Things you thought you'd invented, but you didn't

[PupInAPram]

I'll start. The disposable toilet brush. Anti spot face masks. Tinting mascara. One day I'll be ahead of the game 😂

I totally thought up an app (about 10 years ago!) that would look up artists from your itunes playlist and alert you to when they were playing a concert nearby. I had loads of ideas for it. Then I discovered it already existed.

Also motion-sensor taps when I was a kid.
Videos that you could set to record via phone. (This was before TiVo/ hard drive tv tuner recorder things)

A stapler remover

White chocolate Maltesers.

I thought of them first. Me.

Chunky monkey way before the ice-cream.
My cat's nickname.

I genuinely thought i'd invented masturbation as a child. Had no idea anyone else knew how to produce those sensations in themselves. Was at least 14 before I realised I wasn't special or gifted.

Libraries.

My dd 11 asked me yesterday if I invented egg muffins. Why yes, yes I did.

I love to do zentangle... and do dabble in cross stitch. I thought I had invented a combination of the two. Turns out it was blackwork, and has been around since medieval times.

Mini indoor frisbees. I was going to call them frizbits - inspired by chucking the top of a pringles tube around!

My DH reckons he invented the Travel System. When our eldest was a baby she absolutely hated being laid flat in her pram, so DH made some brackets to fix her carseat to the pram chassis. I told him it was stupid and nobody sane would use such a contraption. A couple of years later everyone was using them. He's never stopped telling me that we'd be millionaires now if I'd had more faith in his genius...

One of my aunts was convinced she invented cheese on toast. As a child I believed this, and just assumed other people made it because she'd given them the recipe.

My first job was in a supermarket check out back in the day when you had to key in the price of every item manually into the cash register (does that bring back memories?). I used to wish you could just pass the items over a machine instead that scanned the price and it would do the job for you... took about another 20 years before that became a thing.

The word cyborg. I was about 9-10 and doing creative writing, I genuinely believed I invented this new word to mean alien life.

The umbrella hat. I genuinely thought it was going to make me millions until I saw someone wearing one about 6 months ago.

My DH on our first holiday abroad tried baguette dipped in olive oil/balsamic (age 24) and decided he'd invented that combination, after a short deliberation conceded that he hadn't. but that he would tell his friends he had, and duly embarrassed himself telling them when he got home

My friend left scrambled eggs in the pan too long and genuinely thought he'd created a brand new dish.

It was basically an omelette 😐

@MrsAvocet

My DH reckons he invented the Travel System. When our eldest was a baby she absolutely hated being laid flat in her pram, so DH made some brackets to fix her carseat to the pram chassis. I told him it was stupid and nobody sane would use such a contraption. A couple of years later everyone was using them. He's never stopped telling me that we'd be millionaires now if I'd had more faith in his genius...

There's a Noggin the Nog book where the inventor produces a chair on wheels and says that one day everyone will use one. Noggin doesn't really believe him because he always thinks his inventions are brilliant, but admits it's useful.

Back in the 80s we did a school project on schools in the future, my and my partner had robot teachers and a small flat special device that you could use to write all your notes on and do all your work and it would all be stored in a memory instead of carrying loads of books around. We basically invented the iPad!

When DS1 was tiny we lived on a hill and I thought about inventing an electric pram for hills. Cybex must have stolen my idea because they made one a couple of years ago. I think it was a flop though.

The way to de-stress a situation by saying "will this matter 1 year from now?" And also, "What's the worse that could happen?"

I later read a stress management programme ask these questions as a way of getting a sense of perspective. So either I'm a genius, or I had read it somewhere else and forgotten it

I still think I have invented this, in my head, as I have never seen one - a buggy board for adults. I’m sure there is a market for this. You’re welcome whoever picks it up and runs with it.

In about 2001 I sat on a coach In Australia and told my friend about an idea for a website where people could buy clothes they had seen on famous people on tv because I wanted to buy a black chain mail top like Cheryl Cole.

I got back from said trip and ‘As seen on screen’ had just launched which became asos.

I clearly have a great mind 😂

The term 'hangry'

Brake lights.

I thought of a brilliant new invention yesterday but went to tell my daughter about it today and had completely forgotten what it was. Now I will never make my millions