To ask the most basic thing you never knew/misunderstood until adulthood

[ChanandlerBongsLeftShoe]

I feel like a completely ridiculous excuse for an adult but the other day I found out the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie.

I am in my 30s and gobsmacked (also feel a bit stupid now it's so obvious). I genuinely thought they were the same thing.

Is there anything you discovered as an adult that was just common knowledge to everyone else? Or perhaps there's a phrase you've found out you have been saying wrong all this time etc...!

Help me feel a bit better.

Years ago my DH told me they removed the word gullible from the dictionary . I believed him for several years

For years my fitted bed sheets would come off the bed.throughout the night . I bought different ones but they would always come off in the middle of the night bunches up underneath me z
It’s was only a few months ago that I realised you could buy deep fitted sheets so 30 or 32 cm deep rather than the standard size bed sheets
I’ve never slept so well since

ANiceSliceOfCake

My husband asked me the other day if when a cat gives birth to say 8 kittens, does that mean the cat had sex with 8 different male cats grin
I asked him what on earth he thought humans who gave birth to twins had been upto !

Your husband isn't entirely wrong! Cats are induced ovulaters and can give birth to a litter with multiple fathers

It's called Superfecundation, and whilst it's not very common, it's theoretically possible for 8 kittens in the litter to all have different fathers.

Fun fact!

Aleamonypea - good grief I didn't 'get that either. I'm beginning to think at 40 something that someone gave me freebie A-levels. I am 'quite atrocious' , clearly .

Love people who admit to being scat. She was a teen so I'll let her off but I girl I knew thought eau de toilet ( I know I probably spelt it del boy stylish before someone reveals I have) was for spraying after going to the toilet. When I see v.i.poo priced £5 .00 I hope she's not spraying wrists with it, bless

@Happyhusband the energiser Bunny predates the vibrator

@DianaPrincessOfThemyscira
I’m reasonably confident confident that the Energiser bunny is not Pre-Victorian

Vibrators were developed to relieve female ‘hysteria’ in Victorian times

That Russia and the USA are actually really close together if you look at a globe.
Why I never realised that a world map actually wraps all the way round I really do not know.

caughtinanet

Maybe I'm going to regret posting this but I thought jaywalking meant walking on the road not the pavement, what has it got to do with prostitutes?

Jaywalking does mean walking in the road. You're correct.

I haven't read the thread so I don't know if it's been mentioned but when seeing footage of skydiving, I thought people went up when the parachute opens

First autumn after moving out, the clocks were due to go back. I thought all the clocks in the UK somehow wound themselves back an hour at mignight so in order to keep the correct time I wound all my clocks forward 2 hours before bed.

Literally today, & for no particular reason, I just "got" the punchline to the joke about the chicken crossing the road. I'm 37...

I thought that the little sticker on the back of a bus that went ‘👍 let me out’ was a pithy joke by the bus company to pretend that someone was trapped in the back door of the bus. Now I know that it’s an instruction to other drivers to let the bus pull out. Sometimes I actually wonder how I have reached this far in life 🙄😳

Your husband isn't entirely wrong! Cats are induced ovulaters and can give birth to a litter with multiple fathers

🙀

not to stick something metal into a toaster - yep only found out as an adult

me too. In my defence we didn't ever have a toaster so it was my first ever toaster I blew up (luckily not myself)

I thought Africa was a country not a continent. That would be a bad enough assumption for anyone but it was all the worse coming from me if you knew what vocation/education I had

This is not an uncommon misconception in Britain. It's surprising really, as a huge proportion of Africa's land mass was colonised by Britain during the days of imperialism

This should not be surprising given Britain's recent general ignorance on Northern Ireland.

I've just spent 20 minutes learning about coal gas, coke and the history of British Gas. I love threads like this

@TeaStory I didn't even know Gibraltar existed until 5 years ago when I got there. I thought it was just another bit of Spain. Imagine my surprise when I found a Morrisons!

Make hens’ meat is completely brilliant. I also like several being 7 times

Was behind someone ordering food at the bar in a pub, for pudding they asked for 'profit rollies'

Omg this is embarassing...

I read something about a woman having 3 holes and was seriously worried because I only had 2... I was late thirties and had 2 children

I never realised I was so stupid 🙈😂

Calm down @SabineUndine just because you'd call a lamb stew, boeuf bourguignon for no reason doesn't mean the rest of us have to understand it

Call it shepherds pie to a Hindu and you're in trouble.

This is one I've overhear and have said this on here before- a woman was telling her friend that a relative was going into "rest bite" for a rest. Fuck knows what the bite element was.

SparklySneakers
I've just spent 20 minutes learning about coal gas, coke and the history of British Gas. I love threads like this

Me too

The other day I found out the difference between a turtle and a tortoise.

English is my second language and I made it in my head that tortoise and turtle were American English and British English versions of the same thing.

I said that to DP and he looked at me like the other day. Apparently tortoises live on land and turtles live almost exclusively in water.

I'm nearly 42

Vibrators were developed to relieve female ‘hysteria’ in Victorian times

Yes, not just female hysteria either, but they were hand powered and mechanical. The 'rabbit' vibrator didn't debut until the mid 80s and the duracell bunny has been used in advertising since the mid 70s.

I only found out the difference between Walt Disney and Bing Crosby the other week.

Bing sings but Walt Disnae.

I thought Wales was a different country ffs

Err that’s because it is.