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Original poster

What were your childhood misconceptions?

185 replies

Splodgerbodgerbadger · 09/12/2022 16:27

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!

OP posts:
clareykb · 09/12/2022 19:36

I'm an early 80s baby whose left wing parents blamed everything that went wrong on Thatcher (we live in the North East so there was a true basis to this) Anyway I didn't win an art competition and blamed this on Maggie Thatcher for many years.

illiterato · 09/12/2022 19:37

Youwhatnowffs · 09/12/2022 19:34

That God was called Peter…. As in “thanks Peter God” obv meant to be “thanks be to God”😆

Ha ha- I used to think “pity my simplicity” in the hymn was “pity mice and pity me” and wonder why mice were particularly deserving of god’s pity.

ABlindAssassin · 09/12/2022 19:39

I thought Margaret Thatcher and Authur Scargill were married. I wondered why they had married each other when they clearly disagreed on everything!

I thought women had to marry someone from the school year above them. I'd look at the boys in the year above and be like 'ugh, out of all the boys in the world I have to marry one of these ones'.

mushroomsIncoffee · 09/12/2022 19:39

I used to get quite annoyed at my mum when I asked about how babies were made . I assumed it would be an exact thing so thought making a baby would take a certain, exact amount of time and she would never tell me ! I used to say ‘but how long? How do you know when it’s made?!’ I decided when I was a grown up I would make sure I always had by my bed a notebook and pen in case I got bored during making a baby then I could write or draw and also my game gear in case it really took ages and I wanted to play a game during the process. I assumed you had to stay very still too (I think a lot of confusion also came from an ?usbourne book as they had a male and female machine to show how sex happened not actual bodies so I got so muddled up !)

Periwinkletoes · 09/12/2022 19:39

When I was little and devoutly believed in fairies I thought the part in the Anglican creed that said 'very God of very God' was 'fairy God of fairy God' which seemed fair enough for me, if we have a God why shouldn't fairies have one too?

Kowloondairy · 09/12/2022 19:40

I used to think that when you put a record on to play, somehow a line was linked to whichever singer or group the record was by, so that they used to sing down the line to me .

TedMullins · 09/12/2022 19:41

Madlymumming · 09/12/2022 19:00

I thought our money was kept separate at the bank. So when you paid in it went into your own box and when you took money out it was taken from your own box.

Yes I used to think this too! I thought everyone’s money was in a huge glass jar of coins.

I thought when you became an adult you literally morphed into a completely different person who suddenly knew adult stuff, a bit like a pokemon evolving.

Mooshamoo · 09/12/2022 19:42

I remember a good one.
I grew up in Ireland and I used to watch the news from a young age. There were always lots of court cases on the news.

In Ireland they call judges, Mr. Justice ( real name)e.g. Mr. Justice Tony Allen or Mr. Justice Paul Smith.

I remember watching the news as a child and thinking that "Justice" was the man's actual first name.

I remember thinking, "isn't it amazing that his parents called him Justice, and he went on to be a judge. What a good name to be a judge"

It definitely took me about two years to realise.

DuchessDandelion · 09/12/2022 19:42

HashtagShitShop · 09/12/2022 19:23

I thought Sinn Fein was a man's name as I heard it so often during the early 90s as a kid in the news at 6pm each night. In fact I specifically tbiughy that was Gerry Adams' name as that was the face always on TV when it was said.

I thought this until a few short years ago.
I don't like to tell you which decade I'm in (or that I'm usually quite intelligent) 😳😳

SnuggleBuggleBoo · 09/12/2022 19:45

NotSoLittle · 09/12/2022 17:14

I thought NASA were based near Euston Station...

Inmarsat was, back in the day.

ilovepixie · 09/12/2022 19:50

VeronicaBeccabunga · 09/12/2022 17:14

When I was a child loos were sometimes labelled 'WC' for 'water closet' which I thought meant you were only allowed to wee in them, never poop.
Which was distressing when we were away on holiday in a hotel with WCs.

