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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want to know something you wrongly believed was true all your life ?

729 replies

ChristineCagney11 · 27/05/2022 10:42

Posting to try and take our minds off bad things for a moment
I'm in my fifties someone on here posted about a "Party wall" a few weeks ago, I laughed because I thought they were mistaken, I have always thought the word for a wall between two properties was "Parting wall"
How did I not know ??
Also over the years when I've watched, usually men taking off the tops of beer bottles with their hands on US programmes.
I may or most definitely may have tried to do this myself not realising they have twisty tops in the US.
You ?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
21
Georgieporgie29 · 27/05/2022 21:18

givemushypeasachance · 27/05/2022 15:26

As a child I thought the symbol for the motorway was a monster or robot or something, I was probably of driving age when I eventually realised it was meant to be two roads going under a bridge. What has that got to do with motorways anyway!

When I started work, a colleague would put "TOIL" in her calendar sometimes and I thought she was joking about working hard. Didn't twig about 'time off in lieu' until someone explained where she was...

I thought it was a transformer robot (you know the ones? Transformers, robots in disguise) embarrassingly I didn’t realise I was wrong until I was an adult

loupiots · 27/05/2022 21:19

Evelyn Waugh was a man, though? I'm very confused! Is it in jest? I know that TIme magazine accidentally printed that he was a woman, but they rectified the mistake.

GrouchyKiwi · 27/05/2022 21:22

loupiots · 27/05/2022 21:19

Evelyn Waugh was a man, though? I'm very confused! Is it in jest? I know that TIme magazine accidentally printed that he was a woman, but they rectified the mistake.

His first wife was also called Evelyn (She-Evelyn and He-Evelyn) so that's what PP is referring to.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 27/05/2022 21:22

DD attended a British school in Germany. They had a school trip to Munster zoo in Reception class.

Quite a few were disappointed in the lack of monsters at the zoo... but at four and five years old, it was an easy mistake to make.

toastfairy · 27/05/2022 21:25

FabFitFifties · 27/05/2022 21:04

I'm stupid too then

Show quote history

The coconuts are green and nice to drink at about 7m and turn brown with more 'coconut' and less coconut water at 12m

I got told that a brown coconut grows hair during the transportation. I don't know if that's right though...

Goggleb0x · 27/05/2022 21:29

I thought birds slept in nests until I was about 40. Turns out I was wrong.

CharlieD2020 · 27/05/2022 21:36

I thought that the bin men came, took your bin away, emptied your bin at a recycling centre, and then brought your bin back to your house empty.

I thought this is why some people put their house number on their bin... so that the bin men would know which bin belonged to which household and would be able to make sure that particular bin was returned back to the right house.

1000yellowdaisies · 27/05/2022 21:36

Goggleb0x · 27/05/2022 21:29

I thought birds slept in nests until I was about 40. Turns out I was wrong.

Wtf?! Birds don't sleep in nests? Where do they sleep then? I haven't read the whole thread, but that's 2 facts now that have shocked me.
But seriously where the heck do birds sleep if not in nests???

theotherfossilsister · 27/05/2022 21:36

I though you'd die if you drank water from led pipes, like instant poisoning. Last year I arrived at a holiday cottage with a note saying it had led piping at one am and instantly went out alone to find drinking water in the dark wandering round for ages.

Later dp told me that what I did was probably far more dangerous than drinking led pipes water for one night as it's cumulative. I felt like a total moron.

Original poster
ChristineCagney11 · 27/05/2022 21:40

@Goggleb0x
Well some do, whatcha mean ?
Youngsters do mainly obviously

OP posts:
Original poster
ChristineCagney11 · 27/05/2022 21:46

CharlieD2020 · 27/05/2022 21:36

I thought that the bin men came, took your bin away, emptied your bin at a recycling centre, and then brought your bin back to your house empty.

I thought this is why some people put their house number on their bin... so that the bin men would know which bin belonged to which household and would be able to make sure that particular bin was returned back to the right house.

Absolutely love you, that's it. Don't care how weird that sounds. Brilliant.

