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.

I was unfamiliar with Faro, the place in Portugal. For some reason I used to see flights there come up (eg when waiting around in the airport) and thought they were all going to the Faroe Islands. (I'm of a Nordic persuasion and will use that as my excuse!) It was a slow dawning, going from "what are all these Brits going up there for?" to "I must not have all the facts" (when seeing scantily clad people queue up at the Faro flight gate) to actually looking at a map. [oops]

When I was in my early twenties, I learned that chickens, and all birds, have sex to create babies. I had previously thought that the female birds laid eggs, and male birds came along and jizzed all over the eggs. It sounds ridiculous now, but the thought of chickens having sex must have been yet more ridiculous in my head.

I think that's how fish do it, isn't it?

I've just this minute discovered that 'Song For Guy' wasn't written about the death of Guy the gorilla

@todayiwin actually dentists often do use numbing cream. It tastes like bubblegum 😂

That being an adult isn't a phase and you won't grow out of it!

That all the 'baby' hair around your hairline that hairdressers assured you would disappear when you were a grown up - doesn't!!!!

To the PP who asked what it's called if you use pork mince ... we have always called it Sty Pie.

@QuestionableMouse I want some!

My mum still doesn't understand how cough mixture works because it goes down the wrong tube and not into your lungs!!!!!

I think a vegan shepherds pie should be called Allotment Pie.

In WW2 there was a very similar recipe to this called Woolton Pie. Substitute butter and cheese for vegan alternatives and that's what you get.

I was an actual adult when I discovered that the Lord’s Prayer was the prayer that Jesus taught us and not the prayer of Jesus’s tortoise.

I don't get this and I really want to!

@Inmyownlittlecorner absolutely - the dome over centerparcs totally existed as far as i was concerned!

Goofy IS a dog, and we do have 2 pipes for eating and breathing. I am always impressed how your body knows not to let the food go down the breathing pipe! (Usually.)

I am gobsmacked at what someone said much earlier though. They said they thought (for YEARS) that THIS

My husband was once prepping a chicken to roast. He pulled out the giblets and waved them at me - I was horrified and said I couldn't believe they killed chickens who were pregnant 🙈 & that we couldnt eat the baby chicken.... in my defence I was very hungover and hadn't engaged my brain yet that day 🤣

RockyFlinstone -

Jesus taught us

sounds like

Jesus's tortoise

so the pp thought it was a prayer about Jesus' tortoise!

Hang on, I have just read somewhere that Goofy WAS based (originally) on a cow! WTF?

www.snopes.com/fact-check/goofy-cow-or-dog/

Why does he look like blimmin' DOG then?!

Grrr,

for an embarrassingly long time I thought that when job ads asked for a 'clean driving licence' they meant a copy of the paper licence that you hadn't got crumpled up or got coffee stains on... it was back when there was only the paper bit (I think!) but still!

I think I shall chuckle forever about Jesus’ tortoise. 🐢 Sublime!

Clean driving licence

@Tinty - Aoife is pronounced Eee-fah

I thought Spandau ballet was a German ballet. I remember saying to a group of friends in college that I couldn’t imagine the guy from eastenders doing ballet. No one said anything, they just all looked weird and went uh huh and then YEARS later I realised it was a music group and I cringed at what they must have thought (and said behind my back)🤣

A friend thought that restaurants advertising a pre-theatre meal meant you had to be going to the theatre to eat there. He thought you would have to show your ticket to be allowed to order from that menu.

steppemum

Ah, I see! 😂

for an embarrassingly long time I thought that when job ads asked for a 'clean driving licence' they meant a copy of the paper licence that you hadn't got crumpled up or got coffee stains on... it was back when there was only the paper bit (I think!) but still!

Brilliant!

I was raised Catholic so I have a few...

At school another kid told me (before we had made our First Communion) that when they do communion, you eat actual flesh and drink actual blood. I remember watching the priest drinking out of the chalice and honestly thought he was drinking blood, but the worst thing was I didn't even think it was that gross or anything, I just accepted it!

I used to think the line 'blessed art thou amongst women' in the Hail Mary was 'blessed art thou at swimming'.

When they do the sign of peace and they shake hands at Mass, I had no idea they were actually saying 'peace be with you' because everyone just mumbles, so I used to say 'bishoo wishoo' for years, because I thought that's what everyone was saying!

To be fair, all of these became clear before adulthood for me, thank god!