What were your childhood misconceptions?

[Splodgerbodgerbadger]

I always used to think if a pub said free house it meant you got free beer.

There was this lorry place we used to drive past that always had a sign saying pallets wanted, I always used to think ‘why do they want paint pallets’.

There was a coal fire at my Granny’s house and one day my Dad touched it and I realised it was fake and it never felt as warm after that.

I thought 99’s were so called because they cost 99p if only!

My school used to collect food for harvest festival and then make up hampers for the elderly with it. Some of the hampers each year would contain dog food. I used to think, "I know they're in need, but do people really think old people eat dog food?" I was probably about 25 before I realised that some of the recipients might have a dog.

My husband grew up believing Piccadilly Circus was actually ‘Piccalilli’ Circus so much so that when we were 18 we went to London with friends, hailed a cab and he said ‘to Piccalilli Circus please’, he couldn’t understand we we were all laughing.

When I was in first form we had to write continued at the top of the page if we were using a second or more pages.
I abbreviated this to cont.

One weekend I heard the word cunt for the first time and I was appalled that I had been writing a filthy word in all my schoolwork and was going to get in so much trouble. I spent hours making sure all the cont.s were made into continued....and I think it was quite a few years before I realised that they were NOT the same word

i still feel this is so, instinctively.
don't think i ever believed it literally, but it seems a natural assumption.

I hope things are better now.

I used to think that men and women could only get married if the man was both taller, and two years older, than the woman (as was the case with my parents).

I also thought that all TV was broadcast live, and that the actors and cameras would have to run from one location to another between scenes.

"i still feel this is so, instinctively.
don't think i ever believed it literally, but it seems a natural assumption."

Well, it's true. Cat on its own works for cats in general and female cats. If the cat is male you add a word to make Tom Cat.
Dog on its own is dogs in general or male dogs. To specify it's female you have to use a different word - bitch.

So, yes, a completely logical assumption.

when i was v young, infant school age, i thought those who did the hardest work, also dangerous, risky, difficult, were paid the most.
and that those who had nice easy jobs in good conditions were paid less.
and then i began to realise how life is not fair.

99s used to be 99p when I was a kid!

When I was about 3 I thought that the globe was in the sky. I didn't realise we were actually on it.

I though having red hair meant a short life as you never see old ginger haired people

"I used to think that men and women could only get married if the man was both taller, and two years older, than the woman (as was the case with my parents)."

Across the world, this is generally true. Most men are taller than women and most men are a few years older than their partner/spouse.

@Gwenhwyfar fair enough, but I thought it was the law 😬

Yes, but there is SOME truth in it. If you work on an oil rig, for example, you can make good money.
Working on the bins pays a bit more than the skill level would predict.

"99s used to be 99p when I was a kid!"

Yes, I think I remember this as well.

They used to be about 30p when I was a child!

I had a weird idea that "dead" meant you'd been killed but "died" was natural. I wonder if my nan let me watch murder mysteries too young!

That industrial chimneys belching smoke out, were cloud factories.

when i was about 7-8 i assumed having children was something that just happened to women, esp if married.
akin to developing a bust, you had no control over it, it just happened to most, a rare few it didn't.
when i was 9 and discovered there was another procedure required, and thus could be avoided, i was mightily relieved.

One year the Queen’s official birthday was on my birthday and I thought the Queen and I would share a party.

In 1984, when I was 7 my friend’s mum told me that if labour won the election UK would be like Russia. Unknown to her I’d just sneak- watched a scary documentary about ( I think) Stalin from behind the sofa when meant to be in bed and I was completely terrified for weeks because I thought we’d all got shot into mass graves. My mum and dad were very confused about why I was so happy labour didn’t win.

That if you flushed the loo and then ran the taps the water out of the loo would come through the taps! Don’t know where I got this from, but even as an adult I prefer to wait until the loo has flushed before I run the taps to wash my hands!

There were posters on the bus which said Graffiti is a crime. I thought it said gravity is a crime and remember being puzzled. I was clearly old enough to know what gravity was but somehow didn't know how it was spelt or what grafitti was. I was an early reader but still a little confused by this as an adult.

Oh yeah, also my babysitter was called Lorraine and I thought she was called The Rain and then that confused me about The Rain in Spain falling on the plain. I was easily confused.

For much too long I thought if you pulled the little toggle on a ceiling fan, which turned the blades in the opposite direction, it would heat the room instead of cool it 😁

I thought that only men could be Dr's and only women could be nurses. Not because women weren't capable of being doctors. I thought they were the same job just with a different name for male and females.

I also thought tea was for men and coffee for women. Purely because I didn't know any men who drank coffee.