Page 5 | Cringes where you are still cringeing years later

LemonWaterSugar · 2023-09-26T17:36:07+00:00

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?

RosaKim · 27/09/2023 01:57

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.

OMG laughing hahaha

ALongHardWinter · 27/09/2023 02:09

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.

I think this one has won this thread for me! 😂😂😂😂

Iforgotmyusernameagainandagain · 27/09/2023 02:09

aged 60, I told my gp my husband said I was hot in bed. He started laughing before I realised what I said 🙈

Jillybloop393 · 27/09/2023 02:09

InterFactual · 26/09/2023 21:44

Does anyone else have tics related to reliving the cringe moments?

One of mine is to crossly shout the nasty insult my school bullies harassed me with constantly, it worked it's way into my subconscious and now it's an automatic reflex to shout it at myself in the car when those cringe moments haunt me as my mind wanders. The trouble is it's starting to happen in more public settings and it feels out of my control, it fills me with shame. I wonder if people without tourettes can have tics? Or maybe I secretly have tourettes but I don't know it? It's like an instant reaction that takes over my whole body that I can't control. I guess I'm taking the anger and aggression the bullies showed me and directing it towards myself.

You know you have to share the 'nasty insult' with us, don't you?! Come on ... we need to know it! 😁

Jillybloop393 · 27/09/2023 02:13

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

Oh my gosh ... this is soooo funny ... can't stop squeaking with suppressed laughter!

lemmein · 27/09/2023 02:31

There was a few builders sat on the wall opposite my house having a cuppa. I came out, locked my door then climbed into my car.....but for some reason I got into the passenger side when I was completely on my own 😖

I could feel the builders eyes burning into me looking like a right nob sat on my own in the wrong side of the car so I pretended to look for something in the glove box, then walked back into my house waiting for them to piss off from the front. I was late for work that day!

The other one which I try to never think about.....eurgh....so I'm 16 and DTD with my older boyfriend. I was really inexperienced but like a trouper I got on top and was sort of leaning forward with my arms resting on the bed. Arghhh....so he whispers to me 'you can put your whole weight on me you know?!' clearly meaning sitting up straight on him, but I misunderstood and sort of flopped like a dead weight on his chest

PuttingTheGreen · 27/09/2023 02:47

Dancing in my bedroom when I was around 14 to music and miming into a hairbrush.
With the window cleaner pissing himself.
I was absolutely mortified when I noticed him and fled downstairs.
Worse still, he knocked on the door for his payment, my mum made me go to pay him. I had to do the walk of shame to the front door with his money.

WhosAfraidOfVirginalWolves · 27/09/2023 03:46

When I was 14, my mum made me join a youth group because she was worried about my apparent lack of friends. I'd just gotten my braces off and was meant to wear a retainer full time, but couldn't talk properly with it, so went to put it in my coat pocket. I don't know whether there was a hole, or if I somehow missed the pocket, but partway through the evening someone passing the coatrack goes "urrgh, what's that?!" and everyone gathers around it. For some reason it took a few seconds to click what it was, so I was going "urrgh" along with everyone else before I realised.

It had two fake teeth attached to it (my braces had created a gap), was covered in grime from the floor, and just looked both horrible and ridiculous. I couldn't claim it, so just said nothing while the boys in the group started kicking it around and it developed into a game of "scream and keep away from that hideous thing that no one in their right mind would want to put in their mouth".

Eventually the group leader confiscated it and put it on one side, figuring that it belonged to someone from a different group. I tried to hang around at the end and wait for everyone to leave, but the group leaders apparently weren't leaving and, in the end, I just had to run back in, grab it from under their noses, shout something like"Sorry! Thank you! Sorry!", run away and never go back to the group again. I could here then laughing from outside.

YukoandHiro · 27/09/2023 03:57

When I was very young I went to an event which was work related but luckily not organised by my own company. I got VERY drunk on the free alcohol far too quickly and misread the signals of some friendly bloke and came onto him really heavily. I even started to lean on for a kiss at which point he was like "what are you doing?" and moved rapidly as far away as he could. Two of my (lovely) male colleagues had to escort me out of there and safely to a taxi early doors.
Oh god. Immense cringe. It comes back to me every now and then and I die a little more inside.

