What is the strangest thing a stranger has ever said to you?

[PinkWaferBiscuit]

Took my almost 2 year old to the park this morning in between heavy rain showers so he could jump in puddles. When we arrived the park was empty, after about 10 minutes a women arrived with 3 children who began playing with my DS, all good and so she started to make small talk.

This is exactly how the conversation went.

Women - Awww he's a sweetheart what's his name.
Me - Thanks, his name is X. Your 3 are being so kind to include him in their game.
Her - Yeah they are great, it's good they have each other to play with. Is he an only?
Me - Yes.
Her - Oh that's sad... What happens if he dies?
Me - Errrrrrrrr (I was literally speechless)

Who the fuck thinks that's an acceptable thing to say to anyone let alone a random stranger in the park mere feet away from our kids.

Anyway you may not be shocked to learn we then made a hasty retreat and that comment well and truly killed the conversation.

But it got me wondering has a stranger ever said anything even more batshit to you? Or did I meet the strangest stranger ever in our local park and should I perhaps consider moving.

At the nursery sports day... a lot of the mums didn't speak to me but hey ho. Dh came but had to leave when they had their ice cream.

Snooty mum comes over to me, "I didn't know Mr G was your childrens father!"

I was a bit . Then she followed that up with "I thought you were a young single mum on benefits, so I didn't speak to you."

The mums stood next to me were all stood with their mouths wide open.

"Yeah Mr G is my husband of nearly 6 years. Don't feel bad for not talking to me. I'd much rather be ignored than spoken to because of who my husband is!"

She didn't know how to take it at all. She just stood there.

Fortunately her child didn't get a place at the school so I never had to see her again.

I was on the tube with my boyfriend about twenty years ago. He's black I'm white. It was rush hour and the whole journey we were sat opposite a very professional looking man, obviously on his way home from work, suited and booted. He got up at his stop leaned over and said into my ear "you're going to have n* babies" very calmly and matter of fact. Then just got off the train.

@millenialblush

I was on the bus once in London and a man in a suit started saying to me (in a thick Scottish accent) that I need to go back to my own country, fucking Polish coming over here blah blah blah. Only I'm from Lewisham. So I replied in my thickest SE london accent that I didn't know what he was talking about, he was the one who sounded like he wasn't from round here. Cue lots of sniggering from other passengers and him not knowing how to respond.

Similar weird comment about Polish people here. When my ds was 2, we were waiting for a bus and ds was babbling away in the way 2 years olds do - not totally clearly, on account of being 2.

Old man at the bus stop, very crossly:"Why isn't he talking English properly? Is he Polish?"

Me: ....

(I literally couldn't look less Polish - have very dark colouring and often mistaken for Middle-Eastern, Spanish, Asian etc. And I have a very obvious London accent - I am clearly from round here!)

Probably the worst comment I've had, that I remember partly because I gave the person who said it such an earful back was when my dd was a toddler. I was working part time, and having worked earlier in the day, had taken dd out on the bus after work. It was rush hour and very busy.

A woman of about 30 turned to me and said how dare I take up space on the bus with my pushchair, when it was so busy, as I could go out at any time.

I was gobsmacked that a relatively young woman assumed women with children shouldn't be allowed on buses when other people wanted to use them, or her assumption that because I had a child I didn't work or contribute to the economy in any way.

I very loudly berated her - not proud to say that I told her that looking like that, it was clear why she didn't have a child.

She got off the bus next stop.

I actually apologised to her as she got off for being so horrible, which probably made it worse.

She didn't deserve the comments on her looks, but her original comments were shocking, and I hope she revised her assumptions about women with young children.

DH maybe looks a bit ambiguous looks wise & people often speak to him in a different language, particularly abroad. Whenever he says I'm English, some have said you can't be, you must have X in you, check your DNA etc

@carpetbugs

Yes, I get that all the time. Usually - Where are you from? No, really, where you born? When they still get 'London' (said in a London accent so you think it would be convincing), they go So where were your parents from then?

What they mean is they want to know your ethnicity but realise that sounds outright racist.

My brother likes to tell people he's Belgian, just because no'one ever knows what to say next, as Belgium's not famous for much! So that usually shuts them up.

"Were you on the cover of High Times?"

Uh, no. That wasn't me.

@rigmarolo he also has a clear London accent.

The majority of the time he gets it from people who are not English themselves who either assume he's not english or that he's the same as them. In other countries people will always speak to him in a different language eg french, arabic, maltese etc. I don't see why he doesn't look english though if that makes sense.

Just remembered another one. When I had my first baby DD I was browsing mothercare and a woman looked into the pram (DD was 5 months old at the time and dressed in a dark blue snowsuit with pink flowers and a fluffy pink hat.

Woman: oh he's lovely
Me: thanks, she's a girl btw
Woman, shrugging: how old is he?
Me, getting annoyed: SHE is 5 months old.
Woman: he's very small, are you sure he's 5 months?
Me: she's a girl, and he's I'm pretty sure seeing as I was there at the time!!!

Looking back I think she knew she was winding me up and was doing it on purpose, no one could be that daft!?

Sorry for disappearing last night but given the aforementioned adorable almost 2 year old has me up at what felt like the middle of the night this morning I've now had plenty of time to catch up.

I honestly dont know whether to be glad there are so many others who have bumped into nutters out there spouting nonsense or quite alarmed at the sheer number of nutters, it seems like they might out number us.

My sons and I were in a pub, having lunch. Random stranger asked, re. my autistic, mixed heritage son, "Are you looking after him for someone?"

My flabber was ghasted.

