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Original poster

apparently tigers are female lions

140 replies

tomhardy · 15/05/2018 16:04

my dp has believed this for 30 years. i honestly thought he was winding me up, but no. he really thought female lions are tigers Shock

to make matters worse, i told my db about this and he was really confused. he thought that was right too!

wtf! aibu to be in shock that they believed this or is it a common misconception?!

OP posts:
MissionItsPossible · 15/05/2018 19:56

Caramelapplecake
When I was little I thought that all babies had willies and they somehow fell off as a child grew older !!

My toddler brother had one and I didn't so that had to be right!

When I was little I knew only boys had willies so thought girls weed out of their bums Blush

Mirrorwriting · 15/05/2018 19:59

he thought you had guitar when you have a chesty cough.

I don’t get this oneBlush

BeesAndMist · 15/05/2018 20:02

I remember my friend at uni was absolutely convinced that she’d seen unicorns at Woburn Safari Park. This was before the internet and we went to the library the next day to look up unicorns in the encyclopaedia. She was so adamant it had happened that I started to doubt myself and thought maybe they weren’t mythical after all Blush

Pebblespony · 15/05/2018 20:04

I thought Come on Eileen was written about my mother. I didn't know that other people could have the same name. I went to a really small primary school & no two people had the same name.

iklboo · 15/05/2018 20:19

@Mirrorwriting catarrh not guitar Grin

iklboo · 15/05/2018 20:20

@BeesAndMist Could your friend have seen an oryx? It's thought they're behind the legend of the unicorn.

apparently tigers are female lions
PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 15/05/2018 20:23

Dot DD's Noah's Ark toy also had 2 male lions. Confused

SharronNeedles · 15/05/2018 20:31

DH didn't realise about dandelions as well until we bought our house. Loads of yellow flowers in the garden one day then loads of white fluffy ones appears in their place. His mind blew!

SkaPunkPrincess · 15/05/2018 20:34

aviatorshades I hope you ripped her a new one for that!

Mirrorwriting · 15/05/2018 20:36

Thanks iklboo.

namastethefuckawayfrommenow · 15/05/2018 20:38

Foxes can retract their claws like cats and are linked to the cat family Grin

babybythesea · 15/05/2018 21:33

If we're doing misconceptions from when we were little, I thought My dad wrote the song I Am the Lord of the Dance. I don't know why. He had not a single musical bone in his body. But he taught it to me when I was about 3. Therefore, he wrote it. I was so confused when I wen to school assembly and they were all singing it. I mean, how did they all know my dads song?

sashh · 16/05/2018 07:10

Notreallyhappy

I suspect the OP's husband won't be aware of Australian Drop Bears and the Sabden treacle .

MrsKoala · 16/05/2018 09:15

Mission - No way!!?? that is the wrongest sounding word i've ever heard. That'll teach me for laughing. Next i suppose you are going to tell me the lady throwing pickled onion monster munch at the coot chicks was actually giving them their natural diet! Grin

steppemum · 17/05/2018 10:56

Did anyone see that programme about pangolins the other night?

I had never heard of them , or seen one. Amazing things. There is a animal to cause mistakes and mix ups!

mrsnoodle55 · 17/05/2018 14:00

We were at a local country park last year when I overheard my OH pointing out to the kids (5&2) to look at the ‘big funny looking horse’. I couldn’t see this horse, then I realised what he was looking at. It was a stag- a big huge stag with massive antlers. Not been able to look at him the same since...

helpconfused · 17/05/2018 14:11

I know someone who thought a penguin was a fish...

AmazingPostVoices · 17/05/2018 14:17

For all this thread is very funny I do have to wonder if there are people who have never read a book or in fact stepped outside their front door?

How the hell does a person growing up in the U.K. not know about dandelions?

It’s perplexing.

Soubriquet · 17/05/2018 15:18

I still chuckle at the Dh on here who thought terracotta plant pots came from tortoises being de-shelled and was rather disgusted that his DW wasn't boycotting them GrinGrin

TomRavenscroft · 17/05/2018 15:21

Sagegreen, OK, I admit it, I'm in my forties and I don't get the one about firefighters and tall towers...

DontMakeMeShushYou · 17/05/2018 15:36

DH was very puzzled a couple of years ago when he tried to explain dandelions to DS. He'd shown him the yellow ones, but then saw the fluffy ones and realised they were called dandelions too. Not knowing how this had happened, he asked me "Are both those flowers called dandelions?". I said yes. "It's a bit weird to have 2 different flowers with the same name". He was astounded when I explained they were the same flower at different stages.

DD's friend said much the same thing last weekend whilst we were walking the dog. The dog bit the head off the dandelion clock and she said "The dog's just bitten that flower". DD said "Oh yes, she's always eating dandelions" and her friend said "No, it wasn't a dandelion". I said "Oh, was it a buttercup?" (the only other flower in the field) and she said "No, it was one of those fluffy white things, I don't know what they're called." To which DD and I looked at each other and said "They're dandelions". DD's friend said "I never knew that!" and I was gobsmacked that a 12 year old wouldn't know that yellow dandelions turn into dandelion clocks. Obviously I was being too hard on the poor child!

iklboo · 17/05/2018 16:18

Sagegreen, OK, I admit it, I'm in my forties and I don't get the one about firefighters and tall towers...

Sagegreen's friend thought firefighters stood at the top of the towers trying to spot where fires were. Firefighters don't use the tall towers to lookout for fires. They're for training exercises.

amigababy · 17/05/2018 16:34

Yesterday dh asked if butterflies grew up to be moths.
Last week adult DD heard an ice cream van. As we live on a long rural road we don't often hear one but she's aware of their existence. It played it's little tune. She just looked at me and said " oh, they play the tune so you go out to buy the ice cream." Before that she just thought it was for entertainment.

Also we went to see Dirty Dancing the musical. At the interval we started talking about babies. I made the joke that nobody puts baby in the corner. She looked at me a bit odd. The second half started and along comes the line "Nobody puts baby in the corner". Suddenly she got it. She thought it was just a general olden days saying.

OutsideContextProblem · 17/05/2018 16:35

On the subject of bird-sex confusion - you can puzzle most English people by asking them what female robins look like. Because we’re familiar with the sex differences off blackbirds and thrushes, and because most robins are aggressive little sods matching stereotypical male behaviour, there’s a natural tendency to assume that female robins are small, quiet and plain brown. It’s only when you think carefully about the fact that you’ve never actually seen a bird that looks like the female robin you’re imagining that you realise that both sexes look identical.

MereDintofPandiculation · 17/05/2018 16:55

It’s only when you think carefully about the fact that you’ve never actually seen a bird that looks like the female robin you’re imagining that you realise that both sexes look identical. I think at one time it was thought that the "Jenny Wren" was a female robin. Or maybe it was the Dunnock (which would make a lot more sense)

And of course a baby robin would be quite a good fit for a female - robin features, but brown and spotted.

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