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Original poster

Things that you still cringe about...despite the fact that it was decades ago with people you no longer know..

137 replies

JandLandG · 26/02/2025 01:07

This came into my head as a fun/silly/light-hearted idea to chat about bc I reasonably regularly do this...

I thought I'd start things off with a typical example...but now I can't bloody think of one!

I'll be back...but for now...anyone fancy sharing...?

OP posts:
gettingthehangofsewing · 26/02/2025 02:49

I have things that randomly pop into my head that I feel mortified by.

One is visiting a newish friend when I had a young baby (as did she) and staying about 5 hours. I remember her mil coming while I was there and her acting like it was a surprise visit. But looking back I wonder if she was too polite to tell me to leave.

I also once got a lift home from dds friends mum and we sat and chatted in the car for about 30 min on my drive at the time I had a lovely chat but now I think was she just waiting for me to leave?? Or wondering why I didn't invite her in for a drink?

the80sweregreat · 26/02/2025 06:51

Loads of things tbh.
I'd rather I could forget most of them

DistressedDamson · 26/02/2025 06:54

I have many of these scattered through my life. I had one from work only a few days ago which I won’t share here as it’s potentially outing but needless to say I’m still still cringing 😬 🙈

Tunnockslover · 26/02/2025 07:28

Years ago at my daughters Christening the vicar did a cross over her forehead and then said we as parents could do the same. I got really flustered and confused and crossed myself - this was CofE not Catholic. I still think of it often. It was a joke for a while but I now think I am the only one that remembers.

gettingthehangofsewing · 26/02/2025 11:42

At my first wedding the vicar said'you may now kiss the bride " we leant in exdh did a peck and moved away so abruptly I stumbled and heard people laugh.

At my second wedding I tripped on the door frame walking in

the80sweregreat · 26/02/2025 11:55

I was told about the small step in the church down to the vestry to sign the certificates, but I still tripped down it and my vail fell off! lol
Luckily nobody noticed and nobody put it on ' you've been framed '! 😆

the80sweregreat · 26/02/2025 11:56

Veil rather !

SingingSands · 26/02/2025 12:14

I was about 13 so have carried the cringe of this for MANY years...

I was walking up one of the main staircases at school to go to morning registration - massive secondary school of about 2000 kids, so you can imagine how busy it was.

My English teacher was behind me and she tapped me on the shoulder and said "you've got something stuck to your rucksack". It was a pair of tights. Probably got caught on my bag when I grabbed it off my bedroom floor. I hadn't noticed and had walked all the way to school. I nearly combusted with shame and spent the whole day thinking of all the kids in school I must have walked past on my way to school, then in the playground, in the corridors, on the stairwell...

Original poster
JandLandG · 27/02/2025 01:11

I still can't bloody think of one, but I've had a busy day.

Some of these are sweet and harmless and nice and endearing tbh...

Some fall into the category of "I can laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible."

I've got some corkers of cringe, I'm sure, but can't think...

Over staying my welcome a couple of times is a trait of mine...but that's just because I'm enjoying everyone's company - one of our neighbours regularly takes the Mickey about this at her place after a few drinks....I don't mind...nice when ppl can take the mick in a nice way

OP posts:
songbird3086 · 27/02/2025 02:09

Oh my gosh... years ago i was 27. I had met up with a few friends drinking/ bottomless brunch type thing around 4pm.

One of the girls was leaving early to go to a wedding reception of her husband's family.. at 7pm.

Now for some reason I hit the cocktails hard! I'm not a big drinker but I put them away! The friend was moaning saying she didn't really want to go as she didn't like some people and her husband family are upper class and posh and she feels awkward at times.

Que me practically inviting myself convinced i was the bridge in this family gap Hmm why the hell she took me but she did... I was in jeans and a leather biker jacket. I looked hugely out of place and knew no one bar my friend and her husband. I walked up the bride and started chatting away like o was an old friend...
to top it off i met a lovely man who told me he was ln a lacrosse team and I spent the night asking him when he learned to ride a horse and everything about bloody horses as I thought it was polo......

LieutenantJumboJr · 27/02/2025 17:30

I made the horrible,awful faux pas of asking (a non pregnant) ex work colleague who had put on weight ‘when are you due?’when I was younger. I still want to curl up and die when I think about it. I wouldnt dream of saying this to anybody now I wish I had a time machine to go back and undo it 🙈 And recently she’s started working in the salon I get my brows done at I’m going to have to change salons I think.

Wendolino · 27/02/2025 17:38

I was about 16 and went to a football match with my friend. It was quite warm and I was just wearing a t-shirt that was quite tight and a new bra which wasn't as supportive as it could have been.
We were walking down some steps that went under a stand so passing underneath a lot of fans. My boobs were wobbling like mad as we went down the steps and several of the crowd were shouting "tits tits tits".
I nearly died.

Berroca · 27/02/2025 17:42

@Wendolino sorry but that made me laugh out loud 🤣

Gatekeeper · 27/02/2025 17:46

Aged 17, very unworldy and sitting in the canteen at work. It was 1981 and I was reading a racy book. I came to a word I didn't recognise and asked out loud "What's cunnilingus"? Room went silent, one bloke nearly bit through his cup and the rest waited with baited breath for someone to elaborate...

