Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Things you used to do that now make you cringe!

414 replies

lifestooshorttodickaboutwithaubergines · 13/01/2024 13:33

So I’ve been seeing the odd Facebook memory, throwing up past status updates I posted that now give me extreme second-hand embarrassment. We’re talking maybe ten or so years ago.

It got me thinking about how when I first learnt to drive, at about 19, I had a car but didn’t use it to get to work. My part-time job whilst at uni was in the town centre and it didn’t make financial sense to drive due to parking costs and that, so I would get the bus instead. For some unknown reason I felt a bit embarrassed about this, so when on the bus I used to keep my car keys in my hand so they’d be visible to the other passengers. Just so they’d know I could actually drive, y’know 🙄

I cringe when I think back to this! I’m sure nobody even noticed, because why would they, but I get that hot feeling of embarrassment whenever I recall it 😳

Anyone else look back at things you used to do and think wtf was I thinking?!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
RainbowZebraWarrior · 14/01/2024 20:32

Lovelynames123 · 14/01/2024 20:27

My favourite outfit was cycling shorts with one black leg and one white, with a black and white tshirt the opposite way round, and black and white Nike Huraches...and I wore one white sock, one black sock and 2 watches, yes, one white and one black 😳😂 in my defense it would've been the early 90s, but thankfully no SM evidence!

I actually think your outfit sounds incredibly cool.

keffie12 · 14/01/2024 20:34

FknOmniShambles · 13/01/2024 16:33

I used to write what I thought were really witty, self deprecating, Bridget Jones style statuses - at the time I thought I was such a comic - now I just die when Memories throws them up again 😑😑

Just delete the memory. Yes, you can do that. I look at my memories daily and anything old I don't want or daft is deleted

bossybloss · 14/01/2024 20:37

All2Well · 13/01/2024 17:11

I'm about to turn 40 and looking back at who I was at 30 with horror...I was really immature.

That year I set myself a challenge of giving fake Disney princess names in Starbucks when they took my order. I wasn't brave enough to say "Cinderella" so I did "Cindy" and "Ella". I was never brave enough to try Mulan or Pocahontas. Jasmine, Belle and Aurora were relatively easy. I saved Ariel and Aurora for holidays in hippy towns, I remember a barista saying "I like your hat, Ariel." and I blushed. I called myself "Snow" at one point, "Briar" at another...I saved the cups.

I meant wtf was I thinking? 30/31 years old. Loser.

I was also just very dramatic. Posted cryptic quotes on FB. That sort of thing.

I think this is absolutely brilliant and when you get to the age I am now (60!)you will care not one hit and might try it again …… as might I !!!! Xxx

bossybloss · 14/01/2024 20:37

Not one JOT

Naptrappedmummy · 14/01/2024 20:42

A friend went onto the family computer when she was 12 and wrote a long story about bunking off school to meet with her hot male neighbour (who must’ve been all of 14) for a sexual encounter. Her parents found the story and, believing it to be a factual account, approached his parents to demand to know what happened. Of course they soon found out it was a work of pure fiction, but not until the son had been confronted by his parents etc she almost dies of embarrassment when she thinks about it even now - we’re in our 30s!

NonPlayerCharacter · 14/01/2024 20:48

BeautyGoesToBenidorm · 14/01/2024 20:12

This is very outing, but as a diehard Manic Street Preachers "glitter kid" when I was 14... faking a Welsh accent when I had a distinctly Nordic one 😂😂 Fuck knows what I sounded like!

I would love to have heard this!

DoctorTeeCee · 14/01/2024 20:52

The Deputy Head Master comment!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Schleep · 14/01/2024 20:52

Was chatting to a guy for a few weeks on OLD.
One night I drove to the pub he worked at and went in pretending that I'd broken down near it and was waiting for the AA, and pretended that it was a TOTAL COINCIDENCE that I'd found myself at the pub he worked at. This was the first time we met in person, and we dated for about 6 months after that.