OP posts:
214 · 27/05/2022 21:48

LovelyQuiche · 27/05/2022 12:19

“Dance, then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance Setee”

used to imagine an amazingly designed sofa

Oh I love this one ! How I wish I had a dance settee in our house!!

NotMushroomInEre · 27/05/2022 21:53

I was around 28 when I realised it was a chest of drawers and not 'Chester drawers'. I wouldn't mind, but I'd had a mortgage for 4 years and I'd bought some previously. I thought they must've been made in Chester. I blame the Yorkshire accent 😅

SuziSecondLaw · 27/05/2022 21:53

5128gap · 27/05/2022 11:32

That Ar-Kansas and Ar-kan-saw were two different states.

I also used to think this 😂

Original poster
ChristineCagney11 · 27/05/2022 21:56

NotMushroomInEre · 27/05/2022 21:53

I was around 28 when I realised it was a chest of drawers and not 'Chester drawers'. I wouldn't mind, but I'd had a mortgage for 4 years and I'd bought some previously. I thought they must've been made in Chester. I blame the Yorkshire accent 😅

Too funny 😆

OP posts:
HeArInGhandsgirl11 · 27/05/2022 21:56

Coffeetree · 27/05/2022 11:09

When I was 45 my father told me that if you pee in a swimming pool, the water around you will turn blue. This is due to the chemical reaction of the urine's nitrogen and ammonia reacting with the chlorine.

When I was 45 I was talking about swimming with some friends and someone expressed worry about pee in the pool. I assured her no, you always know if someone has peed because you'll see the water turn blue around them.

Four decades. Well done Dad.

Okay genuinely thought this was true 😂

apapuchi · 27/05/2022 22:03

ImplementingTheDennisSystem · 27/05/2022 15:38

My mum told me that your blood is blue, but turns red when exposed to oxygen. She really meant it too (please don't be mean, she's not formally educated).
I repeated this understanding to my A-level science teacher and she laughed in my face! My mum swore blind - how was I to know (pre-internet remember).

This isn't that silly, not nice of the teacher. My understanding is that deoxygenated blood in veins is much duller and the oxygenated arterial blood is the bright red stuff? So it's not blue of course but it's blue-er. Or maybe not. Off to Google!

ZarquonsSandals · 27/05/2022 22:08

For the chocolate lovers:
Milky way
Galaxy
Mars bar
Star bar

All to do with the universe.

Whosthebestbabainalltheworld · 27/05/2022 22:10

What’s with Arrmond. Surely it’s ahmond- as I’ve pronounced all my life????

Hawkins001 · 27/05/2022 22:11

When I was younger, saw a mini series called killer net by Linda la plante, and did not realise, serial killers actually existed, until a couple years later.

SpaceJamtart · 27/05/2022 22:18

My mum used to say "go get the mop and bucket and wash the floor"

I misheard that as a Moppen Bucket, and thought the action of washing a floor would be Moppening with your Moppen bucket

Heard it was a mop at uni,

Change123today · 27/05/2022 22:20

I think it’s been mentioned already on here but I honestly thought my much loved dog at 13 was sent to a farm - I used to imaging him loving life & it helped as I really missed him ….at 42 sat around a table my Dad assumed someone had told me the truth. No not one person ever corrected me when I lovingly talked about my much loved dog going to the farm :(

ive chosen to forget the conversation & my dog DID go to the farm as I imagined 😂

TeaStory · 27/05/2022 22:28

The Milky Way isn’t “part of the solar system”, it’s the band of light across the sky we see as we look along the plane of our galaxy.

Birds roost in trees and bushes, some in holes in rocks etc. Nests are just for laying eggs and the babies.

toastfairy · 27/05/2022 22:28

214 · 27/05/2022 21:48

Oh I love this one ! How I wish I had a dance settee in our house!!

Show quote history

we sang this ALL the time in primary school, and I thought "the lord of the dance" what a great concept / name for God and that it was a super cheerful hymn. And then my dad told me that actually the lord of the dance was the devil and I believed him (up until today in fact).

My Dad did have a tendency to confidently assert stuff he knew little about

TeaStory · 27/05/2022 22:28

I’m amazed we’ve got to page 14 & no-one has said “Gibraltar isn’t an island!” yet.