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Original poster

Cringes where you are still cringeing years later

197 replies

LemonWaterSugar · 26/09/2023 18:36

I have no idea if cringeing needs the "e". I think it does.

Anyway, I was driving today and out of nowhere did a MASSIVE cringe shudder at something I did about two / three years ago. I forget about it for a while then BAM it comes back and I have to relive it again.

Basically it was when everyone was working from home, so meetings on Teams / Zoom were relatively new. I wasn't long back from maternity leave so even less experience with this type of communication in a work setting.

I was interviewing for a new team member with my manager. All going well, although it's slightly strange on a screen especially as you have no eye contact and it's not always clear who you are talking to.

My manager asked the question.. obviously to the candidate but because we were on a screen and it looked like she was looking at me I ANSWERED IT 😩😩😩😩 I don't know what I was thinking. Gave a full blown answer to an interview question.

I realised way too late, and my manager sort of smirked then asked it again and said something like "it would be good to hear the answer from the interviewee".

EUGH.

Anyone have any of these that just keep coming back?

OP posts:
BloodandGlitter · 26/09/2023 23:52

Paynefully · 26/09/2023 23:43

Oh gosh sorry I do have another one.

I suffer with the quite bad health anxiety and went through a phase of being convinced I had bowel cancer. - I went to the toilet one night and noticed a lot of blood coming from my bum, like a lot. So I was immediately on the phone to 111, crying scared that this was it and I was going to get the bad news. They said I would get a call back from a doctor within 3 hours, shortly after hanging up to wait for my callback I’m on the bed crying to my boyfriend about how scared I am when I get a very wet feeling in my pants.. but the front not the back. It was my period.

Oh that reminds me of being 14 and my period starting, I hid it from everyone and spent hours sobbing in my room convinced I was dying of some sort of cancer of the bum because I was only expecting it to be a drop or two of blood not the river I had!

Bird0123 · 27/09/2023 00:00

I once synced my phone diary with my work email address. I didn't realise everyone would be able to see it until I was contacted by my boss who asked if I was available for a meeting I'd previously agreed to because I had something in my diary. Realised the thing in my diary was "period" and had been shared with everyone at the company.

Also, once in tesco, I was walking to the till and accidentally hit a man in the crotch with a packet of sanitary towels.

TheUnquestionedAnswer · 27/09/2023 00:04

This has made me snort outlaid Grin

LightSpeeds · 27/09/2023 00:05

larlypops · 26/09/2023 22:15

On holiday with the grandparents roughly 20 years ago, pushing each other under water, pushed my grandad under but when he surfaced it wasn’t him it was another bald man and my grandad was staring at me awkwardly from across the pool

😂😂

Lillygolightly · 27/09/2023 00:10

Oh gosh I have a few that give me flashbacks.

I was having a truly awful day and driving on a narrow country road, I pulled in to let a woman pass, she didn’t look like she was going to thank me with the typical polite hand gesture, so I angrily gave her the V’s and at the exact same moment she put her hand up to thank me. I died inside and felt so guilty…she must have driven on thinking WTF!

Walking in the middle of a very busy town centre high street, animatedly chatting to my best mate when I walked smack bang into a bollard, it hit me squarely in the crotch and stopped me dead in my tracks. I was mortified, while my mate practically pissed herself laughing at me.

At a work event, and was staring at a bloke a few tables away, I was trying to work out where I knew him from as he looked really familiar…just as I was thinking that I must have gone to school with him, he looked up (must have felt me staring at him) and made eye contact. As soon as our eyes met I realised it was Gary Barlow and that’s why he looked so familiar. I spent the rest of the time chronically avoiding him in case he thought I was some kind of weird stalker fan.

Accidentally saying love you bye to my boss and blowing him a kiss 😳 I was on the phone to my DH and I said the wrong bye to the wrong person 🙈

merrymelodies · 27/09/2023 00:14

Not me but my Nana, years ago. She was sitting in the theatre and shortly before the play started, someone arrived late and politely informed her that she was in their seat. My Nana realized she was in the wrong row and, rather than disturbing everyone by squeezing past their knees, she decided to climb over the row to her assigned seat behind.

Unfortunately the seat folded underneath her and she found herself with her legs stuck, facing the audience and unable to extricate herself.

The fire department was called, the performance delayed and my Nana limped home in humiliation.

