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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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To ask about things you believed as a child that aren’t so...?

108 replies

Piglet89 · 15/12/2020 21:42

I was convinced there was a law that meant adults couldn’t argue or fall out.

OP posts:
JocastaElastic · 16/12/2020 00:42

In the 1970's workers went on strike and there was a three day working week and frequent power-cuts. I didn't understand that they were protesting against bad working conditions and inadequate pay: I thought they were just rebelling against the fact that adults were expected to work. As a 4 or 5 year old I fully supported the strikers' stance because I didn't much fancy working when I grew up either; i just wanted to play.

Jillypots · 16/12/2020 00:50

Not me, but my Dad. His brother’s name is Harold, and as kids they always thought Harold had been named after God, because they thought the Lord’s Prayer went, “Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name........” My Dad (named after three kings) thought it hugely unfair that his brother was named after God, and he only got the names of dead kings!

ddl1 · 16/12/2020 00:53

I thought that everyone grows taller with age, even adults. I couldn't understand why my parents never seemed to get taller. I also remember being really puzzled by the 'No Waiting' signs that were quite common in London at one time (meaning 'no stopping, even just to briefly wait for someone'). I had been told that it was good to be patient and wait for things, so I thought these signs were telling people to be naughty!

ddl1 · 16/12/2020 00:58

I had heard something about marriages being annulled, and I thought that meant that the government could just send people on a whim to a married couple's house and tell them: 'Your marriage is annulled! One of you has got to get out!' I was scared that they might do this to my parents.

Backwardsuptheescalator · 16/12/2020 00:58

That your skeleton and your bones were two different things entirely. I thought your skeleton was like another sort of person who lived inside you and absolutely get my head around it being your bones all joined together.

That the vacuum cleaner could Hoover me up (thanks DBs)

That salmon wasn’t fish.

That if I walked over a tombstone I would catch death. I refused to wear my sandals after I’d walked up the aisle of a cathedral that had gravestones horizontally laid along it. I was sure the soles of my shoes had death on them. I was very anxious when my mum wouldn’t buy me new ones on the basis of all the death they were harbouring.

That my DB had come home from the pub late one night, made chips and caused a chip pan fire and set the fire extinguisher in the kitchen off. It was only when I was in my 30s that DB said this never happened and that it was an episode of delirium that I often had with a high temperature. It was SUCH a vivid memory though and it’s unsettling to know it never happened.

That Elaine Thompson could throw me over the school railings because she threatened to. We were 5 at the time and although I was very small, looking back on this as an adult there would have been no way a skinny, little 5 year old could lob me over a 12‘ railing. The fear of this happening was very real though.

That I never grew past 4‘11“ because me dad had made built-in wardrobes and cupboards around my toddler bed. I decided like goldfish adapt their growth to the size of their tanks, I had adapted to the size of my bed and couldn’t grow out of it because a standard bed wouldn’t fit in the space. It had nothing to do with me taking after my minuscule grandparents and having been only 4lbs at birth.

ChestnutStuffing · 16/12/2020 01:08

I thought that when ladies aged, their hair became short and curly, just like men got bald heads with fringes around the edge.

Gobbeldegook · 16/12/2020 01:26

That people lived inside the tv

Fuckitsstillraining · 16/12/2020 01:31

I believed my father could fix everything, and I mean everything. Seemingly when I was about 6 years old someone called to our house to let my parents know about a death in in the family and I overheard, I volunteered to go get my fathers toolbox and told them all not to worry because Daddy will fix him. I also called my hands paws until I was 5, obviously we had very much loved dogs.

TaraR2020 · 16/12/2020 01:38

These are adorable! Grin

Riapia · 16/12/2020 02:05

My DM convinced me that mulligatawny soup was made from dead owls.

Slightlyunhinged · 16/12/2020 02:18

My DM told me that during WW2 my Dad had to practise firing his anti aircraft gun by firing at a target being towed by an airplane. She told us that he missed the target and shot down the plane. I believed it for years.

housemdwaswrong · 16/12/2020 02:22

I love in Wales: sheep had two legs shorter on one side than the other so they could balance on the hills to graze. Made perfect sense...