WasIBad · 27/09/2023 05:54

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.

Shaking with laughter at this! Trying to not wake DP up 🤣🤣🤣

WasIBad · 27/09/2023 06:07

Mine was years ago now, probably about 6 years or so.

I'd dropped off DD at school, slightly late, on the first day of term. As I left the building the playground was empty, apart from a small-ish young man who looked a bit lost. Assuming it was a new gap student, I kindly explained where he could find the reception desk and assured him he'd be OK and that there would be people there to help him. He looked bemused but wandered off in the right direction, as I congratulated myself on doing my good deed for the day so early on.

Get home and Facebook has positively blown up with parents saying "OMG, did you see who was there at drop off?"

It turned out that the nervous young gap student I thought I'd helped was actually TOM HARDY and he'd arrived late to drop his son off to avoid being mobbed at the door. God, did I cringe then - and now.

TheFireflies · 27/09/2023 06:14

I’ve thought of a few more that live rent free in my head after many years.

Going to a GP walk-in with blood in my urine which turned out to be beetroot.

Tripping as I got off a boat and face planting into the crotch of a random man.

Shouting “SHUT UP!” to my friend in town just as a guy on a RAC stall asked me if I was a member and my head automatically turned towards his voice. I still remember the shock on his face as I bellowed at him to shut up, and that one was 30 years ago now.

Prettybutdumb · 27/09/2023 07:24

Not happened to me, but next door flat neighbour - decades ago he was one of the first to get a mobile phone and really, really wanted everyone to know about it. He used to leave his flat with said brick of a mobile and pace up and down in the communal hallway having important conversations and gesticulating plenty in an exaggerated manner. One late evening I went out to tell him to take it back inside his flat, looked at him for about 5 seconds to get his attention as he was so deep in his loud chat and lo and behold his phone actually started ringing whilst stuck to his ear.

RattlewhenIwalk · 27/09/2023 07:28

LemonWaterSugar · 26/09/2023 20:41

Errrrrmmmmmmmmm what 😂😂😂😂😂 was the kiss a reflex?!

These are making me feel better haha!! I just HATE the cringe feeling 😩

Show quote history

It was more a lurch as I lost my balance and caught myself but my face landed in his neck. It wasn't meant to be a kiss but that's what it seemed like.

Arrgh 😬

PinkPrawns2 · 27/09/2023 07:32

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

I'm a midwife and once said this to a couple at the end of a home visit 🤣🙈

CarrieMoonbeams · 27/09/2023 07:41

I once gave a young colleague a lift home from work during appalling weather. She was really grateful, and insisted that I came in to the house for a cup of tea to meet her parents and granny, who she still lived with.

They were all lovely, and after my cuppa they all came to the door to wave me away.

Her mum shouted "safe journey home", to which I replied "Thank you, you too!". To the people on their own doorstep 😔.

FrillyGoatFluff · 27/09/2023 08:11

I was having my c section, and had written comprehensively in my birth plan about how I didn't want a particular consultant anywhere near me.

I had given birth at that hospital previously (with a very sad outcome) and frankly, he'd been a prick the entire way through the process, from 8 week consultantion to 23 week delivery.

I was naked, bent double, off my tits on premeds and nerves, having an injection into my spine, and the notes were being read by the masked up surgeon - who asked why I didn't want Mr X. I obviously thought it was wise to say why in glorious technicolour...

Yes. Clearly the bloke delivering my baby was Mr X. Not at all awkward to have someone who you've just slated then be elbow deep in your abdomen 🫣 DH sat at my head cringing himself inside out throughout the process. I didn't give a shit, I was off my head.

Midwife thought it was hilarious and admitted in recovery that everyone on the surgical team agreed with every word I'd said 😂

Awkward though, looking back.

catchingclouds · 27/09/2023 08:12

@InterFactual I do this too. Most of the time the words I say won't have any thing to do with the actual embarrassing event, I will mutter something completely random like 'time to go' and usually blink my eyes a couple of times. I think about my embarrassments quite a lot so I think it's something I've developed to offset the shame as it creeps in. I'm relieved I'm not the only one!😂

YukoandHiro · 27/09/2023 08:18

WasIBad · 27/09/2023 06:07

Mine was years ago now, probably about 6 years or so.