I am well aware this is the behaviour of a psychopath. 😳
In my defence, I had just come out of a relationship that turned out to have been a long con and he ran away with my life savings (£12k+) and I did eventually tell the OLD guy I'd orchestrated the meet-cute.
But its still cringe as fuck, and I'm not sure I'll ever recover from the shame.

LaPalmaLlama · 14/01/2024 20:53

Pretended to be on acid at a party to impress a slightly druggie cool boy in the year above. I had no idea what it was like so I pretended to have a bad trip and started acting like an extra from Apocalypse Now and wondered why he just thought I needed sectioning rather than falling madly in love with me.

FUBAR77 · 14/01/2024 20:55

Seriously too many to mention but I used to snog the life out of my posters, Robbie Williams and Mark Owen got it nightly whether they wanted it or not.

Also, I used to lip sync ballads in the mirror even making myself cry just preparing myself for my future as the next Mariah Carey…didn’t quite work out for me…

PhotoFirePoet · 14/01/2024 20:56

I lied about my age because I have always looked younger, so took 10 years off! I got away with it too, 😂😳

Cattenberg · 14/01/2024 21:01

So many things.

Several times, I’ve been too drunk at parties, including ones with colleagues present.

I slept with a guy who turned out to be a total prat, but for a while I was obsessed with him. He went on to make a fool of himself on national TV - he was only famous for about two days, however there were a few newspaper articles written about him in that time, plus jokes on Twitter.

I was bored in a Zoom meeting at work and started muttering nonsense to myself (a bad habit of mine). Then I realised that my microphone was on. I was mortified.

I have farted loudly in public quite a few times. The worst time was when I went abroad with my hobby group and we had the honour of meeting a local bigwig (regional governor). During the meeting, I suddenly let one off without warning. I’m ashamed to say that I tried to pin the blame on the bloke sitting next to me by glaring at him.

thaegumathteth · 14/01/2024 21:02

My friend and I had a massive crush on a guy in our drama class. We were 14/15 and he was in his 20s. We walked past his house on the way home from school every day for about 18 months even though it took us miles out of our way.

Anyways also turns out he was very very obviously in retrospect, gay.

Sometimes I see him when I visit my parents as he works in the town centre and I cringe inside out.

gimmegimmegimmea · 14/01/2024 21:02

SoOutingWhoCares · 13/01/2024 17:27

My ex announced to me that he never wanted to marry. Ever. I was devastated and ended it.

I did what every self respecting jilted heartbroken woman does and wore a long, pure white, floaty, slightly blingy designer gown with a small train to a party that we were both at the week after we broke up, so he could see what he was "missing".

The amount of people who said, "ahhh wow look at you! You look like a bride!" whilst I said "God no, if I actually ever got married I'd choose something wayyyyyyyy nicer than this old thing! It was just at the back of my wardrobe...It's just really easy to dance in...comfy...wafty..." I spectacularly failed at gaslighting everyone into believing I wasn't there dressed as a bride.

My friends looked on like they were watching a car crash in slow motion.

My ex spent the entire night rooted to the spot in fear, not saying a word except to ask me if I was drunk. I was completely sober. My guy friend said he caught him crying in the toilets at one point and was quite concerned. That made me happier that it should.

In all fairness to myself, when he eventually married, her wedding dress wasn't as nice as my "not a wedding" dress, and he didn't cry.

So 98% mortified and 2% secretly happy with myself.

But I wouldn't randomly show up as a bride to a party again.

I love this. It needs to be on a sitcom

Paininthederriere · 14/01/2024 21:03

Call ourselves either French, Italian (or just what we thought were foreign & therefore obviously more attractive & exotic) versions of our own names to any boys we interacted with on holiday. Sooo naff 🤣🤣🤣

JRsEyebrows · 14/01/2024 21:03

I was a shy 14 year old somehow ‘speaking’ to the ring leader of the bad lads at school. We’d text and (awkwardly) sext over Facebook and actually had planned to go back to his after school, of course he was excluded so would return for me.. My 18 year old sister found the messages on the family laptop and decided to read the sexts one by one to my parents. I was mortified.

