Ridiculous things you've only recently realised you've been wrong about your entire life

[Seasidedolly]

I genuinely thought if you pulled the reverse cord on ceiling fans, it would circulate warm air.

My friend thought the yellow average speed cameras on motorways were there to look for missing children.

I had another recent revelation but I can't remember it now

do some of you go through life not listening to the news, or reading anything except take a break and hello?? I am that so many people thought it was hand gliding and that someone didn't know swans could fly. As for the DH who thinks the earth is a stationary object, please tell me he's joking! Thinking Cambodia is in Africa is also a little surprising, though as I couldn't confidently point to it on a map of Asia I'll let you off

Warn penguins?? Well I never! I too am now imagining them going on their hols & emigrating

Warm*

When I was younger I thought Niamh was pronounced Ni-amf, and not Neve. I thought they were different names.

my son asked me how many lubbs in a stone ( he meant lbs/pounds), my daughter asked if women could get meningitis and did women have prostate glands....i could go on but it says somethings lacking in my teaching skills!

Well, I did know about articulated lorries, my dad used to take me to the countryside, Clapham Common, in his.

I discovered when I grew up that Clapham Common isn't actually the countryside.

When I was younger I thought everyone in America lived in mud huts and I was gobsmacked when my grandparents came back from a holiday with a jumper for me with skyscrapers on it. I was about 10 yrs old!! The shame!

I think it's acceptable as a child. I remember at primary school a boy in my class was saying girls are rubbish or something similar and I said how can they be rubbish when only girls can become prime minister. I had no memory of a male prime minister therefore I assumed it could happen.

couldnt

I thought Torquay was either made up or in another country.

I admit I did not know about the equatorial penguins. I assume they are native there as it's rather a long way to migrate.

Wrong thread, apologies.

OldGreyCat virginity is about whether you've had sex, not the state of your hymen. Hymens can break for all sorts of reasons before a woman has sex, it doesn't make them not a virgin. So Mary supposedly got pregnant while still a virgin. Whether she then lost said virginity to Joseph is another matter.

My confession: For a long time (debunked during a trip to the British Museum with my in-laws about 5 years ago) I thought the Elgin marbles were the small round glass sort.

daughter asked if women could get meningitis and did women have prostate glands

Well, Meningitis ... it sounds like something only men can get, doesn't it?

And I actually don't remember at what age I learnt that something like a prostate existed. (I think I first thought it was a males-only illness, as it was often mentioned in advertisements)

On the other hand I am from County Durham and am baffled by you all.

I think that perhaps you're not alone, SockQueen, one or two of us may have shared your beliefs about the Elgin marbles at some point.

It took me ages to convince DM that Portsmouth is on an island... I now take every opportunity to use references such as 'top of the island' and 'just on the mainland' to wind her up about it.

One of my friends didn't realise that women have three holes down below. The look of shock on her face when I explained it to her was hysterical. Never found out if she thought she weed out her fanjo or her arse

sowhite that totally confused me as I was just on that thread and thought I'd just clicked back to it by mistake

I was amazed that the Falkland Islands weren't in Scotland

You really thought that Argentinians went all the way from the Southern Hemisphere to Scotland to invade them?
Or where did you think Argentina is???

Roobix04 I also thought Torquay was abroad. This was because of Fawlty Towers, I assumed that all hotels were in foreign countries. We were not a well travelled family!
I embarrassed myself at a large family gathering by asking my brother how many tellies he had sold over the phone in his new job (telesales)!
I thought Africa was a country and France was next to the UK not below. I also thought it was France I could see when I looked across the water (it was the Itchen river and I was on Weston shore looking at Southampton - that's why I was unimpressed for so long with channel swimmers as it didnt seem that far to me! I also didn't realise that Manhattan was part of New York - I thought it WAS New York. It took a Beastie Boys song to teach me that. Also thought New York was named twice because it was York in the UK first. I was smug reading this thread till that was explained!

I spent my whole childhood thinking that Fox's glacier mints made a mistake by putting a bear on the wrappers

Kerbs, did you wonder why no one else had noticed?!

I just asked dp if he knew what a shew was. He thought it was either a mushroom or a type of horse

I was in my 30s before I realised there was a right way and a wrong way to hang loo rolls.

That's news to me. I wonder whether I've been doing it right or wrong all this time.

I thought for a long time that 'test tube babies' were actually grown in test tubes. I thought they must have to keep moving them to bigger tubes as they grew.