I'd dropped off DD at school, slightly late, on the first day of term. As I left the building the playground was empty, apart from a small-ish young man who looked a bit lost. Assuming it was a new gap student, I kindly explained where he could find the reception desk and assured him he'd be OK and that there would be people there to help him. He looked bemused but wandered off in the right direction, as I congratulated myself on doing my good deed for the day so early on.

Get home and Facebook has positively blown up with parents saying "OMG, did you see who was there at drop off?"

It turned out that the nervous young gap student I thought I'd helped was actually TOM HARDY and he'd arrived late to drop his son off to avoid being mobbed at the door. God, did I cringe then - and now.

HA HA HA!!

BarrelOfOtters · 27/09/2023 08:43

Asking a teacher where I was on student placement if she was pregnant….she wasn’t at all. looking back now she was obviously going through peri menopause. I didn’t have a clue.

got together with the boss at work, married now many years, had to go in and tell him that his calendar was open to everyone and ‘date with BarrelofOtters’ was clearly visible. He has no shame…….

Shangrilalala · 27/09/2023 08:54

New relationship, just stated sleeping together.

we woke up sleepily one Sunday morning after a lovely romantic night. Heads close, we looked lovingly into each other’s eyes and I noticed he’d sprouted a spot on his chin overnight.

The bemused look on his face as I bellowed SPOTTY GIT right into his face was a picture.

Mortified. it’s not a phrase I would use - then or now. I genuinely have no idea where it came from and think I’m a kind person.

Luckily, he and I still laugh about it now - 30 years on.

Thank you for starting this thread. It’s been a trying night here with family illness and I never thought I’d have been lying in bed chortling and occasionally laughing out loud!

WhiteBricks · 27/09/2023 09:47

I've shared this one before but it still makes me blush and laugh at the same time....

Temping for a service, answered the phone in the open plan office and the service user and I talk over each other. Instead of saying "are you a current client?" it came out as "are you a c*nt?" Fortunately the client didn't hear but everyone in the office did and there was a lot of shocked faces and sniggers 🫣😂

WHALESURPRISE · 27/09/2023 09:51

ChaChaRealSmooth · 26/09/2023 23:44

Whilst working in a call centre I was helping a gentleman complete a budget, because I’d done it so much it was just second nature to rattle all the questions off. I asked him how much he spent on clothes and shoes, cue a long silence so I repeat myself incase he didn’t hear. He then reprimanded me that he has no legs. I wasn’t to know but it still to this day makes me wish the ground had swallowed me up.

How could you possibly have known this though? You didn't do anything wrong, please stop feeling bad about it!

WHALESURPRISE · 27/09/2023 09:52

FrillyGoatFluff · 27/09/2023 08:11

I was having my c section, and had written comprehensively in my birth plan about how I didn't want a particular consultant anywhere near me.

I had given birth at that hospital previously (with a very sad outcome) and frankly, he'd been a prick the entire way through the process, from 8 week consultantion to 23 week delivery.

I was naked, bent double, off my tits on premeds and nerves, having an injection into my spine, and the notes were being read by the masked up surgeon - who asked why I didn't want Mr X. I obviously thought it was wise to say why in glorious technicolour...

Yes. Clearly the bloke delivering my baby was Mr X. Not at all awkward to have someone who you've just slated then be elbow deep in your abdomen 🫣 DH sat at my head cringing himself inside out throughout the process. I didn't give a shit, I was off my head.

Midwife thought it was hilarious and admitted in recovery that everyone on the surgical team agreed with every word I'd said 😂

Awkward though, looking back.

So they ignored your birth plan and gave you him anyway?! That's awful!

AnchorWHAT · 27/09/2023 10:20

Years ago at a tourist attraction queue for the loo, went in and the lady before me had left her programme so for some reason to this day i don't know why i put it in my bag, came out and the lady was waiting for me asking if i had seen her programme she left in the cubicle…. I said no! Wtf why? She knew i had it i knew she knew so why did i not just pass it over 25 years later I still feel shame and hope shes on M N so i can say i am truly sorry.