Active discussions

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

What obvious adult discoveries made you feel a bit of a plonker?

691 replies

Airconfan · 21/09/2026 00:36

What’s something you learnt as an adult that made you think that’s completely obvious and yet I have never considered that….i feel like a bit of a plonker?

Mine was when taking tablets, the more you drink with it the better it will dissolve. I think alot of tablets are testing with the assumption people will drink 250ml alongside it.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
11
LunaMay · Yesterday 13:05

SeraphionLightbringer · 21/09/2026 09:53

I thought there were two places…one called Magaluf and one called Mallaguff. I was about 26 when I realised there was no Mallaguff 🤦‍♀️

DH is absolutely incredulous about the second one as I didn’t find out about anal sex until I was about 30. I sometimes pondered what gay men did in bed but concluded that it couldn’t be that exciting. Then, one day someone mentioned it and I was like ‘hold the phone…what?’ 😮 😮

Edited

The funniest conversation i ever had was my mum and i educating my nan on anal sex and blow jobs etc. 70 years old ans she'd had no idea!

TheDenimPoet · Yesterday 13:12

Shedmistress · 21/09/2026 18:44

Gherkins are not small cucumbers any more than cherry tomatoes are not small beefsteak tomatoes.

Show quote history

A gherkin IS a type of cucumber. And they are small. Therefore they are small cucumbers.

Beefsteak and cherry are types of tomatoes. It would be correct to call cherry tomatoes "small tomatoes", just as it is correct to call gherkins "small cucumbers".

Megamegablahblah · Yesterday 13:13

saveforthat · 21/09/2026 08:05

I've posted this before but I thought the channel tunnel was under the sea not under the sea bed.

My dad helped design the channel tunnel and i always visualise it through the sea too 😂

EmailsaysOOO · Yesterday 13:14

Squirrelsnut · 21/09/2026 07:06

My dad, an intelligent and well-read person, somehow got to adulthood thinking that it was 'chimley' not chimney.

I think you'll find the correct word is chimbly 😁

YourAmberExpert · Yesterday 13:14

Takethehuntingquiche · Yesterday 08:15

I can't believe people don't know this. It's even written in the instruction booklet

Show quote history

Who reads Hoover instruction booklets 😅

x2boys · Yesterday 13:24

JudgeJ · Yesterday 11:18

Morning fellow Notlob'er, oddly I only found out that Monty Python first called our esteemed town Notlob, it was in the Dead Parrot sketch. I remember all these words and many others, my Dad would talk about a prestinct and would have it that it was precint, no middle t . Someone else has mentioned chimley, I recall chimbley being used. Sometimes miss the old town but have read some sad things about it now.

Show quote history

Lol, yes the towm centre is awful now
Such a shame because there are some great buildings and of course Le mans crescent
Interesting about Monty Python!

Takethehuntingquiche · Yesterday 13:47

YourAmberExpert · Yesterday 13:14

Who reads Hoover instruction booklets 😅

Show quote history

A lesson learnt then, as the 30 seconds it would take to read the couple of sentences in the instructions would save time each time you vaccuum which for me would be more time than I care to think about

Now if only there was a facility for wrapping the cord back up as quickly!

Tiddlywinks63 · Yesterday 14:03

EmailsaysOOO · Yesterday 13:14

I think you'll find the correct word is chimbly 😁

Show quote history

Wrong. It’s definitely chiminimey

TheKindnessProject · Yesterday 14:11

Carolenarua · 21/09/2026 03:13

That the sun doesn't rise. Morto!!

You what? Oh God, every day is indeed another school day for me. And I have a very expensive education behind me too. Sighhhh.

twothingscanbetrue · Yesterday 14:15

heymammy · 21/09/2026 21:43

I didn't know until long after I'd birthed three babies (two of whom are female) that baby girls are born with all their egg cells already.

Blew my mind that my daughter's eggs were made in my body. Literally never gave it a moment's thought prior to learning that fact.

Pretty cool as I sit here nursing my 8 week old that part of the next generation is already in my arms. If she chooses to do that of course.

Im tired so I'm not going to explain this well but I read recently that really it's the female line that continues, for this very reason. Really made me rethink the whole of human history where it's been about having a son and boys inheriting etc. Was interesting! Wish I was able to reiterate it better 😅

Doubledenim305 · Yesterday 14:52

GarlicSomething · Yesterday 12:39

Every couple of months, we have a Mumsnetter with a 'broken' washing machine - who never knew there's a filter you're supposed to clean out.

Show quote history

🤯 is there?

