What do you remember from your childhood that you now realise you really misunderstood?

[Carryonrunning]

Was just chatting to a friend about this:

1. Hearing all the boys in class talking about how a girl’s tampon fell out in the classroom. Lived in fear of this for many years before I realised they meant it fell out of her bag, not her body!

2. Opening the door of a sauna with my cousin (which was right in the middle of the spa area, so not private) on holiday in a nice hotel and my uncle inside shouting at us to close the door. I cried for weeks thinking I’d inadvertently seen him naked (although I didn’t actually see anything). Couldn’t look at him for years without feeling sick before I was old enough to realise we were just letting the heat out and annoying the other people in there! No one was naked in mixed sauna in the very public pool area of a nice spa hotel full of people!

My dad smoked, my mum didn’t. So growing up I thought only men could smoke. I was astonished one day when I was standing in the doorway of the hairdressers and this lady walked by breaking the rules and smoking.

This is brilliant. Reminds me of ‘A monk swimming’ 😂

Aged about 10, I went on a school trip to London and bought a souvenir. A keyring stress ball type squishy thing about 3 inches long, beige coloured with a smiling face on it. Nothing to do with London so I've no idea why I bought it! But years later, I came across it and I noticed it also had a lot of black wiggly hairs at the base. Yep... 10-year-old me had bought a stress penis

I thought the same for literally around 30 YEARS! 🤣

Aged about 4 I must have seen or overheard something on the news about teens who had died sniffing glue. Doing crafts with my mum and brother at the kitchen table I distinctly remember holding my breath every time I went near the PVA in case I inadvertently smelled it and died 🙈😆

I went on a trip to London about the same age. We went to a market and were allowed to look round in groups. My group spotted an interesting looking shop nearby with lots of plastic legs above it - like they were doing the cancan - so went to investigate. I don’t remember much about what was in the shop only that a stressed teacher ran after us and hurried us out…. But I am sure they sold stress penis key rings!

When I was very small thinking that I could start on my bicycle from the north coast of Scotland and freewheel down to the south coast of England - thought it would all be downhill north to south!

I didn’t realise for years that the male couple in Four Weddings and a Funeral were gay. I thought they were just mates living together, especially when the vicar at the funeral calls his partner “Gareth’s closest friend” - I lived a sheltered life!

I saw this film in the TV or Radio Times ( I was a teenager) and it said it was about a nymphomaniac. I told my mum I was going to watch it , I thought a nympho was someone who started fires. I said it was about people that dad deals with sometimes (he was a fireman). She looked very surprised and I got a shock when watched it

Used to pass near Seer Green in Buckinghamshire to visit my Nan. I'd always start singing Yellow Submarine when saw the sign. I thought they were talking about the place, took me years to realise it's actually...

So we sailed on to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green

Oh gosh. I didn’t know until your post that it’s a trophy…

Until this moment, I genuinely thought they get a fancy cheque book and pen - but to use with their own bank account, not unlimited funds from the BBC. How embarrassing!

I thought the same 🤣

I'm guessing they rub those all over our washing as well! Quelle Horreur!

I thought days were actually 48 hours long... 24 hours to be awake, and 24 hours to sleep!

If only my 6 year old self was correct 😆

@Mumof3PrettyBoys my heart hurt for you reading that. What an awful way to treat anybody let alone a child.

@Carryonrunning Me too with conservatories and Tories! @ElsaMars same thing happened to me with a teacher at school and the socks. I remember the other kids laughing and me feeling very silly! @zoemum2006 yes I remember asking my sister "why are the Wombles common?" As I didn't see Wombles around in my day to day life outside of tv I remember thinking they weren't such a common sight like they claimed to be!

the fuck, see ya fairy sounds like my kinda gal.

The Flower Fairy books could be rewritten like that I suppose. I used to think the Scabious fairy in one of those books was the Scabies Fairy! I wanted to be the poppy fairy as she had the loveliest dress.

I used to think antique was anti-kew, fatigue was fatty-goo, auction was aucussion, and drought was drawrt. I read loads but didn't understand the concept of breaking words down into bits to pronounce them properly.

I've always wondered where all these Mothers and Fathers were going when they went to see a man about a dog.
A farm ? Kennels ? 😆

Dinosaurs!
We had educational books in school, clearly showing humans existing WITH dinosaurs.... .

"This Little piggy Went to Market" I happily imagined a little pig with a straw basket on his arm trotting happily to a lovely market and doing some grocery shopping. I read a lot of Beatrix Potter and Richard Scarry back then. I had no idea!

Learning about tampons etc was confusing as I wondered how a girl could do a wee wearing one. I honestly believed it was the same hole.

That I was made in a factory. My toys had made in Hong Kong on them, I didn't know why I didn't have that label on me.

a friend wrote to Jim'll fix it, asking to meet Gary Glitter. 😰

there are people that say they were invented to "normalise" Downs. 🙄

I thought houses with "to let" signs were houses where you could use the "toilet"! I just thought the sign had lost the "i"

love seeing the word ineffable in the wild :)