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?

I thought that was a different word. I actually feel quite thick!

@Tempusfudgeit

That the Tombliboos' names Un, Ooh and Ee are a play on one, two, three. I've only been watching ITNG for 15 years!

SHUT.THE.FRONT.DOOR

I didn't realise it was "if he thinks that, he's got another thing coming" is actually "he's got another think coming" until I read it on the Coronation Street subtitles!

I am late 50s and only just know that the tabs at the end of foil boxes can be pushed in to stop the foil falling out when unrolling.
Also that some staplers can make two different size staples

Omg shut up about the teaspoon in microwave it's a different thread post on there pleeeeezzzzz sick of that one now

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...

Yep and also how big Canada is

The song for me went ‘the wombles of Wimbledon, common are we’

Me too, but I thought it meant that there were lots and lots of Wombles in Wimbledon.

I thought that betting shops were some kind of sex shops until I was about 13 and asked my Mum. Dodgy men went in and out, always on their own and you couldn't see inside the shop from the outside.

@WeeFae

I absolutely cannot stand the saying "I was today years old".

I've never heard that saying before - I thought it was a typo!

I spent some time during university staring at the back of my shower gel which said '41 uses with puff' and puzzling that I could only think of 1 potential use for it with a puff.

Also many years thinking the song was 'Nellie the elephant back to front and said goodbye to the circus'

@LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour

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!

But you only question stuff if you know you don't know. If you think you know but actually don't, you don't know you don't so you don't question it.

@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...

Wow this blew my mind - went to google maps and searched for Russia just now. They’re practically right next door!

It was only when I was learning French and realised that they call the news 'les nouvelles', that 'news' in English is just the plural of new.

I am dying laughing at 41 uses with puff

@justasking111

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 😂

Didn't know this. Which corner does it go on?

That the little pig going to market wasn’t going on a nice shopping trip... :-(

@MerylStropp

I didn't realise it was "if he thinks that, he's got another thing coming" is actually "he's got another think coming" until I read it on the Coronation Street subtitles!

Oh no, don't open that line of discussion - I still remember the long thread on that, and it must have been at least 5 years ago.

The rule has not been adhered to!
The rule is, whenever one of these threads appears, someone posts about the petrol pump symbol on your car dashboard indicating which side you fill up your petrol tank on (with an arrow or hose).

But then someone else says 'but not in all cases - mine doesn't'.

There. I felt this thread wasn't quite right without it....

My combi microwave has a pictogram on the side of the door showing a spoon in a mug- I assumed it meant liquids should be stirred after heating.

you used to be able to flush sanitary towels. the ones the size and thickness of a housebrick that made you walk like a cowboy just off his horse... tear down the middle and flush. And these were an improvement on the ones you could safety pin to a belt.

@LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour

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!

I think that's the point, people are posting about the things that they can't believe that they didn't know! We all have blind spots, we just don't know what they are.

@MindGrapes

The rule has not been adhered to! The rule is, whenever one of these threads appears, someone posts about the petrol pump symbol on your car dashboard indicating which side you fill up your petrol tank on (with an arrow or hose).

But then someone else says 'but not in all cases - mine doesn't'.

There. I felt this thread wasn't quite right without it....

Yes, and then someone needs to point out that pineapples don't grow on trees or that Portsmouth is on an island.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3418716-Pineapples-dont-grow-on-trees-and-other-misconceptions-that-MN-has-revealed-over-the-years

Er it Is knights in white satin? I’ve just checked on Spotify

@Allmyarseandpeggymartin

Er it Is knights in white satin? I’ve just checked on Spotify

I don't think so: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nights_in_White_Satin

“I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne: let my armies be the rocks, and the trees, and the birds in the skies.” I was staggered to discover he was an actual man, and not a brolly.

This has really tickled me.

I also thought Wimbledon was absolutely swarming with wombles.

I don’t know what snapping your fingers means? Maybe I could find that out today.
Russia is only near Alaska not the rest of the US.