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Original poster

Things you used to think and now can't quite believe you did

413 replies

treaclesoda · 07/05/2014 09:56

I saw a seagull flying and it suddenly occurred to me that when I was little, I thought there were two different types of seagulls. Ones with legs, and ones without. Naturally the ones with legs had no choice but to fly all the time

I was a pretty bright child, I can't imagine why I thought that.

Please tell me someone else out there thought the same?

OP posts:

GarlicMayHaveNamechanged · 07/05/2014 20:32

In my teens, I thought getting pissed up was an accident that could happen during sex, and was very upset when my friend told me she'd got pissed up at the weekend. Mortified when the other girls realised what I was thinking!

Aged 36 - Not all men hit women. Am still grateful to my boyfriend at the time for hiding his shock, when he put me straight.

Aged 48 - Marital rape had already been made illegal. It's a shame, I could have reported XH2 if I'd known.

Aged 55 - Washington DC and Washington State are two completely different places!

I'm awaiting the next shocking revelation but, for now, am ROARING at mrsrochester's sprouting seeds of death

EatsCakeForNoReasonWhatsoever · 07/05/2014 20:33

I used to think that people bf toddlers was icky, then my baby grew into a toddler and guess what - to me he was still my baby. Yup. Still bf.

I also got fooled by the guerilla/gorilla thing. I thought the Wombles were common as in there were lots of them. I thought you stopped breathing when you were asleep so I used to hold my breath when I was pretending to my parents that I was sleeping.

WhereDoAllTheCalculatorsGo · 07/05/2014 20:40

In the seventies my mum and dad went to a freezer shop wearing big coats because they explained to me that the whole of the shop was a freezer and you had to go into the cold to get your food shopping.

I thought it was an enormous great white building-sized chest freezer that you somehow had to climb up the side of to get to the top and lift the lid to get in

MrsRambo · 07/05/2014 20:41

As a seven year old watching Juliet Bravo (80s tv show about coppers) I was very confused as to how this lady had so many sons. Some who appeared to be very close in age to her. How was this possible? A huge family of coppers?

Took a good few years to get that they were saying "ma'm". Not "mum".

Why didn't I just ask someone to clarify instead of thinking about it, all on my own, through numerous episodes??

Aspiringhuman · 07/05/2014 20:44

I used to think that if you worked hard, tried your best and didn't deliberately hurt people things would be ok and people wouldn't be disgusted by you, despise you or expect you to apologise for existing. I'm ashamed at how naive I was.

Tapirbackrider · 07/05/2014 20:44

My best friend in high school fervently believed that the contraceptive pill worked by inserting it, and tried to convince us all that she was right. Her boyfriend believed her right up to the moment she found out she was pregnant!

GarlicMayHaveNamechanged · 07/05/2014 20:45

Oh, and there's a whole thread on here about the lies & misinformation we are fed about the menopause & ageing! You think you know what to expect, then all this weird shit happens and you're like Then you have to come on the internet to ask other women if this is also happening to them!

(The answer, by the way, is Yes.)

OutrageousFlavourLikeFreesias · 07/05/2014 20:46

I asked my parents what "homosexual" meant and they looked shifty and said it meant "preferring your sex to the opposite sex".

So for years I thought it was another word for "chauvinist".

ICallASpadeATrowel · 07/05/2014 20:49

I thought helicopters were baby airplanes

I thought that I wasn't real occasionally. Still do, when I am having a sanity holiday

YoureBeingASillyBilly · 07/05/2014 20:51

"Washington DC and Washington State are two completely different places!"

I didnt know this either!

Also, until recently i thought NY was the capitol of the US.

GarlicMayHaveNamechanged · 07/05/2014 20:52

YYYYYYY to Aspiring and sarinka.

On a related note, I didn't even consider claiming disability benefits for years because I thought you only qualified if you were chair-bound (a misconception shared by too many benefit-bashers.)

I also didn't know working people could get benefits if they're on low wages, but suspect that's a generation thing - tax credits didn't exist through most of my working life, and council housing was readily available.

IkeaFurnitureAssemblyChampions · 07/05/2014 20:54

I thought if you drowned it happened by somehow turning around and around very fast in the water and getting sucked under, or going under somehow. But it definitely involved swimming in circles.

I thought 'Egypt' was pronounced 'Eggy-putt' (I was a very early reader).

Ownerofalittlechimp · 07/05/2014 20:55

It's taken this thread for me to learn about prunes being plums!!

RamsaySnowsSausage · 07/05/2014 20:58

I thought Nigel Kennedy was Beethoven. I saw him being introduced on the TV and just heard the word 'Beethoven' then put 2 and 2 together. Then I found out he was dead, which I thought was sad...then I found out quite how dead and had to work out who the imposter was

Generation Google will never understand how scant and inaccessible information was compared to today.

RamsaySnowsSausage · 07/05/2014 21:01

But if prunes are dried plums, then where does prune juice come from...

GarlicMayHaveNamechanged · 07/05/2014 21:01

Generation Google will never understand how scant and inaccessible information was compared to today.

True, that :)

When I saw a Harry Potter film, I found out the girl's name is not pronounced "Hermy Yone".

Superworm · 07/05/2014 21:04

I got sunburnt a lot as a child. My mum always told me it's because suncream hadn't been invented then.

Until a few years ago I thought suncream had only been developed in the 90's

Pinter · 07/05/2014 21:07

I always thought a jewel carriageway would be very special to drive on

CrazyDesire · 07/05/2014 21:07

I used to think it was amazing that sewing pattern makers could always find the right fabric (in photo of finished item) to match the drawing on the front of the pattern. I'm ashamed to admit I was an adult before I realised the drawing was done after!

I still have to remind myself not to say archaeopteryx as arch-io-p-terri-ax.

AmberLeaf · 07/05/2014 21:13

Took a good few years to get that they were saying "ma'm". Not "mum

Snap! How my Mum laughed.

Tenrec · 07/05/2014 21:15

Sometimes I thought maybe I was in a coma and kind of dreaming back my life, so this wasn't actually happening. Or that the bit where your life was meant to flash before your eyes, was the life I was living iyswim?

alemci · 07/05/2014 21:15

Darmoc definitely the gorillas kidnapping people not guerrillas. I thought the same. was it in SA in the 70s.

ThatBloodyWoman · 07/05/2014 21:17

I used to think that if you adopted an animal in the zoo, you got to take them home.

I distinctly remember eyeing up the shed for an elephant....

Playingthelonggame · 07/05/2014 21:17

When my df was going to the pub and used to say he was going to see a man about a dog.

I would sit by that window and wait for the puppy that I would convince myself he would br g back!

matildasquared · 07/05/2014 21:20

Ah, the first time I saw a film of Jane Eyre I was like, "Sinjin? Her cousin wasn't called Sinjin in the novel. What kind of name is that anyway?"

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