In hindsight, she might of done me a favour as she was no saint herself and probably stopped me getting a name for myself!

Somepeoplearesnippy · 14/01/2024 21:06

When I was about 14 my BFF and I walked up and down our local South London High St for days asking people to sign our petition. We wanted the government to reduce the rate of income tax so our beloved Bay City Rollers wouldn't have to become tax exiles! I don't think we even understood what income tax was, we were just trying to be sophisticated in our school uniforms and tartan scarves.

Original poster
lifestooshorttodickaboutwithaubergines · 14/01/2024 21:10

Sirprised · 14/01/2024 20:19

I once pretended to be asleep and have a sex dream on a school coach(with the kind of noises I assumed you made when you had sex) so I seemed like a cool, sexual young woman instead of an awkward teenage virgin. Wtf was I thinking?!

Found out the number of the boy everyone at school fancied and kept calling him with my mate. I think we somehow thought he might fall in love with us after ignoring us at school forever. He didn't. He told his mates we were stalking him. So embarrassing.

I also kept a kind of fact file about another lad I fancied. This had been a long term crush. One day, he stuck a piece of chewing gum under a table, so I went and retrieved it and put it in a bit of paper. I kept it under my pillow so I could have his saliva near me 😂

I think pretty much everything I did for at least a decade was pure cringe.

So funny that you faked a sex dream 😂

OP posts:
mimiku · 14/01/2024 21:11

PuddleEyes · 13/01/2024 19:53

Properly, intensely make out with boys on the dance floor of the club. Before everyone had camera phones! It makes me cringe to think that was in front of so many people I knew.

Also guilty of this 😅

Funnywonder · 14/01/2024 21:16

Way back in the 80's, before I could drive, I used to get into arguments with taxi drivers over which route was shorter when I was coming home from DP's house. Then I argued over the fare. The thing is, I'm the least confident person I know. I suppose it was the hubris (and stupidity) of youth. They must have hated to see me coming! Poor guys were just trying to make a living and the vast majority of them were really decent.

tillytoodles1 · 14/01/2024 21:17

I used to fancy a guy who got the same bus home as me. One day the bus was crowded so he sat next to me, I was thrilled.
The next day he sat behind me and and I sneezed. A huge blob if snot shot out and stuck to the window, and quivered all the way home.

thelovingkind · 14/01/2024 21:18

Sirprised · 14/01/2024 20:19

I once pretended to be asleep and have a sex dream on a school coach(with the kind of noises I assumed you made when you had sex) so I seemed like a cool, sexual young woman instead of an awkward teenage virgin. Wtf was I thinking?!

Found out the number of the boy everyone at school fancied and kept calling him with my mate. I think we somehow thought he might fall in love with us after ignoring us at school forever. He didn't. He told his mates we were stalking him. So embarrassing.

I also kept a kind of fact file about another lad I fancied. This had been a long term crush. One day, he stuck a piece of chewing gum under a table, so I went and retrieved it and put it in a bit of paper. I kept it under my pillow so I could have his saliva near me 😂

I think pretty much everything I did for at least a decade was pure cringe.

The sex dream one has got me crying laughing 😂😂

Doggymummar · 14/01/2024 21:25

ThreeKneeRepeater · 13/01/2024 16:49

I went on holiday and invented a whole new persona for myself. It was quite enjoyable but quite hard to keep up.
It was before social media so I knew I’d never see any of the people I met again.
Hitch hiked without giving it a second thought about risk.

My partner and I are in our 50s and do that on holiday still. We find it hilarious, never anything mean, he is autistic and finds people hard so tries to discourage any one too friendly

biscuitnut · 14/01/2024 21:26

As a teen I bought shoes a size too small because I thought small feet looked nicer. What a bloody moron.

Funnywonder · 14/01/2024 21:27

Oh God, just cringed myself inside out remembering that I used to tell people I was a model. I looked NOTHING like a model, but my best friend did some work for a model agency and I was a bit jealous and wanted to see whether people would just nod politely or actually believe me. It was the former😆 Why? Just why?