I... Genuinely only realizing this now

I'm a first gen immigrant but despite having native American English, sometimes once in a blue moon I'll encounter a semi-rare word I've yet to be exposed to.

So my closest analog is that I was confused for the longest time why people kept referring to statues of figures from shoulder level upwards as busts when they never had chests or breasts or boobs or blossoms or busts!

So for the longest time not only was I confused, I would be on the lookout for statuses that depicted from breast height upwards, but I never found one, lol.

If your dinner scrapings are too soupy or wet to go in the bin, you can tip the whole thing in the toilet so you don't have to fanny about trying to sieve the noodles and vegetables while decanting it into the kitchen sink.

30 years old when I had dinner at a friend's house and they did it casually like it was obvious.

I can't think of an incident like this off-hamd for myself, but I once dated a woman who didn't know that women have a urethra. She thought the urine just came out of her vagina. She was ~23.

Me, the first time I realized I could wash pillows. (Only certain types are washable)

Love that for once we're mostly not mocking them and are actually sharing similar experiences, we've all had one of those moments.

As someone living in the tropics, where home heating doesn't exist, warm/hot showers only takes 2 seconds after turning it on.

As for one of my own fuckups, I once put a piece of pizza with styrofoam as a plate in the microwave. I was 15 at the time. I did not eat pizza that day. Not the last time I fucked up with the microwave.

I mean, having lived more than half my life with water catchment NOT county water, letting the water run is wasteful and can mean you go without during drought. That means turning the water off while scrubbing, too. I've learned to embrace the cold on purpose at the end, with the closing pores n all.

And once again, we learn that common sense is actually not that common.

And of course, we have a relevant xkcd.

Best tip I can give: Turn the sink hot water on and let it run until it's hot and the lines are filled to the bathroom. When you turn on the shower, turn it to full hot until hot water starts coming out, and then adjust it to your personal preference. No waiting for shower to warm up now. Just jump in.

I remember this thread. One of the responses was from someone who thought that the beep his car made when locking the doors got quieter when activated from further away.

You're not supposed to just stand there and waste that warming-up water, you're supposed to collect it in a watering can and put it on your plants! It's got stuff from having sat in the water heater so it's not the best for drinking but plants don't mind.

Also before someone asks, they were just roommates

Parenting. You think you’re doing great and you realise at times that some of the thing a you take for granted, you haven’t taught your kids.

Just because they’ve seen you do something a thousand times doesn’t mean they understand why

I'm so thrown off by our current shower which legit heats up in 2 seconds. I was so used to waiting like a minute for it to warm up, I built my rituals around that. But this one... it's just hot, like right away. Bizarre

I can understand the shower one, but who tf is insane enough to not use oven mitts or a rag? I'd imagine you'd take a moment to think about the possible solutions before doing something that painful

when I was little I would wait for the water to warm up, then pull the thing to turn on the shower head. But there's like 2 seconds of freezing water in the tube to the shower head so I would have to really quickly pull it, run back to the edge of the shower, and block it with the shower curtain. It had a 50% chance of failure and I did it for years

I lived the same "realization moment" last year talking to a friend.

I was saying that I need to go home to wash my white undershirts as I only got blacks left (small t-shirt to wear under a shirt and not freeze to death during winter).

He asked me why so I have several colors of undershirts.

Well, black and grey for black or dark colored shirts, white for white or clear colored shirts otherwise you’ll see it behind the fabric, duuuh, are you dumb?

The answer:

Or you can wear white ones under dark shirts as well and it won’t be visible…

🤔🤔🤔😧 FFS dude, why did I never thought of that?

I didn’t learn until my 40s that if you exhale gently while getting water on your face, none of it goes in your nose.

No one mentioned (probably an assumed thing) to turn the water on full hot to let it warm up, then move it to the preferred mix position. Doesn't waste the cold water which will stay more or less the same temp, it's only flushing out the cold in the hot water line. And because you have it fully on hot, it takes less time.

Or get a tankless water heater to get it almost right away. I've seen debates on which is a better choice when factoring everything in, and I think it's a close tie with no clear winner, each having their caveats.

So he's about to have shower sex and he is capable of thinking about anything else?

Similar dumbassery: Taking a shit and seating there for 20 minutes inhaling feces stench when I could do a flush as soon first turds come out and stay on the toilet until I can't feel my legs without a farty atmosphere in the bathroom.

I don't think I've ever used a shower where there was no way to avoid an initial cold spray while standing in it, so it never occurred to me to turn it on first because it wasn't an issue.

I had a very cold shower once until I realized the way that one knob faucet worked was you had to turn it an insane amount to get to the hot water.

Have you ever done something...this dumb?

Well, at least OOP realizes it was dumb. I’d tell them to relax and not let it ruin their evening. We’re all astonishingly stupid sometimes. It happens to the best of us.

I don’t like wasting water, so I just stand at the far end and try to start wetting my hair until it gets warm enough to fully step in.

Kinda sweet that she was prioritizing water conservation over her own comfort level

What's the difference between pointing the shower head away and standing outside at first?

Im one of those dumbasses that likes a cold shower.

I prefer to cower in fear, actually. Too much of an effort to lean in and start the water beforehand. Plus now I usually shower in a standing stall so I have to be in it to turn the water on anyway. Just gotta set the angle and the cower space just right.

I learnt that USians have to do this from movies (because you guys have weird plumbing, I think?). Does this person not watch movies?

people who talk about their education when it is not part of the conversation are usually pretty dumb.

Average engagement bait/troll.

(Edit: The Reddit user, not op!!)

In situations like this I always think, "What would archer/xander cruze say?"