What misunderstandings have you allowed someone to labour under because you were too polite to correct them?

[wellthisisembarassing]

I'll start.

In my lounge is a photo from when the dc were tiny and they met Belle and the Beast at Disneyland.

The dc are all dressed up next to the characters. When my friend saw the picture she started to exclaim at how amazing we looked and especially ME, how stunningly beautiful and different I looked.

But of course it wasn't me, it was a Disney princess actress.

I was going to correct her but she got so into gushing about how well turned out I am in that photo compared to normal I thought I'd spare her embarrassment, so now I hide that photo whenever she comes round

Not the same but REALLY bad handover when I was coming back from my mates with them boyfriend. So bad we had to stop on the side of the road so I could throw up. Early 20s, bit plump. Old lady walks past, looks sympathetically and terms me "she remembers those days" with a rub of her tummy. Def did not correct the assertion I was pregnant as I prefer sympathy to judgement

Well slightly different,

But once me and partner was at the hospital with my mother in law...

She was telling the nurse, this is my son, this is my daughter, (She didn't say daughter in law, and I didn't correct her)
Anyway, I had to leave briefly and said something like, 'see you soon baby, and gave him a kiss, the nurse stared at us, but I didn't realise till I had walked away that she had thought it was my brother...

I would of corrected her if I was the one staying in the room but when I got back, I didn't see her again 😂

My next door neighbour thinks my DH is called Steve & has called him Steve for the last 7 years. My DH is called Dan.

My ex area manager calling me Claire or Christine for the last two years, neither of which is my name!

I’m deaf so I usually correct people pretty quickly by either not hearing them the first time, or pretending I didn’t hear them and then correct them that way

It usually works out well!

But I remembered once reading on here that someone had to move (?) because the person behind a certain restaurant kept giving her her usual without her asking and she was too polite to refuse. She wanted to order different things but he already had it ready

Newly moved in next door neighbour came to say hello, admired my garden, and asked what my husband did. I replied that I am a single mum.

She said " it's lovely you got to keep the family home."

Err, no, I've never been married, it's my house that I bought myself. I couldn't decide whether her assumption that I was divorced was less rude than her assumption that I wasn't capable of buying my own house. It just wasn't worth the hassle of explaining

Someone stopped me in the street and started asking about my family he obviously mistook me for someone eles that he had not seen in a while but as he referred to family members I have ( mum dad brother ) I thought it was me that was in the wrong and I could not place him . As he walked off he said tell Paul I will see him in the pub at weekend . No one in my close family is called Paul . I haven't the foggiest who the guy was

That my name is Paula. It’s nothing like Paula. I gave up after about the 15th time of correcting him- now I’m Paula at work.

A year ago i went into a local takeaway. The guy from behind the counter came running out shook my hand and said "it great to see you again. Your sister was in here last night with you nephew. He has got so big"
I'm an only child and this strange was still shaking my hand.
I smiled and nodded and prayed my food was cooked fast. He waves at me everytime i pass his shop now

Told my mate when l found out l was expecting DD that he was the first one l had told - meaning out ofour group of friends but he thought l meant out of anyone l know - gave me a gushing speech on how much it meant to him that he was the first person l told and l am his best mate blah blah. He was about the 20th person l told but didn't want to burst his little bubble!

I have three.

There's a woman at DD's nursery who is convinced we're both SAHMs - I work from home and must have said something about getting back home, and she does this little conspiring thing where if there aren't other parents around she'll grin and say something like 'oooh, I'm so looking forward to a quiet afternoon catching up on my TV, aren't we lucky'. I've nodded one too many times and am now stuck - I don't want to say 'actually I'm off to work now'.

A close friend of mine is sure she was instrumental in getting me and DP together. I came to see her bubbling over with excitement about a good first date, and she encouraged me to go on the second date. The problem is, the second date never actually happened and I met DP shortly after. DP doesn't care, nor do I, but whenever the subject comes up my friend is absolutely sure she was the one who encouraged me on this exciting second date that led me to DP.

I also know perfectly well my sleazy ex is married to someone he lied to - she thinks he was single when they got together, but it was several months before we split up. We were living together, so I've heard her explain how he was super romantic and insisted on masses of dates before any sex - it wasn't romance, it was because he couldn't exactly bring her home for a shag! I let slip about the overlap situation at a mutual friend's wedding, years later, because I happened to mention that we split up in summer of 2008. She immediately said I must be mistaken, and because I am a wuss, I agreed. Oops.

I’m the one who had the misunderstanding. I once went to a funeral of someone from work. Looking back, people did seem surprised to see me there - she was someone v v senior, in a large company, and I was a nobody v v junior employee (she’d helped me on a couple of occasions, though I didn’t know her well, so wanted to pay my respects). A few weeks later I spotted the “dead” woman at work and nearly had a heart attack - I’d always thought her name was the name of the other senior person.

I had a most unexpected snog at bus stop because a lad mistook me for his girlfriend, we eventually met and we did look amazingly alike

But oh the kiss.... I've never forgotten

its not quite the same thing, but the thread reminded me

My son's therapist has called me Judy for the last 4 years...
My name is not Judy but I feel it's too late to own up now :)

That I'm nice

When I was on work experience at 16 or 17 I somehow ended up with black tea on the first day, and had to spend the rest of the week drinking it like that because I was too embarrassed to say anything.

An elderly woman at my synagogue is convinced my name is Judy when it isn't. I tried to correct her at first but she just didn't register. Now, as a result, several other people there think I'm Judy, as she's introduced me to them...

I have had an entire conversation based on the misconception that I am Chinese.

I am not.

Sat chatting to others parents while DD was swim clubbing, I mentioned one day that we wanted to go to Diggerland and that I had heard it was really good etc. The next day another parent was sat a few rows in front of me, then turned around and just said 'Diggerland?'
Slightly confused, I just replied 'yes? '

Other parent then bellows across the pool to the coach 'she's been! Come here and she can tell you all about it'

Turns out the swim coach also mentioned she wanted to go for her DSs birthday. Instead of just saying that I hadn't actually been, I spent the warmup time telling her it was good, worth the expensive entry, food wasn't amazing but decent, lots to do, managed to avoid the gift shop.

We then had to visit incase I was asked any specific questions.

DP and I were in a museum in Spain, looking at a room of 16th century sacred art. A guide came over and gave us a tour of the room, in French - obviously not his first language, so simple enough for us to understand, and me to respond in my very imperfect French . . We were far too Britishly polite to tell him we were English (and that I could manage quite well in Spanish).

@Wildery 😃

A colleague thinks I’m Italian, I just go along with it.

Another colleague sometimes asks me about my wife. I’ve never been married, I’m also a gay man, when I am married I’ll be able to say “yeah Daves doing great” 😂

I was once mistaken for a very minor celebrity in a restaurant, they gave me free alcohol and didn’t charge for the meal. I still wish I had ordered a more expensive dish.

I was approached by a man who was convinced he knew me from a locked psychiatric ward.
He didn't. I recognised him as a neighbour from across the street.
But he was convinced he recognised me from hospital and kept saying how good it was to see me "out and about" and there was no reason for me to be embarrassed and deny it as he'd "been there too"
in the end I just said "thank you. You're looking on really good form yourself"