EmailsaysOOO · Yesterday 14:58

Tiddlywinks63 · Yesterday 14:03

Wrong. It’s definitely chiminimey

Show quote history

Ok thanks I stand corrected. ( Although I think you might be missing a letter B in there..Maybe it's chiminimbley)

Bargarran · Yesterday 15:36

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Merrybandofpirates · Yesterday 15:47

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Did you seriously just say that? Work on the language that you use because that is not a noun used anymore.

Bargarran · Yesterday 15:49

Merrybandofpirates · Yesterday 15:47

Did you seriously just say that? Work on the language that you use because that is not a noun used anymore.

Show quote history

What isn't?

Merrybandofpirates · Yesterday 15:51

Bargarran · Yesterday 15:49

What isn't?

Show quote history

You do not describe black people as “blacks.” It is outdated and widely considered racist.

Even government guidance for people immigrating to this country gives lists of acceptable and unacceptable terms. “Blacks” is not an acceptable term.

GarlicSomething · Yesterday 16:29

Merrybandofpirates · Yesterday 15:51

You do not describe black people as “blacks.” It is outdated and widely considered racist.

Even government guidance for people immigrating to this country gives lists of acceptable and unacceptable terms. “Blacks” is not an acceptable term.

Show quote history

I'll elaborate, if I may. This is one of those changes that happened quickly but quietly so it's fairly easy to have missed it, @Bargarran!

It's rude to refer to someone AS a skin colour, so we don't say "Blacks" or "Whites". Obviously people do have coloured skin, so black people or white people still sounds okay - they are people of a certain colour.

It's also a bit bonkers that we still refer to people AS a hair colour, eg "Blondes". This may also be on its way out, though. "Blonde/fair-haired people" definitely sounds more gentle and less like an automatic stereotype.

Take your point about those gigantic Russians, though!

Bargarran · Yesterday 16:33

Merrybandofpirates · Yesterday 15:51

You do not describe black people as “blacks.” It is outdated and widely considered racist.

Even government guidance for people immigrating to this country gives lists of acceptable and unacceptable terms. “Blacks” is not an acceptable term.

Show quote history

You just said 'black people'😂

What obvious adult discoveries made you feel a bit of a plonker?
SabreIsMyFave · Yesterday 16:44

Merrybandofpirates · 21/09/2026 21:11

But she didn’t dissolve it. She at the thing and would have had it fizzing all the way down and fizzing in her stomach 😆

Show quote history

Oh yeah of course! 😆

ArcangelaTarabotti · Yesterday 16:44

Ireallycantthinkofagoodone · 21/09/2026 15:33

Just to say that chewing and swallowing aspirin is not the correct thing for a heart attack. You need 75mg soluble aspirin under the tongue. That way, it is absorbed by the blood vessels there very much more efficiently that anything via the stomach.

Show quote history

Thank you for this! Has no idea have just ordered some.

SabreIsMyFave · Yesterday 16:46

Minasama · 21/09/2026 22:19

That your child was once in your mother’s body (as an egg in your ovary when you were a baby in her tummy.) This blows my mind. I didn’t even know we were born with all our eggs.

Also I only discovered a couple of months ago that MDMA is ecstasy and that some types of vapes are illegal, both of these things unfortunately from the head teacher of my daughter’s school due to her behaviour…

Edited

I have to admit, I didn't know we (women) were born with all our eggs til I was about 45! Blush

SabreIsMyFave · Yesterday 16:56

@LetMeGoogleThat · Today 08:47

That the statues on Easter Island are full bodies, with just the head above ground! I always thought they were just heads 🙈

I did not know that! Confused

ALSO, I only discovered around 5 years ago, that Pokemon is short for Pocket Monsters.

SabreIsMyFave · Yesterday 16:57

AND I only found out recently that the little arrow near the fuel gauge, (next to the petrol pump icon,) indicates which side the petrol cap is on! Went over 50 years without knowing this! 😆

What obvious adult discoveries made you feel a bit of a plonker?
Merrybandofpirates · Yesterday 17:02

Bargarran · Yesterday 16:33

You just said 'black people'😂

Show quote history

Which is very different from “blacks.” Are you quite well?

Shedmistress · Yesterday 17:09

TheDenimPoet · Yesterday 13:12

A gherkin IS a type of cucumber. And they are small. Therefore they are small cucumbers.

Beefsteak and cherry are types of tomatoes. It would be correct to call cherry tomatoes "small tomatoes", just as it is correct to call gherkins "small cucumbers".

Edited
Show quote history

No they are not a cucumber that will get bigger to become a 'cucumber'.

Hence not a 'small cucumber'.

Yes they are a type of cucurbit all of their own designation. With a range of different specific varieties.