Alone in my house with a male upholsterer who was fixing a tear in my sofa, making small talk while he worked, when he asked me had I ever been to Thailand. He went on to tell me he goes every year and goes to this place where the bar is mirrored and young Thai women walk along it wearing skirts but no knickers, so if you sit at the bar you can see their vaginas in the mirrored surface. He told me "don't worry, you're safe with me, I'm married!" and that his wife likes this bar as well.

He also told me that an unmarried friend of theirs who's in his 70s goes every year and pays for sex with teenage Thai girls. He insisted the Thai girls like it.

I was so worried and frightened about being alone in my own home with this man who thought it was perfectly fine to talk about looking at vaginas in mirrored bars and 70-year-old men having sex with teenagers to a woman stuck on her own that I didn't say a word to him. At the time I kept thinking, he's going to attack me. I often think of it and feel furious that he made me so frightened.

@HeyGirlHeyBoy

*HeyGirlHeyBoy

Oh god shock

I was on a bus when I was about 23 and a man said that I looked like I worked hard. I was wearing a knee length leather coat, in fashion at time, in case relevant, he had certainly looked me up and down. I said I was, I was teaching and he said 'Oh I thought you worked harder than that' confused Never quite worked out what that meant! Any ideas?

I can only think that he thought you were a "working girl"!*

Do you think so Diddl and ChampagneLassie? You know at the time I thought he was being rude about teaching

Sounds like he was doing both of those things to me - implying you were a sex worker because you were wearing a leather coat, then implying that that’s harder work than teaching … either way he was an utter wanker who was attempting to humiliate you and/or engage in that vile rudeness/negging thing that some men seem to believe is catnip to women. The brilliant thing is that you had no idea what he meant, so the effort he made to insult you totally failed to land!

Sounds like this happened a while ago, and IME this kind of twattery was really common in the 80s and 90s. I always used to push back, and coped with it fine because I was young and feisty and that’s just the way it was. But looking back now it all seems so exhausting and depressing, and I can’t believe women are still having to deal with this shit.

I've heard it all. Many of mine are fat comments etc.
Most recently ordered a burger meal after a night out and you get a drink with it, now I understand the main concept because it's the meal which contains hundreds of calories, and then people go and get a Diet Coke. But the guy serving didn't tell me any other options just Diet Coke and water. I said can you tell me what else you have!

Was in Poundland recently and a girl and guy were shopping in there together, he was stood waiting whilst she looked at something, and as I entered that aisle I caught eyes with him, he said something to her and she said 'I know, and the bloody size of it as well' and carried on to next aisle giggling.

Taxi driver when I put my phone torch on to get money out to pay said when you put the light on and I saw your arm, the hair is the same as on my arm 🤦‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😆

“Taxi driver when I put my phone torch on to get money out to pay said when you put the light on and I saw your arm, the hair is the same as on my arm 🤦‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😆”

“Aw and I was just about to give you a generous tip. Ah well.”

@problembottom

Man walking towards me, I was minding my own business, the second he stepped past he looked back and sneered: "Just another average day for YOU". I can still picture him, tall, ginger and about 30. I was so confused.

This has killed me.

Some of these are so funny!!

Some idiot in the street told me I had 'pancake tits' when I was about 16.

one time I was walking down the street with my mum an old lady told me I should be wearing a coat because it's so cold while looking at my mum with disapproval, as if she was a bad parent.

I should mention I was 35
🤣

For background, am of white British descent but spent formative years in the Republic of Ireland.

I was on a bus in the mid 90s (in the UK) listening to my walkman when an elderly man came over to me and told me loudly to 'take my hearing aid out'. I removed my headphones and the following conversation followed:

him: Are you Chinese or Japanese?
me: Neither, I'm from Ireland.
him: It's terrible they way they're killing our soldiers over there.
me: Actually, I'm from the Republic of Ireland.
him: That's even worse. They're only good for drinking and dancing.
me: This is my stop. Goodbye.

So much wrong in so few words!

I was out shopping with DS who was wailing (not an issue for me, its what babies do). He's in the child seat of a shopping trolley at the time and could see me.
An elderly lady walks up to me and said "When my kids were small and crying like that I would give them a piece of toast ".
Toast making facilities were absent- I was in Matalan at the time!

When I was in my twenties, I had a bunch of people (some were friends of friends but some were complete strangers) make a point of telling me how much they hate London, they could never live there, the thought of having to catch a tube makes them feel sick etc. The thing is, we were in London at the time. I was born in London.

I get that a lot of people don’t like London (I promise not to force anyone to live there) but I can’t imagine walking up to a stranger in Manchester (I’ve never been to Manchester, I’m sure it is very nice) to tell them how much I don’t like it.

we went to a .morning service once in a very high-church setting so to look quite formal I dressed 9m old DS1 in a really lovely pair of trousers, smart shirt,v-neck tank top and for fun even added a tie (those faux ones with the elastic on the back).
He looked like a proper little gentleman, very handsome and smart.

After the service this old lady came to talk to me and pointing at DS1 asked "and what's her name?"
😳

I was in my early 20's and in a bar with a friend. Two guys chatted us up, the one interested in me, looked me up and down and said "I bet you can f**k"

Being a woman with a lot of tattoos it is very common for strangers (usually old ladies) to make unsolicited comments like 'why did you do that to yourself? I bet you used to be pretty' etc. But the one that stands out was when I was in Tesco looking for a particular item on the shelf and a man came right up to me from behind, grabbed my arm and shouted to his (I presume) wife "Look Debbie! This is like the one I wanted!" dropped my arm and walked off. Not once did he look at my face or acknowledge I was a human being.

Oh yeah and the time about 15 years ago I was walking to the train station for a night out during my rockabilly phase wearing a flowery 1950's dress, petticoat, high heels, set hair and red lippie - and a fat, bald middle aged man who was in the queue for the chippy made it his business to come out and shout 'Oi! Slipknot!!' at me. WTAF?!