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?

[quote AuntyMabelandPippin]@MoonCatcher they do transport live people. I know someone who was taken from England to Scotland by private ambulance, paid for by the NHS.[/quote]
Aah. But was it black with blacked out or no windows and just saying Private Ambulance in white letters on the outside, or was it like a shiny regular NHS ambulance only privately owned?

Oh I've been trying to figure out what the Elgin's marbles thing is talking about from this post for ages because I'd never heard of it and didn't quite get it and with the pic the pp showed I was then googling it and reading about the British museum and seeing the photos of these murals and thinking that the Elgin's marbles were those round marbles but encrusted into the stone murals or something and the ones we all had in jars as kids with the pretty colours in them were copies of the original artifact our parents bought from the museum! I was thinking wow those beautiful marbles are that ancient! 😂

@OooPourUsACupLove

I’m from Newcastle and I was pretty old when I realised (1) that all my life I’d heard people call children “bens” but the word was actually “bairns”, and therefore (2) Benelyn wasn’t special kids’ medicine.

This is hilarious!

@ArmchairTraveller

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

What - seriously? Is this true? I thought they were - um - worms. Tiny ones. Off to Google them now.

@AdoraBell

Tampons shouldn’t be flushed because they don’t break down, so added to everything else that doesn’t break down they contribute to fatbergs blocking the sewer system.

I was also told to flush them when I was 14, mid fifties now.

Not to mention the ones who escape the sewage system and end up on beaches.

I took DD to see the Parthenon and it was sad to think that that was where the Elgin marbles should still be, by rights.

I love it when my class learn about flowers and some learn for the first time that the white dandelion clocks are the same flower as the yellow flowers (and that several mnetters also learnt the same when I posted this on a previous 'things you didn't realise...' thread). We're relatively rural with lots of gardens and grass verges and parks, so it's not like they don't see them everywhere.

@MoonCatcher it was a proper looking ambulance.

@MrsFin

I thought "the cloud" was a cloud of data floating around in the airwaves. Apparently it's just a load of servers.

So did I. Until just now.

I was 37 years old when i realised that the Christmas song by the Jackson 5 “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” wasn’t actually written about a naughty mummy sneaking a kiss with Santa but about a woman kissing her husband dressed up as Santa. 37. I of course knew that Santa wasn’t real but for some reason my brain never connected that fact with the lyrics of the Jackson 5 song. For about 27 years I thought that the woman in the song was very lucky it was her kids who caught her and not her husband otherwise it could have ruined that Christmas.

woodworm- having had treatment last year definitely not worms, and many species of beetle and weevils all lumped together hope they don't do a census
In The Night Garden, couldn't watch further after IgglePiggle and Upsy Daisy had the Ninky Nonk go round their feet and under their legs , then it stooped and they climbed in.

A friendly Aldi cashier told me the ring pull found on a tin of corned beef can release a supermarket shopping trolley, if you don't have a £1 coin. I have one on my car key now, circular end goes in to the slot, and hallelujah, it works

I didn't feel like an idiot mind, but useful

I appear to be today years old finding out that segue isn't pronounced "seeeg" then! How is it pronounced?

Tbh, OP Tampax used to say flush them. That was always the advantage over pads.....

*42Trinidading3

I recently only realized Humpty Dumpty was an Egg not a POTATO!!!!! Omg, my shock and horror when the realisation sank in!!!! Wtf......lol....wine*

It's actually about a cannon!

I only recently found out that the size of countries on a map bear little resemblance to their comparative size in real life. Like the USA and Russia are way smaller than they are represented

www.visualcapitalist.com/map-true-size-of-africa/

@FromDespairToHere

I appear to be today years old finding out that segue isn't pronounced "seeeg" then! How is it pronounced?

Segway

I found out recently that fitted sheets have a tag in one corner so that you put them on the right way every time. OH the shame 😂

@12FreeRangeEggs I am crying with laughter!!

@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?

I only found this out recently too. I'm 47 ffs

Jeez, do people never question things? Or read? Or watch documentaries? Or informative clips on YouTube? So many of these misconceptions don't make any sense!

Elgin Marbles - first time I heard of them I though well done for Elgin, wee town in Scotland where my granny came from.
I also thought that Andrew and Freddy Flintoff were brothers, the look on DH face when I said I’d never seen brothers who looked so alike.

@LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour

I had no idea. I guess that makes me today years old.

Eh? Everyone is "today years old"...^

Can I pretend that I was drunk when I wrote that? 😜

@mamaduckbone

I was a proper grown-up before I realised that Russia and the USA are actually really close together - obviously when you look on a world map they are on opposite sides...

My mind is blown.

@12FreeRangeEggs

I was 37 years old when i realised that the Christmas song by the Jackson 5 “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus” wasn’t actually written about a naughty mummy sneaking a kiss with Santa but about a woman kissing her husband dressed up as Santa. 37. I of course knew that Santa wasn’t real but for some reason my brain never connected that fact with the lyrics of the Jackson 5 song. For about 27 years I thought that the woman in the song was very lucky it was her kids who caught her and not her husband otherwise it could have ruined that Christmas.

OMG I didn't ever get that. I thought mum was up to no good too.