Things that perplexed me when I was a kid

[sasha_feather]

--I thought the moon was a planet.

--People seemed to pronounce wind chill as "windsheel", all blended together and soft, so I couldn't parse it and thought they were maybe saying "wind shield," even though that did not make sense.

--I thought that tourist meant someone who led tours (tour guide).

--I couldn't hear the difference between picture and pitcher.

--I didn't understand why "I" in the middle of a sentence should be capitalized.

--I didn't understand the subtle nuances that differentiated dinner and supper (this is still difficult because dinner means different things to different people).

What did you have a hard time understanding as a kid?

Comments

[owlectomy]

I moved to France when I was six and came back when I was seven, and so I had to go through two separate phases of "everything you know is wrong": I started 3rd grade not knowing to capitalize "I" because you don't capitalize "je," I wrote "7" wrong when I got to France, learned how to write French "7," and then when I came back that was wrong. (I also had to learn two kinds of cursive! Which is why I can't do cursive now.)

I'm kind of embarrassed at how old I was when I learned that the ATM isn't an infinite magic money machine (especially considering that I heard "Oh no, we're overdrawn" from my mom a million times).

I didn't understand that I was supposed to be embarrassed (or at least quiet!) about the fact that I was born to unmarried parents.

I didn't understand that I couldn't be Catholic just because all my classmates were. (I also kind of wanted to be a nun, but that was because boys were terrible and I didn't want to marry one.)

I didn't understand why my mom was weird about me reading the Jehovah's Witness magazines at my grandma's house.

[sasha_feather]

Maybe not embarrassed, but circumspect? About the unmarried parents. I don't think kids do circumspect well.

What is French seven??

[davidgillon]

Continental sevens are generally drawn with a crossbar at mid-height, so not exactly difficult to recognise whichever continent you're on!

[rhivolution]

I picked up writing the continental 7 at about age 13 or 14, in German class, and now can't imagine writing it any other way!