My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

This forum is the home of Mumsnet classic threads.

Mumsnet classics

Tell me a random embarrassing thing that happened to you when you were a kid

217 replies

ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 21:49

When I was about 12 I was at the shops with my mother. I’d got my arse in my hand for some reason, which TBF wasn’t exactly unusual. I refused to go round the co-op And waited at the front of the shop instead. The only place to sit was on this battered old elephant kids ride, you know, the ones where you put 10p in and they rock backwards and forwards a bit and play a tune.

So there I was, almost a grown up teenager, all surly and arsey with a right gob on, too cool to go round the co-op with my mother, sitting on this beat up old elephant ride for babies… and an old man walked up, said, ‘oh, do you want a go?’ Stuck 10p in and off I went, rocking backwards and forwards on this toddler ride. I jumped off and ran all the way home, I may have even cried, and refused to leave my room for the rest of the day.
My mother was worried sick and went mad at me for running off, and I was so embarrassed I refused to tell her why.

OP posts:
Report
SouthOfFrance · 22/11/2022 21:52

That's hilarious!

Report
ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 22:10

Bump

<Peeps round the door, then runs off>

OP posts:
Report
Igotthegoose · 22/11/2022 22:23

That is SO ridiculously funny it really tickled me!

Nothing as funny as that, but I was obsessed with things as a kid and went through phases that luckily I grew out of. I was the kid who played with the cardboard boxes that the toys came in rather than the toys themselves. Decapitate barbies and all that. My nan used to tell this story of when She was babysitting and she had bought me a load of plastic dinosaurs from the E.L.C (if anyone remembers that store in the U.K.!) she came downstairs and I’d proudly tied string around the dinosaurs necks and hung them from doorways. Strange stuff like that.

One That really sticks out for me is that I was obsessed with pretending I was an animal and doing my best to make others believe it. This particular evening I was a penguin, and I had coloured in an Ice cream cone and sellotaped it to my face. My dad embarrassingly encouraged this behaviour and took me to the shop and told the shop keeper I was a penguin, and seemed wildly impressed at my coned face appearance. I remember proudly standing there stiff with my hands flapped out thinking to myself ‘I’m getting away with it, she thinks I’m a penguin.’

I must have been about 11.

Report
ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 22:30

That reminds me of the time when I was at college and I stuck a big plaster on my forehead just to see how many people would ask me what I done. I was, and probably still am, a bit daft.

OP posts:
Report
mynameischloe · 22/11/2022 22:35

I once was at a Christmas fayre (think church hall type of thing) and I really wanted a packet of yoghurt raisins. I must have been about 7, and I asked this particular stall holder how much they were about 10 times in the hope they would just give them to me.

They didn't, and I always think back and cringe.

So not so much an embarrassing thing to happen TO me, more that I'm a total embarrassment to myself Grin

Report
ldontWanna · 22/11/2022 22:37

ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 22:30

That reminds me of the time when I was at college and I stuck a big plaster on my forehead just to see how many people would ask me what I done. I was, and probably still am, a bit daft.

I put a plaster on over a spot. Everyone assumed I got into a fight(no idea why) . I preferred being "hard" than spotty so I let it run and possibly even encouraged it a bit. Grin

Report
mynameischloe · 22/11/2022 22:40

I also remember wanting high healed shoes for school but (obviously) wasn't allowed so I tried sticking two little toothpaste tube lids to my shoes to look like heals.

I was a total nobber!

Report
ldontWanna · 22/11/2022 22:41

The proper cringy one was when I was about 10 or 11.


We were all having dinner and dad was his usual jokey self ,messing with mum, possibly told her he loves/fancies her or something. I shouted "would you stop having oral sex at the table?". Both of them stared in shock, while I kept muttering to myself that it's cringy, and they're old and all the other typical nonsense. Mum had to explain to me what it meant. I didn't leave my room for two days.Grin

I thought it was verbal teasing /innuendo kind of stuff.

Report
Igotthegoose · 22/11/2022 22:44

mynameischloe · 22/11/2022 22:40

I also remember wanting high healed shoes for school but (obviously) wasn't allowed so I tried sticking two little toothpaste tube lids to my shoes to look like heals.

I was a total nobber!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Report
OneStepOneStumble · 22/11/2022 22:45

When I was in early primary school (can't have been more than age 6/7) I saw my friend sat looking really upset on a bench alone outside. So I decided to go and do a funny dance for her to make her laugh. I really went for it and made myself look really silly on purpose. Except when my friend looked up at me, I realised it wasn't her at all. I think I muttered some apology and ran.