Mizzl45 · 27/09/2023 00:19

I had moved to a new school in year 6- I was new to the area, was freakishly tall for my age and felt tremendously awkward at the best of times.
After a couple of weeks there, I was sat in assembly and my legs went completely numb from sitting with them crossed too long. Year 6 was at the back and would get up to leave first. As we all had to stand up to leave, I tried to stand up- took one doddering step and fell flat on my face in front of the entire school.
I hobbled back to class with the most intense pins and needles known to man and a nice memory to keep me up at night into my 30s 💅

TheyreStillGoingWithThemPlumsKerr · 27/09/2023 00:24

I love all these! So funny!

Sorry, mine’s a long one.

I was junior school age. Went to the local swimming pool with two friends and their mum. I had the genius idea that if I put my armbands on my feet, and with careful balance, I could surely walk on the water (I had visions of me strolling across the surface of the pool like a 9 year-old second coming, with all the other kids and my friends looking on in surprise and awe). Couldn’t understand why no one had thought of this before. I was to be a trailblazer!
They wouldn’t stay on my feet, so settled with wearing them on my ankles. Got back in the pool. Feet and ankles DID stay above the water, but the rest of me went down like a lead balloon under it. Bloody gravity! My short life flashed before my eyes as I desperately splashed about underwater before friends’ mum rushed over to rescue me from sure drowning and wrestled the armbands off. Funnily enough I don’t remember her saying much or asking why I had done this. Maybe there just were no words.
I tried to carry on swimming, messing about and generally having fun in the pool after … but it was all a front - I was absolutely mortified (still makes me cringe 40 years on). The air in the car was heavy with embarrassment and a hint of chlorine as she drove us home that evening

Wateringpan · 27/09/2023 00:28

Mydogisagentleman · 26/09/2023 20:28

Grabbing the hand of a short woman and trying to get her to leave the toyshop.
Unfortunately she was a dwarf who was the same height as my DD

This is so funny. Cheered me up so much thanks 🤣🤣

amprev · 27/09/2023 00:29

Mine is actually my husbands. We were in ikea near the cage with our toddler daughter. He had a nickname for her of 'Little un' He was getting a tray trolley in the cafe and in his peripheral vision thought our daughter was blocking the way. He said, "excuse me little un". Turned out to be a diminutive man, who replied, "sorry mate" much to my husbands horror. I was nearly dead with laughter.

Snugglemonkey · 27/09/2023 00:33

merrymelodies · 27/09/2023 00:14

Not me but my Nana, years ago. She was sitting in the theatre and shortly before the play started, someone arrived late and politely informed her that she was in their seat. My Nana realized she was in the wrong row and, rather than disturbing everyone by squeezing past their knees, she decided to climb over the row to her assigned seat behind.

Unfortunately the seat folded underneath her and she found herself with her legs stuck, facing the audience and unable to extricate herself.

The fire department was called, the performance delayed and my Nana limped home in humiliation.

Your poor Nana! This has to win the thread!!

ChristmasJumperz · 27/09/2023 00:36

Flashed the window cleaner when I strolled back into the bedroom as I was about to get in the bath. He's lucky he didn't fall off his ladder (3rd floor flat). Don't know who was more startled.

To rub salt in the wound my boyfriend refused to go down and pay the bloke when he called for his money a couple of nights later. So I had to schlep downstairs and hand over £6.50 for the privilege of giving him an eyeful.

Pains me SO MUCH 25 years on!!

Characterbuilding · 27/09/2023 00:45

When I was about 13 I stopped at the corner shop on the way to school. In some bizarre, inexplicable lapse of reasoning I knocked on the door before I entered! I still cringe about that now. 😂.

dimsumfatsum · 27/09/2023 00:45

Mizzl45 · 27/09/2023 00:19

I had moved to a new school in year 6- I was new to the area, was freakishly tall for my age and felt tremendously awkward at the best of times.
After a couple of weeks there, I was sat in assembly and my legs went completely numb from sitting with them crossed too long. Year 6 was at the back and would get up to leave first. As we all had to stand up to leave, I tried to stand up- took one doddering step and fell flat on my face in front of the entire school.
I hobbled back to class with the most intense pins and needles known to man and a nice memory to keep me up at night into my 30s 💅

Sorry but 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

dimsumfatsum · 27/09/2023 00:46

merrymelodies · 27/09/2023 00:14

Not me but my Nana, years ago. She was sitting in the theatre and shortly before the play started, someone arrived late and politely informed her that she was in their seat. My Nana realized she was in the wrong row and, rather than disturbing everyone by squeezing past their knees, she decided to climb over the row to her assigned seat behind.

Unfortunately the seat folded underneath her and she found herself with her legs stuck, facing the audience and unable to extricate herself.

The fire department was called, the performance delayed and my Nana limped home in humiliation.

