To ask what you thought was weird as a child (lighthearted)

I remember when I found out that it rains because of clouds and weather systems. I was flabbergasted as I'd assumed that rain was completely random and no one knew why/how it happened. I'd thought that all of the world was completely random and inexplicable, so I guess I discovered science on that day. It's strange to me now that some things are seemingly very knowable and other things aren't (or aren't yet).

I always wondered how people coped with generally being an adult, such as how are bills paid, how do they remember to do everything, how does food get on the table etc. I moved out at 18 and quickly realised how stressful adult life can be!

As a kid of the 80s, living in a house on a main road, I remember hearing musical car horns all the time going past the house. It was always the same tune

I thought that the teachers lived in the school, literally never went home. Maybe some will declare they actually don't!

I spent up to age 12 thinking that “primary colours” were grey, navy and white. Because those were the colours of the school uniform at my primary school. I think my brain also knew about “the primary colours” but I hadn’t quite connected them yet.

I nearly put my hand up to answer the teacher in year 7 art class, who asked who knew the primary colours in a lesson intro. But thank god my brain started thinking “hang on, we all went to different primary schools, their school colours were green, grey and white - how would that work? …..? Ooohhhhhh!!!”

oh yes, these! I knew they were supposed to say To Let, but i couldn’t understood how anyone took them seriously as they so obviously looked like the comically rude word “toilet”.

I remember hiding behind a sofa watching a 12 rated film (before the 12A was introduced) when I was young because I thought I was going to get arrested for breaking the law.

I used to think that the TV or radio stopped when you switched if off, and the program would still be there when you switched back on. and would get annoyed at my mum for finishing listening to a song or watching sonething while i was at school.

Just remembered- when we moved into a new house the man who lived across from us was a famous-ish footballer. His son asked me if I wanted his dad’s autograph. I didn’t want to admit:

1. I didn’t know what an autograph was.
2. We didn’t have whatever it was.

So I said, ‘No thanks, my dad has his own’.

I thought that women were only legally allowed to marry men that were both taller and older than them.

@MakeOrBake I was wondering about rhotic and non rhotic accents I think.

In some accents, people add an "r" where there isn't an "r" in my accent. And miss out an "r" where there would be one in mine. So "awe" and "ore" don't rhyme in my accent but do in others

But yes I can see what you are saying about dialect rather than accent. We do have the ability to say"mn" in Scottish English.

In my house radiators ARE for drying clothes. In the winter anyway

I guess more of a dialect thing than accent.

Hiberno English has its own sounds and sentence structures due to the influences of the Irish language... phrases directly translated from Irish to English, pronunciation, grammar and the lack of directness (because there is no word for yes or no).

The Scottish English dialect probably has similar (but different!) characteristics.

When my grandad used to give me and my 3 siblings a £20 note and tell us we have £5 pocket money each. I couldn’t for the life of me work out how we all got £5 when it was a £20 note. I was around 5, it used to frazzle my little brain!

@MakeOrBake oh that makes sense! I am Scottish so also say "amn't" rather than "aren't".

So it's an accent thing?

So did I!
I later realised that it was because whenever I read anything about periods, it always showed a diagram of the cycle starting from the first of the month.
For a convenient illustration, I suppose.

Mindblowing when I discovered that a period could start on any day of the month 🤣
And I was an extremely intelligent child! 🤦‍♀️

In Ireland, some people do say amn't. Here's a good video explainer https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AE3yG7uLs/

For those who dont click the video, it's due to English language not using the mn consonant pair so that contraction is difficult to pronounce.
In the Irish language the mn pairing is relatively common, but we insert a short 'ih' vowel sound (same reason we say fil-um for firm).

Being able to see the moon in daylight hours occasionally used to blow my little mind....I was like how it's daytime!

To Let signs. Up until the age of 6 or 7 I remember thinking they were just showing where the toilet was but missing an i.

Being on holiday with family in the carribean when I was about 5 on a beach. Someone offered my Aunt a drink and she said "no thanks i'm not drinking" I remember thinking why would someone just decide not to drink anything?! How would she actually survive?? It completely passed me by it was only alcohol she wasn't drinking not all liquids 🤦
Also paying for shopping with my mum at the supermarket and the cashier offering her cashback. Not understanding the concept i thought she was literally offering money back for free- like a loyalty scheme or something. Could never understand why my mum only ever chose a tenner 😂

I couldn't understand when my parents said they had no money for something or other. I thought you could just go to a bank and withdraw more, or write a cheque. I didn't understand the concept of having to earn the money to put in there first.

I wondered why the same people used to go into the Turf Accountant shop so regularly. I thought they sold grass and surely they didn't need to keep buying grass?

There were lots of things I couldn't wrap my brain around, such as putting a needle on a revolving plastic disc and music coming out; how you could take a small roll of film into a shop they could magically make them into photographs; how a very heavy thing like an aeroplane could raise off the ground and fly (that one still gets me slightly if I'm honest and I know it has engines and stuff but it just seems crazy, even at 62!)

Oh and I thought the broadcasters and studio for MTv was in a space ship, because it was Sky Tv and needed satellite dishes. So was sure it was beamed from space.

I thought everyone in centre parcs was in a giant dome (the whole forest) and was confused how they breathed and how the trees got watered as the rain wouldn’t reach them. My parents obviously never took me and I’d only seen adverts on the tv.

i was also confused by the information that “women live longer than men”. I thought it meant if a ship sank and people were drowning that the men would drown first and women were better swimmers.

Also I thought that when I heard music on the radio it was the actual band playing in the studio. A bit like Top of the Pops all the time!

Being scandalised because Superdrug was opening on the high street. Why was nobody else upset that drugs were being openly sold in a shop?! Boots was next door, but they sold medicines 🤷‍♀️