What's the most ridiculous thing anyone has said to you?

[chimamandafan]

I occasionally volunteer at a local community centre. It's managed by a woman who tells anyone who cares to listen that she has a medical condition that means she can't eat. She looks well-nourished but I've always been too polite to ask her questions about her condition.

I volunteered at an afternoon event today. I get the seniors to their seats and make pots of tea. Cake was served. The woman who never eats was standing there eating cake.

'Look at you, eating cake! Are you better?' I said. 'Oh,' she said, 'you know me, you know I can't eat because of my medical condition.' 'But you're eating...' She walked off and is apparently really pissed off with me. Apparently I'm rude.

There are some real weirdos around, aren't there?

This was a dd, not me. As a student in Spain, an American girl she’d got to know said, ‘You know what, I don’t like European food.’

The poor girl was then berated for 15 lacerating mins by another friend (male Brit) about pizza, pasta, etc. etc.

Haha, my friend in America asked me in all seriousness if we have the same months in the UK.

I chastised him, until I found out later that some countries do have different months, so he had a slight point in asking.

Another couple of American ones-

Someone insisting Australia was one of the American states. Not sure if they were feigning ignorance or not.

Someone being very confused about why I couldn't work out there on a tourist visa. "I don't have a social security number." "Well what do you use to work in EnGLANDDD?" "I have a national insurance number" "Well, see you do have a social security number, you can just use that".

And pulling a face like 'honestly some people', at me for not realising I did in fact have a tax number and could get a job there.

They do! People don't carry round cash with them since covid. Although I'm not sure how many stop and give them money using a card, but enough to make it worthwhile I assume.

I think one of the most ridiculous things I heard on here was when a woman had taken her car into the garage because of a recall and they didn't have the part, despite booking the car in and stripping it down, and then refused to give her a courtesy car, even though it was their fault she couldn't have the car. I can't remember the outcome now, but I know the so-called customer care manager refused point blank to change his mind.

I used to work with a lady who would tell anyone that would listen that she was vegetarian, and yet every year would eat a turkey dinner at the work Christmas party… She didn’t think this was odd when a colleague pointed it out to her.

A friend of my mum's asked my son when he was small if we had trees where we lived. We don't live in an inner city and even if we did, there would be trees.

Many years ago when I was in my mid twenties or so, I was on a site where you put which schools you'd gone to & I dutifully filled it in.
Friends reunited or something like that.

I received an absolutely raging message from someone who was in my year at one particular primary school telling me that I had never attended it, that I was in some way evil to even suggest it & various other nonsense.

I then kept getting crazy messages just from this one person threatening to find me & do me harm if I didn't remove my lying self from saying I'd ever been to that primary school.

Even if I hadn't gone there (which I did along with my sister who was there for another few years after I'd gone to Secondary school), I never understood why it mattered so much to her.

I used to work with a lady who would tell anyone that would listen that she was vegetarian, and yet every year would eat a turkey dinner at the work Christmas party… She didn’t think this was odd when a colleague pointed it out to her

Colleague who organised company Xmas do one year said it was surprising the number of people who said 'don't eat dairy' but were happy to choose cheesecake as their dessert

Ugh my mum was like this, used to wave pouches called things like ‘Cheesy Creamy Cheese Pasta’ in my face and say, “has this got dairy in it love”?

Still does it now and DS is 7, the other day she tried to give him Flora because it’s made with buttermilk, not dairy!!

Health visitor to me when insisting we talk about dd's nappy rash. I hadn't asked her for any advice and I didn't feel like I needed to talk about it because I'm a grown up and know that you just apply nappy rash cream to it. She was determined to find something wrong, cognitively, with me though, just because I was in temporary accomodation.

"Now make sure you wipe the poo off the bum, before putting the cream on."

Like no shit Sherlock (pardon the pun!)

That's lovely to see because it brings back memories of my dad. I used to get warts on my fingers a lot and one day- can't remember specifically where the offending one was- he got me to take off a hair, wind it wound a finger or thumb, he gave me a penny, spoke some seemingly nonsense, I had to bury the penny and weirdly, it worked. ( Maybe it would have disappeared anyway, but I know it did go).

Sounds bonkers I know. My dad was so sweet.

My DH who has form for coming out with wacky comments, we were discussing our towns regatta, said well, you would have thought they would have had it down the high street.

And me, some thoughts are best not spoken.

Nope, I wasn't rude. I was cheery, thinking that she had recovered from whatever condition had prevented her from eating. Absolutely no sign of tube-feeding, no one has ever mentioned tube-feeding (and this is a gossipy village) and I'm sure it if she was she'd have said. She can drink — I make tea for her at these events — so I assumed she was on a liquid diet.

She was speedily demolishing a large slice of lemon drizzle cake in front of me, not gingerly swallowing crumbs. Would it not have been polite of her to say 'Actually, when I say I can't eat, sometimes I 'm able to eat soft things like cake' ? And yet you have the nerve to call me rude and judgmental...

This is a woman who bores the arse off everyone around with tales of how she CANNOT EAT!! Why wouldn't she draw attention by scoffing a large slice of cake?

"Are you sure that's how you spell your daughter's name?"

When I told my breastfeeding advocate that I was worried my baby couldn’t breathe when feeding (large boobs, teeny baby) she said “don’t worry, you will breathe for her.” I was too 🤨 to respond.

A boyfriend's grandmother was adamant that piles were caused by using coloured toilet roll.

Motnight's post has reminded me of the daftest comment I ever had. My landline number is similar to that of the local timber yard, so I get the occasional wrong number. One caller asked me if I was sure it was the wrong number and I wasn't actually the timber place - well yeah, looking round my one bedroom flat I can't see a couple of hundred tonnes of wood.

@CoffeeandStories I really hope you made a complaint to the NMC. This is beyond incompetent.

When I was in my early 30's I lived in a very hot country and was overweight by about a stone and a half. I lost it, got really fit and toned, and felt amazing.

Someone said "oh, you've lost weight. Well, are you happy though. Why would you be happy being that size"..a size 10! She then proceeded to give me dirty looks for the next hour.

My gp when I asked him to refer my toddler ds for allergy testing because his lips swelled when he ate lentils.
"Oh don't worry about that. Just keep giving it to him and he'll get used to it!"
A GP! Seriously. I've never been so angry in my life.

Depressingly in 2023 those attitudes still prevail even if the language is less direct.

Also:

When I was BF'ing my DS, who was in the top 5% of his weight, and when I pumped, the milk had a massive head of cream on it....."you shouldn't breastfeed, you don't know if your baby is getting enough milk. Plus, the manufacturers know what they are doing"......my baby looked like Mr. Stay Puff. He definitely wasn't under fed.

Another feeding one. "Why are you making baby food. It's dangerous. The companies put good stuff in those jars".

Both same idiot.

My friend moved back to spend his retirement in the small Scottish town where he grew up. His father was well-known there and had done a lot of work on the town council.
He was chatting to an old chap in the park one day, who said:
"Your father was a good man. He lost his leg in the war didn't he?"
My friend agreed. He went on:
"I always wondered .. was he any relation to the one-legged man who used to work at the petrol station?"