I was today years old when I realised.......

[cwtchesandprosecco]

What have you recently realised that’s made you feel like a bit of an idiot?

Mine is that I didn’t know you shouldn’t flush tampons down the toilet...... I swear I remember my mother telling me I could when I first started using them, and that’s what I’ve done for 14 years! It was only through a conversation with a friend (about whether you empty your bathroom bin before the cleaner comes.....) and subsequent google that I’ve found out you shouldn’t.....

So, what have you have you learnt recently that you definitely should have known before?

Re tampons I was definitely told to flush tampons in my teens - it was “sold” as one of the advantages of them! It was only a few years ago I read on MN not to.

That Lancelot was a man who used a lance a lot...

I was mid 30s when I realised sex dolls are used for an actual purpose rather than just a novelty hen/stag party accompaniment

I only found out recently that you are not supposed to rinse after cleaning your teeth. And I only found out be accident as I happened to be in the room with my DD when the dentist mentioned it.
Blew my mind I am sure they must have changed the rules on this as I was definitely taught to rinse.
I also thought you could flush tampons and only found out through Mumsnet you couldn’t (and after menopause!)

I've learned that you must be a MN newbie, it's a law on here that this fact must be posted within the first 10 posts of every thread about stuff that people don't know

I have been on here forever and seen loads of these threads and have never seen the Elgin Marbles thing either?!

However, am waiting for someone to come on and say

a) they thought the channel tunnel was just a tunnel on the sea bed, not under it

b) they thought Center Parcs was all under the dome (to be fair, I did used to think that too, but it always comes up!)

@VerityWibbleWobble

I was today years old last week when I found out that king/super king size duvets aren't square and that's why it doesn't always fit properly in the cover. And yes I actually went and measured

The wider the bed, the more square they become - if thats even a thing 🤣

Ha, I have always thought it was Knights in White Satin too!

Also, didn't know that The Netherlands and Holland aren't the same?!

My daughter was today years old when she realised that woodworm are also beetles and can fly.
She’s 30.

We used to flush the tube of a tampax too. They used to be cardboard.

Holland is one of the provinces of the Netherlands but it has the biggest cities so it became a byword for the whole country.

What I find weirder is that the adjective for either Holland or the Netherlands is the completely unrelated word "Dutch"!

I only realised that the expression 'butter fingers' literally comes from the fact if you had butter on your fingers they'd be slippy. Due to that actually happening to me and dropping something.

@VerityWibbleWobble

I was today years old last week when I found out that king/super king size duvets aren't square and that's why it doesn't always fit properly in the cover. And yes I actually went and measured

Oh God, I used to own a B&B - that makes so much sense...

I actually bought new bedding once because I thought I must have shrunk it

Didn’t tampons used to say flushable on the box? And the applicator ones you could flush the applicator as well?

Bison grass vodka actually has something called bison grass in it. It's not just a brand name, like Grey Goose, which does not have goose of any colour in it.

A reverse; I asked for Bombay Duck in a curry house, & the waiter said they didn't have duck.
I had to explain to him that it was fish.

I was in my thirties when I discovered that woolly mammoths were not still around in the Victorian era, and made extinct by big game hunting. (I think there might be an etching showing a stuffed mammoth with a Victorian man in a top hat standing next to it, at the Great Exhibition - hence my confusion. That's my story anyway, and I'm sticking to it.)

I had no idea about the tombliboo names above until just now. I watched for years with the kids.
And also hadn't realised that Ps and Qs referred to Please and Thank yous but it makes so much sense

if it helps the duvet situation the lines should always go across the way, in the olden days of only only duck down duvets the stitching across them stopped all the feathers falling to the bottom. I learnt that fairly recently.

I've never heard of "I was today years old". It makes no sense to me!

@haggistramp All my duvets are stitched in squares so have lines in both directions. (M&S king size feather and down).
One side has 6 squares and the other side 7. I only realised this last time I changed our bed. I've been trying to find out if the long side goes top to bottom or side to side but can't find a definitive answer.
Doesn't seem to make any difference to the fit of the cover!

@FunTimes2020 Me neither 🤷🏼‍♀️

That when you apply mascara to one set of eyelashes you are supposed to turn your wrist around to do the other set.

@BluTangClan

@ Andylion Mind your P's & Q's = Pleases and Than-Q's.

Sorry, not true. Mind your Ps and Qs come from the days of the printing press. The printing trays had p and q next to each other, but as they are in reverse you could easily pick up the wrong one. There are a lot of saying s that come from the days of typesetting.

@BluTangClan, thanks I never realised that.
I only recently found out that the up and down arrows on the outside of a lift (elevator) are for which direction you wish to travel when it arrives. I always thought they were for summoning the lift to tell it if you wanted it to come down to your floor, or up to it.

I was at least 12 when I realised bbc has no adverts
I was at least 48 when I realised I actually hate the people i work with . That was today