I've never forgotten the deep embarrassment I felt in that moment.

Report
ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 22:54

ldontWanna · 22/11/2022 22:41

The proper cringy one was when I was about 10 or 11.


We were all having dinner and dad was his usual jokey self ,messing with mum, possibly told her he loves/fancies her or something. I shouted "would you stop having oral sex at the table?". Both of them stared in shock, while I kept muttering to myself that it's cringy, and they're old and all the other typical nonsense. Mum had to explain to me what it meant. I didn't leave my room for two days.Grin

I thought it was verbal teasing /innuendo kind of stuff.

Oh my God, that has made me laugh.

OP posts:
Report
sageandrosemary · 22/11/2022 22:58

Primary school, PE lesson, I'd forgot my PE kit. Was quite acceptable then and not unusual to do PE in your vest and pants (for an indoors lesson) if you'd forgot your kit so the teacher sent me off to the changing rooms to get undressed. Imagine how mortified I was when, in the changing rooms, I realised I'd forgot to put my pants on that morning and had to go back out to tell the teacher this Blush

Report
Bbq1 · 22/11/2022 23:00

Aged about 9 on holiday my mum had a street artist do a pencil drawing of me. We didn't see the end result until he had finished. I still remember the shock of seeing the picture for the first time - I kid you not, I looked like a 60 year old woman. My mu. bought it because she felt obliged. I was so embarrassed and upset. We've laughed about it since!

Report
VenusClapTrap · 22/11/2022 23:09

Bbq1 · 22/11/2022 23:00

Aged about 9 on holiday my mum had a street artist do a pencil drawing of me. We didn't see the end result until he had finished. I still remember the shock of seeing the picture for the first time - I kid you not, I looked like a 60 year old woman. My mu. bought it because she felt obliged. I was so embarrassed and upset. We've laughed about it since!

Oh I feel your pain. Very similar experience. I was 13 and the bastard drew all my spots on the caricature. I was pretty sensitive about my skin (who isn’t at that age) and it made me cry. My parents bought it too.

Report
Sniffup · 22/11/2022 23:14

I told my Dad he had brewers droop, I thought it meant he had a beer belly!

I also did a handstand against the fence outside secondary school while waiting for a lift home. I had Doc Martens on and they got wedged between the fence posts and I was stuck, in full view of the main road into town to top it off my shirt fell over my face so I was flashing my bra.

Report
PauliesWalnuts · 22/11/2022 23:25

Accidentally farted in class and the teacher pointed it out. I was 14. Utter mortification.

Report
ALongHardWinter · 22/11/2022 23:29

IdontwWanna 😂😂😂 That's hilarious!

Report
MarmiteCoriander · 22/11/2022 23:32

OP- I have no idea what this means 'I’d got my arse in my hand'? I assumed you meant scratching your bum or something??? Never heard the phrase before?

2 bad memories I recall.

I was age 3/4 and neighbour 5/6 who had 2 older brothers. My older and much wise friend (in my eyes) suggested we each make a fake penis using paper and sellotape. We rolled a tube of paper and strapped them to our body with the sellotape. Whilst each standing and attempting to wee into the toilet bowl from either side- my father walked in.

2nd was again with my dad! We were sea swimming to a pier when I was about 8/9yrs old. We lived abroad in a warm country, so I had swum since very young. Once at the pier, we decided to do the reverse trip via back stroke. As I was going along backwards, my hand reached out blind to go back in the water- I realised I was grasping his crotch instead of the water 😱

Report
LidlCinnamonBun · 22/11/2022 23:39

I was 11 or 12 and my next door neighbour and I watched Pretty Woman. We decided to act it out in the back lane. We borrowed my mums ciggies and her sisters clothes and we strutted up and down the back lane for business.
Our other neighbour knocked our door and told my mum what we were doing. We gave him threatening looks when we saw him taking his bins out, whilst we were saying work it baby, work it

Report
ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 23:40

MarmiteCoriander · Today 23:32
OP- I have no idea what this means 'I’d got my arse in my hand'? I assumed you meant scratching your bum or something??? Never heard the phrase before?

it means in a bad mood. It’s probably a regional thing, West Midlands.

