Things You Thought You Invented

[StayGoldenPonyGirl]

I invented Nihilism when I was 8 or 9. My parents told me to shut up talking nonsense. I remember reading about it as a teenager in Reader's Digest and thinking someone had ripped my ideas off - I came up with that by myself years back😆

I also invented the sanitary towel around 5 or 6- my mum just used tampons so i didn't know what pads were. I overheard her moaning about getting stains on her knickers so I made a wad of loo roll with improvised sticky back plastic (looped black electrical tape) and presented it to her. Her and her friends found it hilarious...I was most disgruntled.

I had the idea for the kindle too as a kid in a cold house who wanted to read but keep hands snuggly and warm. But mine was wall mounted and you would blink to turn pages so I still might take that one to Dragon's Den.

Have you ever sworn you've invented something that already exists?

@x2boys - we had hoodies in the 1970s. Towelling ones which we put on after swimming, I think they came from Mothercare. (We called these "swimming jumpers). Then my GM's friend knitted some, and lined the hoods with towelling (well, old towels). (We called these Hilda jumpers).

For years I've been burbling on about banks closing branches, and why didn't they share premises (eg Monday HSBC, Tuesday Barclays etc) as so much is done online and with shared cash facilities. I even mentioned it to our local Lloyds bank staff before they too shut the last bank in our town, but everyone just dismissed it. Now I see that some places are getting "banking hubs" using a similar model, which I'm pleased about but can I just say it was my idea!

I invented smartie ice cream, before Nestlé

I invented pay per view/streaming movies on your tv in the mid-80s. In primary school, we had to pretend we were from the future and had come across something from the past that was no longer used and to give the reason why - I said video tapes because in the future, we could type into our tv remote control to pick anything we wanted to see and it would just start playing directly on the tv without needing the tape. And what do you know...

You're welcome 😊

I watch people in primark do this and often wonder why and am not staff lol 😆

Dribble savers for the baby front carrier.
I made several waterproof backed, toweling or fleece fronted dribble catchers complete with clever tabs to hold them on to the carrier without little fingers grabbing and getting tangled in them for PFB’s front carrier as they chewed the front bit when forward facing;
Only to discover, 6 months later, Ergobaby made them.

Not in as funky designs as mine but still.

Kia ora is an orange drink

I invented playmobil.

Recently my friend was telling me her husband paints little models and has battles with this mates. They build scenery etc. I quite like the idea but not the painting or battles, so I suggested little people you could buy, with shops and cars and a school and a hospital, for adults to play with.

yeah radish, just like all the playmobil that your children had and you spent the entire lockdown sorting and selling

My other one was sellotape. I love pretty bullet journaling and use loads of lovely washi tape. I wondered why no one had thought of making completely see through tape. How useful it would be! Oh…

I definitely used the word twunt before I'd seen/heard it. So I'm claiming it as mine

When I was about 9ish I thought I had invented the word twat. I though it was a combination of twit and prat. Couldn't understand why I kept getting told off when I said it.

Dutch braids

I used to love plaiting hair I different ways, I wondered what would happen if I went under instead of over. I called them outey plaits. This was about 30 years ago. I’d honestly never seen them before so was amazed when they became a thing 🤣

I wish the following existed (maybe not enough demand) but anyway I don't have the business acumen/ too lazy to try to get them off the ground. So if anyone's out there with the know how. You're welcome lol.

Low calorie sherry. (Dark Sweet delicious creamy sherry 🤤). Like the skinny girl margarita but skinny sherry.

A cushion that's like a birthing ball/mini trampoline for people with mobility issues that still want to get lymph drainage benefits.

You invented youtube😲

Another very old tommorows world i watched ,on you tube from aroynd 1989 said one day ww would all just be abe to voice command our lights tu be turned off,music on etc ,they invented Alexa! I Wonder how many things they did get right 🤔

Darn! I can’t feel indignant any more🤣🤣

I definitely invented “Uber Eats”… it was the late 90’s - Uber didn’t even exist back then. In my drunken Friday night state I used to phone a local taxi company, ask them to go to the chip shop and collect me some food and deliver it to me, then I’d pay them for the food and service when it was delivered.

if only I’d thought to monetise it….

Facebook.

Re the taxi and food.

My sister used to phone a pizza while still at the pub and ask for it to be delivered to her house. Then a few minutes later they walk walk across to the pizza shop and get themselves delivered home with the pizza to save on taxi fare haha.

I rewrote the story of little red riding hood for English coursework in 1995 that the wolf was a werewolf and LRRHs father.

they made a film almost exactly the same 15 years later 😭😭😭

Taping songs off the radio when I was about 10. My own brilliant idea!

In the early 80s when I was around 12 or 13 I thought of using covers for plug sockets that could be used to protect kids from getting electrocuted. I didn't see them in use until quite a few years later. Could've made a fortune!

The air bag . Several years before they were a thing I said to my Dad that wouldn’t it be great that if you had a crash , a huge balloon or cushion came out of the steering wheel and stopped you from banging your head.

Negative numbers. I had no idea they existed as a young child but was sitting around wondering about things and wondered what happened if you tried to do something like 4 minus 5. I was picturing the numbers in a line, stopping at zero, and thought it must be the same as a normal number line, starting with 1 and increasing from there. I didn't know how you would differentiate them from standard numbers and never got any further with the idea. It blew my mind when we covered negative numbers in maths and I realised that they were real and did work that way!

I invented Google, before there was even internet. Back in the 70s I loved going to the library and looking things up in books. I clearly remember thinking how great it would be if they had staff waiting who you could ring up and ask a question, and they’d look it up and tell you the answer.

Panettone bread and butter pudding.

I was well chuffed with myself, after having come up with the idea after an excess supply of it one Christmas. It had turned out brilliantly and was delicious, and I genuinely thought it was an original idea. Then I found out that many others had already had the same idea, it was a well-known thing, and I was nowhere near as brilliant as I thought I was.