Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
30 Times Folks Were Blind To The Obvious And Just Recently Realized What’s Up, As Shared Online
We all have our "aha!" moments at different times. Perhaps you've just discovered the correct usage of a common kitchen gadget, or maybe you've finally come to the realization that "espresso" shouldn't be pronounced with an "x" – whatever it is, we've got a list just for you!
“What obvious thing did you recently realize?” – this web user invited folks to spill the beans on super obvious things they only just realized. The thread garnered 8K upvotes as well as 8.7K comments containing some pretty interesting answers.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My grandson just figured out I am his mothers mother. He just can't understand why I tell him we have to ask his mom to do some things. Why can't I just tell his mom we are going to do something? I am her mom therefore her boss!
RELATED:
#2
That when a cat comes running up to me when I'm out for a walk, they are seeing me with the same excitement and novelty as I'm seeing them!
That realization really made my day.
#3
Growing up, my grandparents religiously had a 3:00 PM “Pepsi” time. Like Tea Time, I guess, but with Pepsi. Every time we were over there, it happened. We all enjoyed a crisp, fizzy, cold Pepsi.
At 43 years old, I was telling that story this week, when I suddenly realized theirs were most likely spiked.
#4
Despite their warm and friendly ourward appearance, Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult. I'm a raised JW and I'm fading out of the organization.
#5
Stripper poles rotate and are not fixed. I always just assumed the dancers spun around the fixed pole through incredible body strength.
Pedantic Panda 2 years ago
Some are fixed and some rotate. The latter is used for more experience dancers to complete more complex moves. The one I used was fixed.
#6
That birds don't live in nests. Nests are just where they keep their eggs. Birds just sleep in trees.
Andy Frobig 2 years ago
Well, ok, but if a parent bird or surrogate elephant doesn't spend at least some time in the nest, the eggs won't hatch
#7
I didn’t realize that in the song “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”, the DAD was in a Santa costume…and Mom wasn’t committing adultery with a magical, fictitious old man…
#8
Soft drinks are called soft drinks bc they don’t contain alcohol. Hard drinks do.
#10
That if I put my phone in a bright yellow case I’ll spend significantly less time wandering around my apartment muttering “where the f**k did I set my phone”
Pedantic Panda 2 years ago
Just do what I've done and use your phone light to help you find it.
#11
The reason Lead is Pb on the periodic table is due to the Latin word for lead which is the same root of the word for plumbing, because the Romans made pipes out of lead.
#12
I spend too much time choosing to be negative when I could really be happy. After a vacation I had a major attitude adjustment and applied to school in the town I visited. Suddenly debt doesn't depress me, cause I'm accumulating it for reasons I know are worth it. In the past few weeks I've journaled mostly optimistic things, and today I realized I had spent over half of the journal talking myself into a deeper hole. I can't unwrite it now, but that just makes me value the pages I have left so much more. I don't want my life to be a journal full of sad thoughts. I want to be happy.
Stardust she/her 2 years ago
I’m having a hard time thinking positively these days because it feels like I’m encountering problems everywhere I go and I’m starting to regret being born
Dan St John 2 years ago
I think it is because we are constantly being bombard with depressing or hate media. Deaths and fighting are all you see now. I had the same thing happen and just shut it all off for a few days and it dawned on me how much better I felt. Now I limit my time to less than 30 minutes a day and I still wake up happy.
Load More Replies...
Jennifer Clark 2 years ago
This is great advice, but: if you're truly depressed and it's too much to deal with, it's okay to get help. Using medication or therapy does not make you weak. it just makes it easier to be yourself.
HeavyMetalHeart 2 years ago
Doesn’t work for everyone. This kind of think felt really false to me and didn’t help, until I actually got properly medicated for my depression and other issues.
kath morgan 2 years ago
Toxic positivity; depression is not a choice. You got better, congrats.
Michelle Smith 2 years ago
I’m really not into journaling, but I have started to recall one good thing I have done that day and one positive thing that happened no matter how small
Greenmantle 2 years ago
If you can, it's OK to switch off from thinking and just float for a while, withholding judgements about how things are and what's happening.
Nancy Lynch 2 years ago
Homeless and it looks like no matter what we (my brother and I) do, we're not getting out of it.
Mickie Shea 2 years ago
You'er moving in the right direction. What you think, you most likely will become.
Bloodyklaws 2 years ago
Yeah that reads like someone who has not grasped the disorder part of mental disorder. If we could think our way out of our own mental illness we wouldn’t need things like herb, prozac, and snorting drain cleaner off dead wildebeest eyeballs
John K 2 years ago
Like I fully understand physical clinical depression but I dont think I've felt it before. I've hit literal rock bottom. Living in a tent I barely paid for. Partially relying on rain to bathe. Yet I never felt sad. Not once did I feel...sad. i lost my home, job, family, and friends. But i didnt feel like it was all over. I just kept goin. And now I live in a nice house in a VERY nice neighborhood. Yet I miss where I was. Homeless I mean. I...loved it. I loved having 0 responsibilities
Aroace tiger (she/they/he) 2 years ago
That's so difficult man. I'm struggling so badly recently
Jared Robinson 2 years ago
hey those other pages are just as valuable, let them remind you about what not to do. Also having those feelings is not a bad thing, Sometimes you need a good low point so you can get back to the high points.