Hahahahahahahahahaha! Your poor granny!

Characterbuilding · 27/09/2023 00:58

Not me but I remember a phone in on this exact subject (years ago). A lady called up to say she had a smear booked, went to the appointment, the usual drill. She noticed a look on the face of the person doing the procedure and after it was finished the nurse said something like "thanks for the extra effort". It then became apparent that instead of giving herself a quick spray with deodorant "down there" before heading out she’d actually grabbed her hair glitter can by mistake. I almost died of laughter at the time and still cringe on her behalf years later!

BabyFireflyx · 27/09/2023 00:58

A girl I knew in passing would always say "How're you?" until one day she didn’t. As we walked past each other she said "I haven't seen you in ages!"
I replied "Good!"
Ugh 🙈

BabyFireflyx · 27/09/2023 01:02

Also ex boyfriend took me to the cinema and walking back to his car I walked towards the drivers side for some inexplicable reason (I can't drive). He stood there looking at me and said "other door". Then walked around the car with me and held it open 🙈

BabyFireflyx · 27/09/2023 01:06

Also I had a bloke over for a one night stand, I was ridiculously nervous. Both sitting awkwardly on the sofa. When he leaned in to kiss me, I hugged him. The situation did recover but I was mortified.

Tezza1 · 27/09/2023 01:15

My earliest memory of a cringe moment is the one and only time I said 'They made me do it.' I must have been about eight, had gone with my auntie to visit some people I didn't know, and there was a girl my age and a boy who I think was her best friend. They lived in a bushy area and we wandered off, and got into trouble when we got back, and that is when I said the evil words.

I was being quite manipulative about it because I knew I could probably commit murder and my aunt would think I was justified - and of course she said, yes we know you're not to blame. The cringiest part of it was the look of contempt on the other girl's face.

More decades than I care to recall later, I still feel cringey every couple of years when it crosses my mind, with a healthy dose of humiliation and self-disdain thrown in. And that is the first time I have ever told that to anyone.

TheyreStillGoingWithThemPlumsKerr · 27/09/2023 01:24

When my friend first moved to London at 20, so didn’t know many people, her parents gave her the telephone number of their friends living there to arrange a meet up. My friend was quite shy then and got embarrassed and flustered easily. She didn’t really want to, but felt rude as they were expecting her call, so finally built up the courage to ring them. When the woman picked she suddenly panicked on how best to introduce herself as she hadn’t seen them since she was little, the thought of what connected them both came to her mind and she blurted out ‘Hi, I’m my mum and dad’s daughter’

TheyreStillGoingWithThemPlumsKerr · 27/09/2023 01:30

Picked UP!

Cringette · 27/09/2023 01:33

I have 2 I had happily buried for a while 🤣

As a kid, burying a multipack of crisps in the supermarket trolley. Only to look up and see a couple looking bemusedly at me. Not my trolley. I sort of slunk backwards, and said nothing to my mum about it.

On holiday with friends I had a shower. There was no bathroom or bedroom bin, so while changing I must have put on the bed my knickers with used panty liner. I went down to breakfast with my little day bag. At the busy breakfast table I suddenly noticed that the used panty liner had attached itself to my day bag, which was on the table.Yes I shudder now. Just at that point my friend next to me said what's that, and I had no choice but to style it out and say nothing while removing it and try to carry on engaging in the table conversation.

For years after if I left the house on my period I'd have to look in the mirror and check there were no panty liners hanging off me 🤣😭 I might delete this one out of shame, except it may be cathartic for someone else.

junbean · 27/09/2023 01:40

TheFireflies · 26/09/2023 22:37

On honeymoon 15 years ago we got chatting to an American couple, just pleasantries. One day they said, “Oh it’s our last day today, it’s been nice to meet you both.”

I had a complete brain fart and literally shouted in their faces, “HAVE A NICE... LIFE!” and then panicked and ran away.

my husband still says that to me now every time he wants to make me die inside

All of these are hilarious but this one made me laugh the hardest 🤣

ALongHardWinter · 27/09/2023 01:50

Meadowdog · 26/09/2023 18:46

Haha sorry OP but that's quite funny about the interview! Mine is - I was attending an evening class years ago and went out to use the toilet. The toilet looked a bit dodgy/slightly blocked but used it anyway, flushed it, and went back to class. A few minutes later a flood of toilet water arrived into the classroom. We were the only people in the building and it was very obvious it had been me!

Omg this made me laugh! Especially the sentence 'A few minutes later a flood of toilet water arrived in the classroom'. 😂😂😂

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