I also thought 'absconded' meant something very rude and unmentionable because newsreaders would say 'the man absconded' so seriously. Too scared to ask what it meant, don't know why I didn't just look it up in a dictionary.

OMG I'm 54 and I've always thought WC stood for Women's convenience!

Mommabear20 · 09/12/2022 19:51

That couples were happy ALL the time! My parents NEVER argued in front of us until o was about 16/17 (when they got divorced), as a result, I've always been very insecure in relationships when we'd disagree on things. Wasn't until I started dating my now DH that I realised that it's okay to disagree, and it's how you handle it that's important, and my parents were trying to protect us from any disagreements.

That you could just HAVE a baby whenever you wanted. My mums friend told us her babies would be born on a specific dates, and I was gobsmacked when I heard the babies were indeed born on those dates. Was years before my mum finally told me they'd been born my C-section each time, so she'd been told the date in advance!

That all children in care were orphans, like Annie.

When the war with Iraq started, I was convinced my DF would be sent to fight like they did in WWI and WWII.

StrawberryFlowers · 09/12/2022 19:56

When I came home from my first day at school I told my parents we sang "Who built the Ark? No one, no one!"

Katela18 · 09/12/2022 20:01

I always thought teachers lived at school!

Ronnii · 09/12/2022 20:02

I thought women bled all the time. From talks of when your period starts, but no mention of it stopping.

ShirleyHolmes · 09/12/2022 20:03

RosesAndHellebores · 09/12/2022 18:57

I thought Bill Stickers was a wanted man.

That elbow grease could be bought from a shop.

At 62 I still feel sorry for disabled toilets and wonder if they can't flush.

My mum used to deface the ‘Bill Stickers will be prosecuted’ signs with ‘Bill Stickers is innocent’. 😂😂

seashaken · 09/12/2022 20:04

I thought when you bought a house everything in it came too. We were house hunting when I was 6 and my parents had said when we had a house with a big garden we'd get a dog. At one house we viewed there was a horrible yappy little dog and I burst into tears because I didn't want that sort of dog, I wanted them to buy the other house with the nice bedspreads.

FluffyCat17 · 09/12/2022 20:06

I got very confused by Jesus being born at Christmas and dying at Easter. I couldn’t fathom how he managed to age 33 years in around 3 months. It bothered me for years but I figured it must be the case because he was a special person.

RosesAndHellebores · 09/12/2022 20:08

Oh and I thought if a lady had children. She'd had sex that many if times. For example, my mother once and the Queen 4 times.

GobbledyGeek · 09/12/2022 20:09

When watching the news and a newsreader reporting a crime announced that “a man is helping police with their enquiries” I used to think what a kind man he must be.

Gwenhwyfar · 09/12/2022 20:09

"That you could just HAVE a baby whenever you wanted. My mums friend told us her babies would be born on a specific dates, and I was gobsmacked when I heard the babies were indeed born on those dates. Was years before my mum finally told me they'd been born my C-section each time, so she'd been told the date in advance!"

Where I live babies often are born on a certain date. Sometimes inducted to suit the obstetrician's schedule!

Gwenhwyfar · 09/12/2022 20:10

*induced

Doowop1919 · 09/12/2022 20:11

I thought "moving house" was literally picking up your flat / house and moving it somewhere else. I asked my gran how that worked with her top floor flat.

And I used to think the moon followed me cause it was always where I was (winter mornings)

Awoooga · 09/12/2022 20:15

I’m another who thought the world used to be in black and white. I remember asking my Nan ‘when did everything get colourful?’ 😂

Somuchgoo · 09/12/2022 20:17

I thought spare ribs were a kinder meat because we just took out the spare ones.

And when people had a leg of lamb, just the one leg would be cut off and the sheep would hobble around on progressively fewer legs.

I thought that there were two groups of super intelligent apes - the violent group engaged in
guerilla warfare and the peaceful ones were monks.

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