Misunderstandings you had as a child

[NoEffingWay]

When I was little, there was a florist near my house. It had beautiful displays of flowers, and I used to spend ages looking in the window. What I really wanted to do was save my 20p a week pocket money and buy my Mum some flowers. Not just any flowers but the ones that said ‘Mum’ on them. I was in my teens before I realised these were for funeral cars . Luckily for my mum, there was a sweet shop next door where I spent my 20p on sweets every week so I never even asked!

When I went to the cinema aged about 6, I was surprised to see that Mary Poppins was pretending to be a nun called Maria who looked after a family of children. I wondered why nobody else realised who she really was.

A few years later I was surprised to see that James Bond and Sean Connery were in the same film.

I was quite a bright child but the idea of acting somehow escaped my understanding!

Oh lord this was me, I could defo read too. Hmmm “Shop To Let” that’s nice that they advertise it, great of you get caught short, what a nice shop owner.

I thought Houston was a person. As in “Houston, we have a problem”.

Not me, but my head teacher told us about how she was a small child at Remembrance Sunday and misheard that the statue was a 'Warm Memorial'. She plucked up the courage to go and touch it after the service and was very surprised to find it was cold.

😂

I was flabbergasted when I was told that Henry the eighth made everyone in the country belong to the Church of England so that he could get divorced. I was about eight years old and I thought this meant the entire religion was invented so that he could get divorced.

I thought Sinn Fein was a person.

I thought the gorillas were attacking humans - just like Planet of the Apes.

me too 😭

When we were driving along motorways when I was a child, we'd see big trucks that said "plant hire" on the side. I thought they had very big plants inside that you could hire for an upscale event. I was about 12 when I vocalised this and got told that "plant" in this context meant equipment for groundworks like diggers etc. I did always wonder why there was such demand for rented horticulture!

He did create the Church of England so he could divorce.

I used to think the same thing I thought it was just me! 😂😂 I thought they all missed the “i” 🤣

I was about 9 when I learned Grandma and Nana were the same thing

Did you ever see a ‘heavy plant crossing’ sign and wonder what it meant?

I believed for quite a long time that if I was taking an English test that it was cheating to read the text more than once. So I would read it very slowly trying to memorise it before I got to the questions. Then I'd take surreptitious glances at it hoping no one would see. No wonder English was my worst subject.

When I was informed owls could turn their heads 360 degrees, I interpreted that as they could spin them freely. Think I was at least mid-teens until I learnt that wasn't quite true, and that they had to return them back to the start. Was rather disappointed as I quite liked the idea of owls whizzing their heads round and round, entirely independent of the rest of their bodies. Not sure why as it would actually probably be pretty scary!

I thought they were little lamps (complete with bulbs and a wiring system under the road surface) which somehow sensed a car coming towards them and lit up and then switched off after it had passed them.

Yes! I had visions of massive indoor trees on rolling platforms!

When I had an argument a discussion with my brother recently, I told him that we don't actually need men anymore. We could basically harvest some sperm and do away with them. He looked at me like I was stupid and said "err, I could say the same about women. Haven't you heard of test tube babies?"

“Gallant and bald “hahaha

The cats eye lights on roads… I always though they were actual lights and wondered how they did the wiring under the road surface 🙈

I also grew up watching the lampies if anyone’s seen it so thought for ages that there were little people living in street lamps lol

I was really too old when I finally realised what private ambulances were for...for many years I'd see them driving and think "why wouldn't you go in a real ambulance?" Also was really confused about why something people paid for privately was clearly much worse then a regular ambulance. I couldn't get my head around how the paramedics would manage when theres much less room in there and wouldn't it feel claustrophobic with no windows?

I used to think that the clouds moving across the sky was actually the world turning. Was disappointed to find out it was just the wind blowing the clouds.

As for my own misunderstandings.

I thought that doctors and nurses were the same thing, but doctors were men and nurses were women. Admittedly most doctors were men, and most nurses were women. But I thought they were the same job. Much like actors and actresses. Or waiters and waitresses.

I also thought I was a Baptist for a long time. I'm not, just plain on CofE. But my church was called St John The Baptist.

My favourite shop was the antique shop. Pronounced anti queues.

I overheard my friend's parents talking about putting money in chairs, I didn't think this was a good idea and putting the money in a bank would be much safer. It was years later I realised they were talking about putting money in shares.