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

[JandLandG]

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...?

I called my male boss ‘mum’ in an important external meeting. And I didn’t just call him mum, I was disagreeing with him about something and it came out in a moany teenager voice “muuuuum”

Still blush now, 10 years later.

Made a thoughtless comment to a old colleague that she wouldn't know what to do with herself with all her time off on maternity leave, she was pregnant with twins and said to me completely dead pan "looking after two babies obviously". I wasn't trying to be a knob I'm just terrible at small talk 😩

I still cringe and blush 10 years later

When I was a young adult, I was introduced to someone in a formal setting. He put his hand out to shake mine but it was a very hot day and my palms were dripping sweat and I was too embarrassed to offer him my sweaty palm so I just sort of put my hands behind my back and squirmed. He had to drop his offered hand. It was so embarrassing. Why did I not say anything for gods sake? And just to squirm like a silly child? I think about it from time to time and of course realise now it would have been less embarrassing to take his hand in my sweaty palm than to have done what I did.

Whereabouts from Wales are you from?

I’m not from Wales…

Oh most of my life really has been a series of things that make me cringe.

Current one springing to mind is the time I took my daughter to a music and movement type class when she was 2 or 3. The teacher has us all in a circle and held her hands out for us to join in. I mistook the gesture and grabbed her hand. I quickly realised it was weird but thought it would be weirder to let go.

So. We danced around. Two 30 something women holding hands and to be fair to her she did not make it awkward. I do die inside when I remember it though.

An ex boyfriend of mine had very posh, well to do parents and even though they were very nice, I was always trying to impress them but ended up looking silly. One time I went Christmas shopping with his mum, his dad picked her up & I was going to walk home. They said 'we're going to get some fish & chips, would you like to join us?' I replied no thank you. Anyway I walked off and around 10 mins later I happened to walk past a chippy & the smell was just too much to resist so I got myself some fish & chips. As I was walking out with my takeaway, ex boyfriend's parents pull up outside in their car looking confused when they saw me. I just pointed to the wrapper and mouthed something like "I changed my mind" while doing a very awkward walk away 😅

I tripped up this afternoon and went flying infront of a huge queue of traffic. Stupid frigging pavement being all different levels.

I cringed.

Years ago, when I was only 16, I was seeing a guy I really liked. We were texting back and forth as we only saw each other at the weekends. After an hour or so of texting back and forth, he said "right, I've got to go see a man about a dog". I had never heard this saying before and stupidly said "aww are you getting a dog? What kind?" 🤦🏻‍♀️ he never replied, and I never even knew at the time I had made a tit of myself. It wasn't until years later that I learned what that meant, so my embarrassment was delayed by a few years 😅

The first dance at my wedding!!
Oh god, it was so bad, as soon as we started moving our feet, well kind of just shuffling around in circles, I suddenly realised that we hadn't practiced at all, not even just a little twirl around the living room before hand. We had never slow danced with each other the whole time we had been together, and my god did it show!
I then thought 'maybe it didn't look as bad as it felt..', but when I watched the video back, I just wanted to die inside!
7 years on, we're still happily married, but whenever I think about the wedding, I just cringe so bad thinking about all those people watching us do the most awkward, crappy dance ever!!

Out with my ex in the late 80s, Autum time, walking from pub to pub with him and 6 of his mates. It had been raining and just as we got to the last pub, there was a little cottage next to it, set back, with a small, downward sloping Yorkshire stone flagged drive. One minute I'm chatting away, the next I'm laid down the drive, on my side, propping my head on my right hand! I'd caught my foot on the slippery stone and just slid down on my side! They all turned round to see where I'd suddenly gone! 🤣
The shame! Still makes me cringe 30 odd years on! ( and yes, a couple of them rushed to help me up! Not my ex, he was first into the pub, as he was obsessed with getting pissed on a night out! 🙄)

Snogging an older (married) manager at a Christmas party when I was a young (drunken) graduate recruit. I hadn't really grasped it wasn't appropriate but then he shouldn't have taken advantage. It was about 35 years ago though!

I was 22.
I was at a house party.
I was wearing a spaghetti strap, really short sundress, no bra.
I was on a 3rd date with the guy I’d had my eye on for AGES.
I’d had one stubby beer. It was about 9pm
We were dancing and flirting and kissing a bit and it was all going very well.
He went to chat to some people we both knew.
After a while I sidled up, all ‘hey you’ and was dancing mildly to the music, backed up to his thigh.