#13
That worms don’t come onto the sidewalks when it rains because the wet concrete is irresistible to their squishy bodies. It’s because they’re drowning in the grass. This was a few years ago, but at that time, I had a masters degree and was walking into my full time engineering job. A bunch of worms on the sidewalk outside my building and an “oh” lightbulb that clicked on in my head
Mama Penguin 2 years ago (edited)
There was a former school soccer field near where I live. Everytime it poured, worms would crawl all over the sidewalk. Being a high traffic area, the worms would get squished. I never knew earthworms smell "fishy" until then.
#14
That my doctor was right. I need to start using a cane and stop being stubborn.
#15
that my glasses were on my the top of my head the whole time I was looking for them.
shanila.pheonix_ 2 years ago
this happens to me a LOT. sometimes, i forget i'm wearing them and i freak out about not finding them. lol
#16
I can actually do certain things differently than I’ve been doing my whole life, and often the new way is better.
#18
That pets dies. Of course you are aware of it as a pet owner from day 1; that our furry friends are not immortals. But it always hits you like lightning from a clear sky when it actually happens, especially when it happens too early. Bqckground: Our family cat fell down in an old well and drowned... 😭 A stupid and tragic accident.
#19
Cows only produce milk because they are mothers. I mean, I genuinely just thought cows made milk all the time until not that long ago. They have to have babies and have a 9-month pregnancy just like humans. Then we take their milk from their babies :(
Lil Miss Hobbit 2 years ago
Not enough people know this. But there are nice ways to do it. Our cow had a calf and we split the milk 50/50 with him. She will produce as much as is needed (up to around 4 gallons, I think), so he gets enough and it doesn't hurt either of them.
#20
You do not have to make the entire box of pasta all at once
#22
Pipe cleaners aren’t just for arts and crafts.
They’re also for cleaning pipes.
Im 35 and oh so ashamed of myself.
#23
That Alucard from Castlevania just means Dracula backwards ..
Felt so dumb for not seeing the extremely obvious
#24
When getting an eye exam you are asked which looks better 1, or 2. If they are identical or too close to call, you have a 3rd option. The same. They never told me that.
LK 2 years ago
I've just had my eyes tested, and optometrists are keyed into the hesitation when answering this question. The greater the hesitation, they assume the harder it is for the person to decide. With one lens, I had to ask for clarification. It was better without, the first lens made dots sharper, but gave them a tail, the second wasn't as sharp, but they retained their shape. Instead of saying '1' or '2', I explained what I was seeing, and left it up to the optometrist to decide. :o)
#25
I first realized only a couple of years ago that Elvis sings about the “whole cell block” in Jailhouse Rock, not the “wholesale block.” I’d imagined there being a Costco and a Petsmart and a Super Cuts and an AT&T store and maybe a Jimmy John’s and all the people shopping there were doing the Jailhouse Rock. It took me a solid 25 years of knowing that song to clue in.
#26
That the phase “bottom of the hour” means 30 min past the hour because the hand is at the bottom of the clock.
#27
That the phrase ‘agree to disagree’ means agreeing to simply both disagree with eachother and end the argument, until yesterday I thought it meant the person who says it is agreeing with your point just to end the argument, meaning I thought I’d won every argument that people have said this in
#28
A couple years ago I realized pickles were just pickled cucumbers. Not sure why, but I never realized this and always thought pickles were just pickles.
#29
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is referring to distance and not depth
Edit: Yeah, sorry I meant horizontally and not vertically…it’s all distance
Russell Bowman 2 years ago
Just for fun a league, from the Celts and adopted by Romans, was the distance a person could walk in about one hour.
#30
That the pilgrims from the American Thanksgiving were called pilgrims because they were on a pilgrimage of sorts.
It took me seeing a news report while I was in Portugal last November and I said to my wife "oh you use the same word for pilgrims and pilgrims like we do in English"
"Yes" she replied "because they were pilgrims on a pilgrimage"
sofacushionfort 2 years ago
Hey I just realized that when the grizzly hunter tells Jeremiah Johnson “That’ll be far enough, pilgrim” Johnson has reached his goal of seeking a source of wisdom to live in the wilderness.
#31
That boxer shorts are the style of shorts that boxers wear
#32
I played through nearly all of Fallout 4 (I didn’t buy the game until fairly recently) without realizing there’s a jump button. If I got trapped someplace, I just restarted from a previous save and complained about what kinda idiots didn’t make it so you can jump. But I’m the idiot.
Kurichfield 2 years ago
how about that Fallout Boy there is measuring the size of the mushroom cloud with his thumb and not giving you a thumbs up...BOOMSHAKALAKA!
