Things you used to think and now can't quite believe you did

Honsandrevels- 'I thought the penis made it's own way in during kissing'

This made me me laugh. I always remember during sex education in about year 8 one of the girls in my class asking how the man's penis got in there. The teacher's response was amazing and I still remember it to this day 15 years later.

'You may have to use your hand to get it in the right position, it's not a guiding missile'

Flip me I thought arctic (sic) trucks were freezer ones too.
You learn something new eveyday.
I remember always getting annoyed at a young age up til I was 12 that I was always left on my own in photos . I honestly though my mum had left me on a swing and wandered off. I mentioned it and she said "who did you think was taking the photos? "

I thought dumplings (as in soft doughy balls you get in stews) were baby ducks for a really long time I could never bring myself to eat one

I thought the day after Christmas was called Boxing Day because there were loads of boxing matches on, I'm 30 and only twigged a couple of years ago!

Women and babies....

Used to wonder about this as a child. How come some women are mothers and some are not. I came to the conclusion that God must decide that a female got to some level of maturity where they could be a Mum, and that was the reason why some were 20 and some were 30 etc. Men didnt seem to come into the equation for some strange reason. And babies were born through belly buttons because that was the only place for them to come out, I suppose.

In my defence I think I was about 6

I thought elbow grease was an actual thing you could buy.

I thought football teams' sponsors were somehow permanently linked to the club. when Liverpool stopped having 'crown paints' on their tops I thought something had gone wrong!

I thought an "air guitar" was an actual type of guitar. Rather like an air rifle is a type of gun.

I believed until fairly recently that if you went cross eyed there was a risk you would stay like it - I thought it was a muscular thing.

I thought Timbuktu was a fictional place until it was in the news a few years back.

I recently unthinkingly referred to the early 20th century as "black and white times".

I'm 32.

Until I was about 11 or 12 I thought there were no particular rules for which side of the road you drive. Cars would just pick a side and somehow change lane if there was someone coming in the opposite direction.

I was in my 20s before I worked out that Eeyore was called Eeyore because of the noise a donkey makes.

I am in my 30s. This is brand-new information for me!

Grew up in the 1970s, where every night the news described the terrible things that were happening in a place called Northinaaland. I resolved that never in my life was I going anywhere near it. Until I found out it was the English newsreaders' pronunciation of the place where I actually lived .

Similarly, but on a lighter note, I was in my 20s before I worked out that Eeyore was called Eeyore because of the noise a donkey makes. Before that I'd always pronounced the "r", so it didn't work in my accent.

After reading this thread at the age of 41 I have discovered how to pronounce Arkansas. I thought Arkansaw was another place.

I thought I was quite intelligent too

I believed the Center Parcs thing until a recent thread on MN.

And yy to common wombles (I didn't think they were common in the not-posh sense, I just thought there were lots of them) and the special swimming pool dye which I really did think existed until I read this thread.

As a kid I thought the DLR was the Ducklands Light Railway and the trains were driven by ducks. I also thought Lord of the Dance was Lord of the Ducks (in year one when they assumed we couldn't read so didn't bother giving us hymn books ). ^Ducks then, wherever you may be... and I'll lead you all and the ducks said he.^

I also believed my parents when they claimed to have helped a lost duck and her ducklings find their way from the middle of a road back to the river by leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.

I was about, um, 30 when I recounted this story to DH and realised it couldn't be true having never questioned it before.

I don't know what's with all the ducks.

Oh hurrah, Olive, glad I'm not alone!!

definitely the guerrillas confused me too in the 70s

David Bowie and his eagle - yes

learning to drive - mention by driving instructor that car without/ with clutch engaged was 3 wheeling? in my head the car is like a Robin reliant with 1 wheel off the ground itms or like the car in a stunt film with 1 side raised up, don't ask me how

dh said a while later the term was free wheeling

I used to think that cats' eyes in the road were actual real cats' eyes and I was very upset about it.

Daisy, snap, I thought the same too

I thought that my wee came out of a tiny hole in the end of my clitoris for a long time....I had one older brother so I think I just assumed it was my version of a willy, just incredibly small....made sense....!

I realised only a couple years ago that Alan Partridge is not a real person :S

Same for Guerilla/Gorilla, Center Parcs dome, and Arkansas

Also, until I was about 10 7, I used to think the people I watched on TV could actually see me too...

In the 80s watching Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles cartoon, wondered why you never see them go to the toilet

Pronoucing Epitome as eppy-tome for years. I thought there were two different words for the same thing

And when I first heard about Periods, aged about 9, I found a leaflet in my Mum's bathroom cabinet. From the diagrams, i was convinced you put a tampon up your bum

When I was about 6, in the 70s, a teenage neighbour of ours got pregnant. I remember having a hushed conversation with my friend about how she would go to prison now.

I used to think my parents could read my mind.

I also had the guerrilla and CentreParcs confusions.

I thought that the dips in pavements outside people's driveways was caused by the cars driving over the curbs and changing their shape over time.

It wasn't until I was about 18 I realised they are laid like that!

So relieved I wasn't the only one confused about gorillas with machine guns attacking people in the jungle.

Thanks to primary school sex ed I thought people only had sex to make babies, you made a baby every time (so I came home and told my mum she'd done it 4 times), and I was also very worried about the man accidentally doing a wee inside you as I thought it would be easy to get confused. Like he would consciously have to decide - wee or semen this time?

I also used to think there was a giant brick wall sphere all around the Earth higher than you could see, that sort of kept everything in and not floating off into space.

Embarrassed, just remembered long convo with friend about the astronomic prices at Centre Parcs and how I would never pay that for the privilege of breathing in other peoples air all the time and not getting any real vitamin D. She must think I'm a right numpty....