Then I looked up and saw him leaving the room.

There are a whole sequence throughout my life, but the oldest one that still bothers me - I feel so sorry for the child I was - is when I was 5/6 and I was in a queue with DPs in a busy cafe. I was quite a shy child, but for some reason I excitedly turned to DF behind me and said 'Daddy, please can I pay for the ice creams?!'. However the man behind me was not DF.

The man said something funny about me paying for his ice cream, and all the adults in the queue looked at me and laughed. It was horrible, like an anxiety dream, everyone looking and laughing at me for getting it wrong, I can remember tears welling up and desperately trying not to cry.

Then when we got to the front of the queue I was too nervous to talk to anyone to say what flavour I wanted. In fact I was too nervous to talk to anyone in a shop for years, I used to take my younger brother with me to speak to people.

Was hanging out with a guy I fancied from school when he asked if I wanted to go back to his. I agreed.
His Dad was a loud "lad" type and I felt quite intimidated by him. I was shy anyway.

At one point, he asked me if I was wearing make up (to point out that I fancied his Son). I didn't want to say yes and make it look like I made an effort, so instead I came out with "I don't know."
He then asked his Son where he managed to find someone who had no idea if they were wearing make up or not 🙈😂

How were you saying her name?

What's the Viktor joke?

Many years ago (late teens) I had a horse and we were inbetween yards so I had him turned out for a bit in the summer at a small yard owned by a guy who was quite a bit older than me but I had a huge crush on him and my brain seemed to turn into mush in his presence!
One day I went to his house to post the livery money through his letterbox and he happened to open the door as I got there. I said "Oh hi! I was just going to put this in the..umm..the... er...the....umm...door hole!" (The word letterbox had completely left my vocabulary!) I think I just shoved the money at him and ran! Over 30 years later I still cringe!

I have a whole list with a new one added every day.

Can't speak for PP but I was reading the books as a pre/young teen and thought it was Her-me-own! 😂

Interestingly, even when the person you made a fool of yourself in front of is dead and buried, the feeling of mortification does not abate at all.

Mine makes me cringe and feel sick in equal measures! When I was 16 and had my first boyfriend I was on the bus going to my Saturday job. I was on the phone to him and we were taking about my upcoming birthday (17) and he said he'd give me a pearl necklace! I had no idea what this meant at all and assumed he meant the jewellery kind, so I'm gushing away (on the packed bus full of people) about how he doesn't need to give me a pearl necklace! To make matters worse I immediately phoned my friend to tell her all about the pearl necklace I would be getting and we were chatting away about how strange it was as a gift. Seemed like something you'd buy your Nan and would rather prefer diamonds but it was a lovely generous gift! Everyone on the bus must having been chuckling away to themselves at my naivety! I think we must have broken up before my birthday anyway (thank god) so I never got my pearl necklace (of either variety) and the penny finally dropped for me a few years later!!

Yes! That’s exactly as I was pronouncing it.

In the book Viktor Krumb also mispronounces it, and Hermione corrects him but I didn’t realise that I was mispronouncing it as well

This made me laugh out loud! It’s actually very cute, hopefully the teacher just thought you were really into the class.

So many from my drinking days it's not even funny, I'm pretty sure I could win this thread hands down! Worst one - get ready for this - was waking up in just my knickers in my boyfriend's dad's bed having wet his bed. Yep. Apparently I used to sleepwalk to the loo when I was drunk in my sleep. But would get confused with the loo and wet beds... the shame.

But loads of other ones since giving up drinking as well! Mainly talking to people and putting my foot in it or feeling anxious and misunderstanding people / not paying enough attention.

It's comforting to know other people have these cringeing moments and I'm not the only one! I think we have to decide we are human and fallible and cock up on a regular basis. As long as our intentions are good and we try and improve then I think we are doing quite well, really.

I remember I used to babysit after school, for a neighbour. I looked after the children between the mum going to work and the dad coming home. One day, the dad got in and said, "He'd been to see a man about a dog." I went home and told my parents next door were getting a dog. I was very disappointed when they told me he'd been down the pub. I was looking forward to looking after the dog, too!