OP posts:
Report
ThanksAntsThants · 22/11/2022 23:42

LidlCinnamonBun · 22/11/2022 23:39

I was 11 or 12 and my next door neighbour and I watched Pretty Woman. We decided to act it out in the back lane. We borrowed my mums ciggies and her sisters clothes and we strutted up and down the back lane for business.
Our other neighbour knocked our door and told my mum what we were doing. We gave him threatening looks when we saw him taking his bins out, whilst we were saying work it baby, work it

I’ve just laughed out loud at that. The house is very quiet.

OP posts:
Report
HarrietSchulenberg · 22/11/2022 23:50

When I was about 4 I had a book from the library called Baby George that, for some reason, I really loved. I already hated dresses and refused to wear them but for about 6 weeks I also refused to answer to any name other than George. My Mum had to explain me to a local shopkeeper who offered me a lollipop using my own name, as I flatly ignored him until he addressed me as George.

I also brought the school dinner hall to a standstill when I referred to my Dairylea cheese sandwiches by the name we (innocently) called it at home. Our neighbours' cat loved the stuff and it had become known as pussy cheese in our house. Yeah. Pussy cheese. I was 14. The shame still burns.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

Vigneau · 23/11/2022 00:06

These are hilarious!! I have a few. Mostly happened when I was around 10 or 11.

  1. Listening to a record on my uncles new record player with some headphones on for the first time ever. The family were gradually bringing the Sunday tea out while I sat on the sofa farting out loud, completely forgetting that headphones meant only I had the safety of loud background noise.
  2. Cousin and her four year old daughter came round to stay. Daughter came with me up the village to pick up the parish magazine. Vicar opened his door and four year old pointed to him and said very sternly “You, fuck off”.
  3. Another uncle sat in our garden on a hot summer day, applying some sun cream. I advised him to rub it really well into his ‘foreskin’ because that is the part that needs to soak it up most.
  4. It is Christmas Eve, the house is all decorated, fire lit and it’s cosy and ambient. Relatives all arrived, drinking, getting merry. I’m in the corner bored and not being noticed. I decided it would be a good experiment to melt one of those long Parker ink cartridges on the lamp bulb next to me in the corner. As I’m leaning over it, watching the plastic cartridge melt and the blue ink sizzle, suddenly the bulb explodes and the lamp shade, the wall and my face suddenly turn a speckled kind of bluey-black colour.
Report
KloppsTeeth · 23/11/2022 00:12

🤣🤣🤣 these are brilliant!

I was about 12 and we had recently moved to a different part of the country. I’d got used to so many different and new regional names for things. Think calling a wasp a “Jasper” and what was a barmcake was a “bread roll”.
So we go back to visit my grandparents for a family birthday. Everyone was there, aunts, uncles, cousins at the table having a meal. My Dad made a joke at my expense, only something minor, and to embarrass him back and show off my new vocabulary to my cousins, I loudly called him a “fookin twat” 😳😱🤣
stunned silence….. he leapt up, marched me out the room and I was in so much trouble.
I thought “twat” was the local version of “twit” (as was a common word in our house) and “fookin” meant like “silly” or something. Oh the shame! 🤣

Report
Lillygolightly · 23/11/2022 00:13

On a school trip being so engrossed chatting to my friend that I walked full pelt into a lamp post and snapped my glasses in half. Was about 9 and laughed but was embarrassed.

Aged 14 the ice cream van came round, the young lad serving was not bad looking and I wanted to make an impression. Flared jeans were fashionable at the time and after buying 2 ice creams decided that rather that walking through the gate it would look cooler if I just hopped over my fence…except my jeans got hung up on a nail my momentum was lost and I ended up hung upside down trapped on the fence. The ice cream van used to literally stop right outside my house, there was always a line of people queuing including people from school and so everyone saw me just hanging there! They laughed, no one helped and I was utterly mortified!!! Never went out to get ice cream from the van ever again!

Wax strip disaster. Also aged 14 became aware of my top lip hair and mum had advised me to use that cream bleach to lighten them which worked ok. Mum was away and I discovered her waxing strips and thought how much better it would be to wax it off and be hair free instead. Completely neglected to read that leg waxing strips should not be used on the face, or that you were supposed to gently warm the strips between your hands first. I ended up removing the hair along with several layers of skin! Instead of hairy lip I had a bloody awful scab that took bloody ages to heal and was far more embarrassing than the hair ever was. Never waxed my lip again! My mum had a right laugh at that one!

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.