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Original poster

Things I'm embarrassed to have realised so late in life...

1000 replies

OrangeFlowersAreLovely · 11/09/2022 17:03

Those ID necklaces? I had absolutely never heard of the word "lanyard" until around 3 years ago. All my friend's children learnt this way before I did. If you had told me "Lanyard" was a European city - I'd have believed you.

That little press send arrow in the top right hand corner? It only occurred to me in my mid 30s that it is in fact a paper aeroplane. I just thought it was a dodgy triangle.

I was absolutely stunned to find out the woman who plays Amanda in Motherland is not Catherine Tate.

Any confessions to console me I'm not the only one failing at life?! 😃

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
NightfeedsandNetflix · 12/09/2022 20:08

inmyslippers · 11/09/2022 17:04

Will.I.am is a play on the name William

I never knew!! Haha cheers for that

cherrysthename · 12/09/2022 20:09

I have to say that I always thought it was 'think' in the saying much mentioned in this thread.
But actually the more I read about it, the less it seems to make sense 😂 I can completely see what both 'think' and 'thing' camps mean in their explanations. I can only conclude that neither really make the best of sense!

Catslave67 · 12/09/2022 20:09

I only found out that Dr Christian was gay when my husband told me. Had spent years lusting after him!

My daughter didn’t believe that Tracy Chapman was a woman - we had a male friend called Tracey so just assumed. She had to Google it before she would believe me!

WestendVBroadway · 12/09/2022 20:10

hiredandsqueak · 12/09/2022 12:57

I have five dc but it wasn't until dd showed me that if you stick your finger into the top of a banana you end up with three pieces that aren't slippery so are easier and less messy for a baby to hold and eat.

@hiredandsqueak , I do not understand this.
I only recently( aged 50) realised that the up and down arrows on the outside of lifts(elevators) were for the direction in which you wanted to travel. I thought it was to tell the lift which direction you needed it to go to get to the floor where you were waiting to get on. At my place of work there are 4 levels, but the outside does not show the present location of the lift. I always wondered how people knew to press up or down, if they didn't know if it was currently on a floor above or below them. Hope that makes sense.

ThickCutSteakChips · 12/09/2022 20:13

Dr Christian turned about to be an absolute bellend though.

EntertainingandFactual · 12/09/2022 20:18

@WestendVBroadway

So you thought that if you pressed the down button you were asking the lift to come down to you from the floor above
or, if you pressed the up button you were asking the lift to come up to you from the floor below?

😄😄😄

hiredandsqueak · 12/09/2022 20:18

@WestendVBroadway Peel a banana, there will be a dimple at the botttom and at the top if you break off the stalk. Poke your finger in and it will split into three pieces along the length of the banana. These won't be slippery and they are a better size for a baby to hold

BCBird · 12/09/2022 20:21

Brace yourselves: Ferrero Rocher insiders are actually Nutella🙄 Jamiraquai is not as original as you may think as his mom.is Cleo Lane😫both these things blew my mind🙄

BCBird · 12/09/2022 20:22

I didn't know what a lanyard was either till I had to start wearing one
🤣

RagzRebooted · 12/09/2022 20:25

Spottymushroom · 11/09/2022 19:36

When I first joined mumsnet I thought STBXH was ‘shoot the bastard ex husband’

For years I thought it was Stupid Bastard Ex Husband.

bruffin · 12/09/2022 20:28

BCBird · 12/09/2022 20:21

Brace yourselves: Ferrero Rocher insiders are actually Nutella🙄 Jamiraquai is not as original as you may think as his mom.is Cleo Lane😫both these things blew my mind🙄

No his mum is Karen Kay who was a tv personality

Treesandsheepeverywhere · 12/09/2022 20:35

That Clarence House isn't in some countryside somewhere.

BCBird · 12/09/2022 20:38

I been lied to by an ex🙄🤣

Tanith · 12/09/2022 20:39

Dozydinks · 12/09/2022 19:25

So what will the era be called when Prince William becomes King?

The latin for William is Gulielmus and I think that's the name used for William IV's era.
It depends if he's known as King William, or if he decides to use a different name, as King George VI did (he was Albert: George was his 4th name).

Pinkespressomachine · 12/09/2022 20:40

‘The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we’. Until recently I didn’t realise they lived in a renowned green area. I thought the Wombles of Wimbledon were just a bit common…rough around the edges so to speak. Which always confused me as Uncle Bulgaria was clearly rather posh.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 12/09/2022 20:46

And I still don't know what mind your P's and Q's mean. I always thought it meant to be on your best behaviour.

It means "remember your pleases and thank yous". The P is at the beginning of please, and Q is the sound you make at the end of saying thank you!

icelolly99 · 12/09/2022 20:47

I can't believe so many people don't know where their tonsils are! Especially after these past years of Covid tests!....

Pinkdollblonde · 12/09/2022 20:47

Pronouncing poppadoms as 'pompadoms'

And that eyore from Winnie the Pooh is called that because its the sound a donkey makes Grin

M2B19 · 12/09/2022 20:48

Bambi is a boy!

RagzRebooted · 12/09/2022 20:49

mynameischloe · 11/09/2022 21:13

I was an embarrassing age when I realised the 'air guitar' was just an imaginary guitar... I thought it was a type of guitar, like Fender for example.

Also, the noise when you click your fingers is actually your middle finger hitting the base of your thumb, and not by the friction of the finger/thumb being pressed together.

Aaaannd... that Lieutenant is not two words. It's pronounced Loo-tenant if you're American, and Leff-tenant if you're English.

Anyone else clicking their fingers and staring in amazement at this? Blush

knittingaddict · 12/09/2022 20:52

Catherine Tate? Don't get that at all. 🤔

ReneBumsWombats · 12/09/2022 20:57

Pinkespressomachine · 12/09/2022 20:40

‘The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we’. Until recently I didn’t realise they lived in a renowned green area. I thought the Wombles of Wimbledon were just a bit common…rough around the edges so to speak. Which always confused me as Uncle Bulgaria was clearly rather posh.

I think this might be my favourite one so far.

AJTommo · 12/09/2022 20:57

No, it is another 'think' coming!

beastlyslumber · 12/09/2022 20:59

Gr33ngr33ngr4ss · 11/09/2022 17:35

Probably outing but I was only informed last year that a hare is a real animal and not an ancient mythical imagining of a rabbit.

This strikes a chord with me because until my thirties I believed that wolves were mythical creatures that had never existed in reality.

waterlego · 12/09/2022 21:00

ddl1 · 12/09/2022 19:22

That Simon and Garfunkel's 'Boxer' had squandered his resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, not a pocketful of marbles.

Oh! I thought it was ‘squandered my existence for a pocketful of moments such are promises’

Which I admit makes no sense at all now I come to think of it 😬

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