs, crying to my Mum and asked her if it really was the last day of the world the next day. To my amazement, she looked at the calendar. I remember thinking, surely the people who make the calendars wouldn't know when the last day is?! In reality she was just checking that it definitely was the last day of term. 😂 She hugged me and explained that the next day was just the last day of term, not Armageddon!!! I can still feel the relief now all these years later!!!! 😂

I had a friend at school who had two brothers and a sister. Her older brother was named James, her younger brother was named Paul. But she told me that Paul's surname was James- I was so confused as to why anyone would name a child James James until I got older and realised that Paul was her half brother, and of course James had a different surname.

Sorry for asking - was your dad having an affair with the lady called Alice and didn't want you finding out?

In the shop when my mum and dad answered that they didn't want cashback I always wondered why they turned down free money

That misled is pronounced miss-led and not mizzled!

I remember as a child hearing someone saying that they'd been fired. I couldn't work out how they were still alive as I thought it must mean that they'd been shot by a firing squad. Whenever I heard anyone talk about an 'ex', I thought it was just the letter 'X'. I didn't know what it meant and I thought it must mean that that person must be pure evil.....some kind of scary monster. 😂

I was telling my granddaughter the other day that when we studied road safety in school, we were taught to look left, then right, then left again. I always wondered why left twice, and right only once ?
I didn't realise it was to check.

That I wasn't allowed to stay/visit one of my primary school friend’s house because I wasn't ‘allowed to cross the main road’ - yet went to school across the same main road every day.
My dad ‘knew’ my friend’s mum, nicknamed locally as ‘Slack Alice’.

Only as I grew up did I realise that it was my morals ( and his) he was protecting not my risk on the road!

@BlossomCat the origin of the phrase ' Given the sack,' did mean that though. You were given your tools back, in a sack and let go !
You were a very reflective child !