#33
PetSmart is both Pet Smart and Pets Mart. It's a play on words!
the boredest panda 2 years ago
i thought it was just pet-smart because in the logo the "pet" is red and the "smart" is blue
#34
That The Beatles (the band) and the car/bug (beetle) was spelled different. This was *last week*.
I've always thought beetle (bug) was Beatle. I have no idea why now.
Niall Mac Iomera 2 years ago
After buddy Holly and the crickets were out, they wanted a catchy name like that. They were gonna go for 'the beetles' but realised they could have a pun in there with 'the Beatles'. Cos music has a beat.
#35
i realized that you have to act to fall asleep to literally fall asleep
scag$y 2 years ago
Is it just me that's constantly tired, then? I could fall asleep climbing over an electric barbed-wire fence. In fact, that's exactly why I stopped climbing over them. I fall asleep on the way around them now. Which is better. But still not ideal. But look at me wafflin-zzzzzz
#36
That the Houston Astros name comes from astronauts.
sofacushionfort 2 years ago
The Seattle Sonics were named after Boeing’s brief attempt at supersonic aircraft construction. Most ironically, soon after Los Angeles dismantled its red car public transportation system, it acquired the Dodgers; named after Brooklynites’ dodging out of the way of their street trolleys
#37
I thought “baby fever” was an infection
#38
That there is a typo on my email in my resume. Somehow it went unnoticed for 6+ months...
#39
The line in the bee gees song is "and you come to me on a summer breeze" and not "on a submarine"...
#40
That coriander (I love) is cilantro (I hate)
Stardust she/her 2 years ago (edited)
I hate coriander because it has a weird taste. Apparently it has to do with a recessive gene present in ~20% of the population
#41
That basil leaves don't come from tomato plants. I've always seen basil-tomato on everything and I just assumed that they came from the same plant lol
Marla Singer 2 years ago
Yikes, people need to learn a basic bit about how extremely common foodstuffs grow. Try it and see it for themselves.
#42
That Men's Wearhouse is a pun.
Fantastic Mr Fox 2 years ago
This one is super obvious. I bought two nice suits there I ever only used once for a job interview. They give good advice on shoes, shirt, tie and the suit is made to fit and all colors match. It’s correct what they advertise. You look great when they are done.
#43
I'm working for a leisure nautical company where they call me "Newbie Anchor" - except, they don't, they refer to me as my predecessor's name: Bianca.
Nice Beast Ludo 2 years ago
So they were saying "New Bianca" and you were hearing "Newbie Anchor"? If I was your co-workers I would have played it off because that's more humiliating for them not you
#44
The blue part is *not* land.
What do you think ?
Uncle Pato 2 years ago
My girlfriend, when in our 30's, learned that the piece of furniture used to store clothing in your bedroom is called a "chest of drawers", not "Chester drawers."
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
Chester Drawers is actually the guy who works at the local organic food collective.
Load More Replies...
Freya the Wanderer 2 years ago
I have fought against using "they" as a third person singular pronoun when one means "he or she," then realized that we have been using the same pronouns and verb forms for singular and plural second person for centuries. "You are" can be directed at one person or many.
SadieCat17 2 years ago
Person 1: I saw this random person chasing me down the street yesterday. Person 2: Oh my god, did you know who they were?
Load More Replies...
ConstantlyJon 2 years ago
My mother, in her 70's, realized that the is no adjective in English called "donserly." She realized this when singing the US National Anthem and recognizing the phrase is "by the dawn's early light." Whoops.
Rodney McKay 2 years ago
I would not hire a single one of the OPs for my company, as we care about our reputation.
Uncle Pato 2 years ago
My girlfriend, when in our 30's, learned that the piece of furniture used to store clothing in your bedroom is called a "chest of drawers", not "Chester drawers."
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
Chester Drawers is actually the guy who works at the local organic food collective.
Load More Replies... Freya the Wanderer 2 years ago
I have fought against using "they" as a third person singular pronoun when one means "he or she," then realized that we have been using the same pronouns and verb forms for singular and plural second person for centuries. "You are" can be directed at one person or many.
SadieCat17 2 years ago
Person 1: I saw this random person chasing me down the street yesterday. Person 2: Oh my god, did you know who they were?
Load More Replies... ConstantlyJon 2 years ago
My mother, in her 70's, realized that the is no adjective in English called "donserly." She realized this when singing the US National Anthem and recognizing the phrase is "by the dawn's early light." Whoops.
Rodney McKay 2 years ago
I would not hire a single one of the OPs for my company, as we care about our reputation.
You May Like 40 Hilarious Quotes From The Most Famous People 125 Funny Phrases To Stun Even The Most Expressful Friend "What Is The Creepiest Thing That Ever Happened To You But Never Told Anyone?"
Saimonas Lukošius
Saimonas Lukošius
Jonas Žvilius
Related on Bored Panda
