Relationships can be full of love and laughter, but sometimes, there are moments that leave you scratching your head. Whether it’s a puzzling misunderstanding or a hilariously misguided decision, these instances can reveal that your partner might not be the sharpest tool in the shed. While frustrating at times, these moments often lead to amusing stories that highlight the quirks of everyday life. In this article, we share real-life tales of people who realized their partner’s brilliance might need a little sharpening.

• While on a camping trip, she was worried about parking the car on the grass because she thought the grass would grow and puncture the tires, causing them to go flat. Shawnaldo7575 / Reddit

• I was in the passenger seat of my girlfriend’s car and opened the glove compartment to store something. She turned and screamed, “What are you doing?!” Confused, I asked, “What’s going on?”
  She said that it’s dangerous to open the glove compartment in a moving car because “it would damage the engine.” Apparently, her parents told her this when she was little so she wouldn’t play with the compartment. © Airjack / Reddit

• During the time I was dating my ex-boyfriend, there was always something that bothered me—he would never hug me when I was on my period. At first, I shrugged it off as a weird quirk, but after a while, it started to feel really odd.
  So one time I asked him what this was about. He said he doesn’t want to hug me because he doesn’t want “to squeeze all that gross stuff” out of me. He was 30 years old and thought women were like Heinz ketchup bottles.

• One day, it was super sunny out (we lived pretty close to the equator), and she said, “The moon is going to be really bright tonight.” I asked what she meant, and she explained that because it was so sunny, the moon was absorbing all the light and would shine brighter at night. We argued about it and eventually called her mom, who backed up her theory. Apuuli21 / Reddit

• My husband used to think people whistled when setting off fireworks—he didn’t realize it was the fireworks making the sound. It’s one of his more harmless misunderstandings. Tinyfishy / Reddit

• My partner was grumbling at the bin, saying, “We need new bin bags, these ones don’t fit.” I went over to check and saw him holding a roll of small black dog poo bags, trying to figure out why one wouldn’t fit in the bin. Turns out, he grabbed the wrong roll and was trying to use a bag that’s 50 times too small! Pinapickle / Reddit

• My boyfriend refused to eat the basil I bought from the grocery store because it was a whole plant I was keeping outside. He insisted it was “dirty” and not safe to eat. When I asked where he thought farmers grew produce, he claimed they had “special sterilized areas” for food, but my plant wasn’t “food grade.”
  I just stared at him, completely dumbfounded, not even sure how to respond. butteryva*** / Reddit

• A girl I dated in college broke my laptop by forcing a USB drive into the port. Instead of flipping it when it didn’t fit, she just kept pushing harder until she broke the port and the motherboard. MG42Turtle / Reddit

• He believed potatoes never went bad because his mom always kept a bag in the pantry. When I asked if they ate a lot of potatoes, he said yes—they had a big family with six kids, and it still didn’t dawn on him why the potatoes never spoiled. glightlysay / Reddit

• I found out she was eating half-cooked premade pot pies because she broiled everything instead of baking it. She complained that the oven always burned the top while leaving the bottom doughy… but she ate the uncooked dough anyway. Luet_box / Reddit

• There was a girl who kept faxing the same document over and over. Eventually, the recipient called and begged her to stop. Confused, she said, “But it keeps failing… the document keeps coming back out!” thebemusedmuse / Reddit

• I dated a guy in college who visited my rural hometown and asked what the animals in the neighbor’s field were. I said, “cows,” completely in disbelief. He then told me they couldn’t be cows because cows are black and white, and these were brown.
  I had to pull up Google to prove that brown cows exist. He wasn’t even from the city—he claimed to be from a rural suburb, so I guess he was just clueless. AnericanSteel412 / Reddit

• Alright, I love my girlfriend to the moon and back, but… she thought if she got a tattoo, her baby would be born with the same tattoo in the same spot. mrlotato / Reddit

• I usually cook in the morning for my boyfriend and me, but one day, when I got sick, he offered to prepare breakfast. He was going to make coffee, so I mentioned that I needed almond milk. He seemed surprised, but didn’t ask any questions.
  When he brought the coffee, it looked fine, but the taste was off. Suddenly, my stomach started hurting, and I had to rush to the bathroom. Turns out, he used regular milk and added shredded almonds, thinking that’s what I meant, because he didn’t know almond milk was a thing!

We’ve all encountered stereotypes and prejudices based on appearance, behavior, or social status. Public opinion often takes on a life of its own, leading us to make irrational decisions as we try to shape our lives around it. With this in mind, we’ve gathered 15 short stories that just might challenge and reshape your perspective of the world.