Fucketbucket · 27/02/2025 17:47

A massive alsation dog shagging my leg, in front of a big group of people, some of whom I didn't know very well when I was about 16. I'm 45 now and it still makes me cringe! 😂

Legalaction · 27/02/2025 17:50

I was working with a slightly younger really cool bloke and I wanted to seem as though I knew about music etc.

The Riverboat Song came on the radio and I said ‘oh I love this song, it’s Ocean Coliseum’ and he looked at me and I could see he was dying to laugh but he didn’t say anything. Much later on I realised that the band is Ocean Colour Scene and died a little inside.
30 years later I still cringe

Wendolino · 27/02/2025 17:56

Berroca · 27/02/2025 17:42

@Wendolino sorry but that made me laugh out loud 🤣

You and everyone else I've ever told 😂😂😂

shellyleppard · 27/02/2025 18:00

@Gatekeeper and did anyone oblige with the explanation??

Blarn · 27/02/2025 18:02

I was once distributing the post in our small office. Walked up to someone senior who was chatting with some colleagues and I passed him a technical magazine he was subscribed to and said with a helpful smile, "just a magazine for you. Something for the weekend". I started to walk away and just thought why did I say that!?

I have also today set a photo of pipes to our taps under our bathroom sink to the plumber. Checked the photo one side, snapped the other and sent them then realised there was a pregnancy test box stuck between the pipe and the cupboard.

ItGhoul · 27/02/2025 18:08

I'd been to an evening event with my then boss and she was driving us back and said she'd drop me at my flat (a very, very tiny studio) as it was on the way to her place. When she dropped me off she was absolutely desperate for the loo and asked if she could use mine. I obviously said yes, because I'm not a monster, but the flat was absolute pigsty at the time. I was in my mid-20s and as it was a one-room flat, my bedroom was also my living room so my boss saw my clothes chucked on the floor, unmade bed, knickers drying on the radiator, half-eaten packet of biscuits and dirty mugs left out, and, because I had needed to change the lightbulb that morning, a random dining chair in the bathroom which I'd been standing on.

My boss was openly horrified at the state of the place.

This happened almost a quarter of a century ago in a flat I can't even remember the full address of and I've no idea whether my old boss is even still alive because I left the job in 2002. And yet I am somehow still mortified and remember it about once a fortnight.

UnderHisEeyore · 27/02/2025 18:10

I still cringe when I remember a guy I used to work with (we all used to go drinking together too) was flirting on messenger. I got a bit confused because he used to ignore me at work and I actually used to think he didn't like me and told my friends this at the time. I was baffled as to why he kept messaging until one day he said something like "I'll never forget that night in the Kings Head". I was 🤔It turned out the night I had discovered my ex had cheated on me I had got very very drunk, asked him why he hated me and he had taken me outside to a bench and confessed his undying love for me for several hours. None of which I remembered. He was mortified I didn't even remember it, I was mortified I didn't remember it. Not sure it was worth him bringing it up 20 years later on messenger tbh (cringing thinking about it now). I have no idea what I said to him at the time but he clearly didn't follow up on anything or I probably would have had a clue!

Pinkl · 27/02/2025 18:11

Many years ago I was talking to my boss in the office about the Harry Potter books. When I started talking about Hermione he looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t and carried on the conversation. At the time I thought, huh. It was sometime after when I saw the films that it clicked I realised I’d been loudly mispronouncing her name. And I finally got the Viktor joke!

wotaloadashite · 27/02/2025 18:15

Oh this thread makes me feel better as I have things that I beat myself up about from years ago.

Giving my boyfriend's granny a kiss hello and being the only person in the house who did so. Neither of her grandsons greeted her like this. Still makes me cringe now.

Being 'pursued' by a friend's much younger cousin at a wedding and taking him to one side to tell him to leave me alone as I was too old for him and his mum coming out to tell me off for leading her teenage son on. That's so painful as I was misunderstood!

I have others but they're the stand-out ones at the moment. I might be back!

Assumingthebest · 27/02/2025 18:16

My boss was just a bit older than me. In front of the open plan office he leant towards me a bit to wish me a good holiday. For some bizarre reason I kissed him on the cheek. 25 years ago and still mortified.

AddictedToBooks · 27/02/2025 18:19

Mine was when I was about 14 and my friends and I had a sort of cubbyhole that we'd sit in as we had to practice a song for music - I was singing away and saw someone looming in my peripheral vision and thought it was one of the annoying boys who kept teasing us and as I kept perfectly in tune I adlibbed and sang (in a sweet voice) "fuck off" whilst sticking the middle finger up in their face (rude I know but I was also showing off to my friends and also meant it in a joky manner thinking it was one of the classemates we bantered with) -- it was a teacher!!
To make it worse, he was a teacher I'd never seen before and I formed an instant crush on him as I was extremely red-faced and apologised profusely.

God, I'm cringing now thinking about it - shouts out into the ether "Sorry once again Mr Lloyd"