OldWomanSaysThis · 16/12/2020 02:32

I didn't know margarine and butter were two different things.

peakygal · 16/12/2020 08:09

My parents always told me that a Zebra was a horse in pyjamas ready for bed. Ashamed to say I believed Zebras weren't real until I was nearly an adult 🤦‍♀️

If you ate the pips of an apple a tree would grow inside you and burst out through your ears mouth etc

If you walked on a grave or stole flowers, the person would come take you at night

Also my Dad convinced me he was best friends with Robbie Williams..I was a huge Take That fan and was clearly gullible 😂

IamMaz · 16/12/2020 09:38

Sadly I was too logical a child to believe made up nonsense.
I took after my late DF!!!
And my DS takes after me!
LOL

StillCoughingandLaughing · 16/12/2020 09:39

I thought that everyone grows taller with age, even adults. I couldn't understand why my parents never seemed to get taller.

That reminds me that, when I was very little, I used to think that old people must be really strong and fit. People are forever telling children ‘eat your greens so you’ll grow up big and strong’ or ‘You’ll be able to do XYZ when you’re older’, so I thought the older you got, the stronger you got. I was confused when I heard people talking about ‘little old ladies’ and having to help them with their shopping!

JustCallMeGriffin · 16/12/2020 09:50

I thought bath water came from the same place as toilet water and you shouldn't get it in your mouth.

It does, unless you have a water tank then bizarrely the water in your toilet cistern would be safer to drink than the water from your hot water tap. Maybe you grew up with a hot water tank and this was the best way your parents could convince you not to swallow bath water.

I foolishly thought that anyone could just jump out of a tree. My sister and I did all the time we'd also climb on rooftops and jump off so when our cousin followed us up a tree and couldn't climb down we told him to jump. Yep, hospital visit and broken leg was the result. Honestly didn't occur to us that what we did was relatively skillful.

I'm quite sad that I'm not agile anymore, jumping out of a tree would definitely hospitalise me these days!

AlCalavicci · 16/12/2020 10:06

@housemdwaswrong, it is not sheep that have shorter legs on one side to help them on hills it is a haggis

JudgeRindersMinder · 16/12/2020 10:15

@housemdwaswrong

I love in Wales: sheep had two legs shorter on one side than the other so they could balance on the hills to graze. Made perfect sense...
No, that’s a Scottish haggis, not a sheep 😂
Soundbyte · 16/12/2020 10:21

That your clothes just magically grew to fit you when you grew, I was devastated when I discovered you had to buy all new ones when yours were too small - I was rather over fond of a (hideous) hot pink jumper with flowers on the front. My mum was so happy to throw it out and I was sobbing my heart out 😂

AradiaGC · 16/12/2020 10:43

That MRI machines could read your thoughts. It was terrible being in one and telling myself not to think bad things because everyone would know. Like trying not to think of an elephant.

That if you wanted to adopt a child you just went and picked an orphan and then they went home with you.

I also remember working out that I'd be 13 in the year 2000 and thinking that 13 was really old. Grin

That God randomly spoke to people and told them he'd chosen them for special missions. I was worried this would happen to me because I thought I wouldn't be much good at it.

That the Queen was always off doing exciting and perilous things in service of the country. That was why we all had to ask God to save her.

MrsSugar · 16/12/2020 10:48

That petrol was money. I must have seen my parents hand each other petrol money and therefore thought that actual money flowed out the pump !!

Also thought that if you wrote a cheque for your shopping at the supermarket then you didn’t need to pay but you were allowed to do it sometimes not all the time

Piglet89 · 16/12/2020 15:09

These are golden!

OP posts:
Heartofglass12345 · 16/12/2020 20:43

My husbands mum used to make up random names for things when he was little and he didn't know what she was on about, and they weren't regularly used slang names either. She called nits itchycoos and instead of calling it a Willy like everyone else she called his penis his John Hoskins Confused he recalls being really embarrassed when he found out no one else called these things these names so we've made sure to call things by their proper names to our kids lol

housemdwaswrong · 16/12/2020 22:12

@judgerindersminder I wonder if there are any English adaptations of this?