Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

Original poster

What stupid things have you believed/said/assumed before finding out to your embarrassment you were wrong?

411 replies

CookieRookie · 27/08/2011 13:38

Could do with a laugh today

Here's mine...

1 - I thought a filet mignon was something presented on fire, you know with brandy or something...a flamin yon Blush

2 - I thought rollmops where called roll 'em ups because they're rolled up but I was kind of right with that one.

Not hilarious, though dh did laugh at me til he was nearly sick, but I'm hoping some of you have much better, more embarrassing ones.

OP posts:
vividgingerchilli · 28/08/2011 20:48

Imperial, sorry I missed the "carrots" at the start of your message - it's been a long day!

PacificDogwood · 28/08/2011 20:52

LRD, the penny re the meat/muscle bit only dropped for me during my first anatomy dissection with real cadavers Shock - and I had grown up very rurally, seen animals slaughtered etc.

AlfieandAnnieRose · 28/08/2011 21:10

When i was about 7 my parents were looking for a new house to move to so we would visit lots of newly built showroom houses that were set up with furniture, to make it feel like a real house. At the time I thought the house was set up for the family that would be moving in, so if it had a nursery it was built for a family with a baby, or a girl's room they have a litle girl etc. When we left the house that had a nursery room we passed a family with a baby and I said 'Oh that must be the family moving in'. No they were just browsing like us. NOBODY corrected me! Why couldn't someone have explained it to me?!

BalloonSlayer · 29/08/2011 06:57

Pacific of the four Christian gospels, some are more reliable than others. The . . . ahem . . . least reliable, according to scholars is the Gospel According to John (I think they have managed to work out that it wasn't written very near the time Jesus lived, whereas the others were).

Anyway, it is in John's Gospel that has the most detailed bit of the Jews shouting for Jesus's crucifixion, and even a bit which has them shouting [basically] "let our descendants be punished if this turns out to be the wrong thing to do." This has been used as a stick to beat the jewish race with ever since. Sad

BalloonSlayer · 29/08/2011 07:02

AlfieandannieRose when I was PG with DS2, we were thinking of moving to get another bedroom, and DS1 and DD drove me barmy by constantly saying things like: "Oh this house is perfect for us Mummy! There's a cot in the bedroom!"

No matter how hard I tried to explain that those things belonged to the vendors and would not remain in the house should we buy it, it never sunk in.

I think they are still sad that we didn't get the house with the TV in one of the children's bedrooms. They were both hoping to get that room. Hmm

AlfieandAnnieRose · 29/08/2011 09:04

BalloonSlayer Im glad I wasn't the only one to think that! Grin

porolli · 29/08/2011 09:26

a friend of mine (who did not have children at the time) thought Inset days were 'insect days' when all the children studied insects for a day.

SmellySkidMarks · 29/08/2011 09:38

Another one who thought Tripoli was in Italy and that the Jedi order carried out their fight with Light Savers.

CornishMade · 29/08/2011 10:01

Vivid - isn't monkfish extremely expensive? Not exactly cheap 'scampi' flesh!

aliceliddell · 29/08/2011 11:29

Liking 'hyper bowl'. This can be done with many words, providing simply hours of educational fun for all the family!!! Hmm
Awry - Awe Ree; Misled - MyZuld; Weeknight - Wee Knight; and so on.

gorionine · 29/08/2011 11:36

Not quite the same but when I first got to UK with my limited knowledge of the language, I somehow managed to mix the words "network" and "Natwest" and for several months used "Natwest" instead of network and believe it or not no one had the guts to correct me until I realised myself. Oh they must have laughed!

Carrotsandcelery · 29/08/2011 12:26

Aww gorieonine - I would have told you. I have a friend from abroad who used to pronounce the word for a local food slightly incorrectly, which unfortunately made it a local word for poo! Blush I told her straight away Grin whilst rolling on the floor laughing.

Don't worry, she got her revenge, laughing at me lots when she started teaching me her language Grin

thanksamillion · 29/08/2011 13:17

My Mum grew up in the Norfolk contryside where there are lots of tiny roads which had signs saying By Road on them. After she'd been driving around for a number of years with my Dad she asked him where 'By Road' was and how come she'd never been there as it must be massive to have so many signs.

dollydoops · 29/08/2011 13:51

I still remember going to my first cocktail bar aged 19 and asking for a 'strawberry dye keery'. Oh, the shame.

lemonmousse · 29/08/2011 14:32

There's a town in County Durham called Bishop Auckland - I was in my 20's when I spotted it on a road sign and realised it wasn't called 'Bishaborkland' (and I had been there several times!) Blush

BeatRoute · 29/08/2011 15:39

When I was about 13 I did a Science test at school which was mulpile choice. I remember that I wasn't very good at Science but thought I might be able to eliminate answers that were obviously not the right ones and hope for the best. One of the questions was about the tide and what rules it. I eliminated the clearly most ridiculous answer very quickly - that the moon had anything to do with it. I mean, come on! As if the moon would have anything to do with how the tides work...

Of course I was wrong and my DP has laughed at me ever since I told him about it. In fact it is now used as household response to anything vaguely stupid or naive.

notcitrus · 29/08/2011 15:58

When I was young I had lots of books of amazing facts, and was particularly fond of ones about the human body. I was very impressed that your body temperature inside is 98 degrees.

I was in the upper sixth and had place at uni to study biology when got into an argument with a friend and the biology teacher that it would be fine to put my hand into water that had been boiling a few minutes earlier as it must be below 98 degrees by now.

At that point it finally dawned on me that American books use Fahrenheit and while the human body is amazing, it isn't two degrees off boiling... Blush

StealthPolarBear · 29/08/2011 17:39

lemon, I always call it Bishy Porkland. I don't know why :o

PacificDogwood · 29/08/2011 18:53

Until v recently like last week I used to think that the phrase 'I don't give a dam" was rude as it contained a Bad Word .
Well, dear Reader, it doesn't.
A 'dam' is a small Indian coin. Not giving a dam means you are not prepared to pay anything for it. Not rude at all
Grin

StealthPolarBear · 29/08/2011 19:12

You must have heard of damming a river!

StealthPolarBear · 29/08/2011 19:13

damning? I know I don't give a damn is damn - not sure about the river

PacificDogwood · 29/08/2011 19:15

See, that's the point, it's NOT a damn, it's a dam, not as in the blocked river, but a coin. Honest, 'tis true Colin Dexter says so Grin

PacificDogwood · 29/08/2011 19:18

Here
And here

Grin at '...as it has been misquoted for the last 70 years there is probably no point in correcting...' Wink

StealthPolarBear · 29/08/2011 19:54

:o Well I never knew that (obviously)

PacificDogwood · 29/08/2011 20:06

Me neither - I am stupidly pleased with this factoid Grin. I shall use that expression henceforth all the time, whether appropriate or not, smug in the knowledge that it is Not Rude Wink

Swipe left for the next trending thread