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?

A whole new kind of performative undereater.

'A and I think you must have post natal depression, it's just not normal to want to be away from your baby'.
Neither 'A' nor the person saying this had any medical training nor had ever been pregnant, my daughter was 6 weeks old and I'd left her with my mum so I could attend the evening reception of my friends wedding which had been planned before I was evening pregnant. I missed the daytime part and left early so I was away for 3 hours.

Same friend told I was selfish for 'forcing' my husband to have a vasectomy (I didn't, his decision) because he'd want to have more children WHEN, not if, we split up.

We're still together, he's had the snip, she's not my friend anymore.

NCT teacher - giving birth to a 9 or 10lb baby is exactly the same as giving birth to a 6 or 7lb baby

toxic MIL - all the problems in our family that have been an issue since my children were young are all your fault 😂

Someone once said to me that the reason for gang violence is because 'African women carry their babies too much'. 🙄

Village miles are different - a coach can't go down tiny, twisty lanes or over fords/small bridges/underneath railway viaducts and bridges, whereas a car can, so they might only drive 25 miles by car where a bloody great coach has to do fifty.

That people who didn't get vaccinated against Covid didn't get it as bad🙄

I remember an American penpal of mine once being absolutely gobsmacked that we had central heating in England. It was 1997!

oh and also - 'It's not important for kids to have art lessons because soon all art will be done by AI anyway.' 😖

That's not what I was told by my daughters consultant or any of the other medical professionals we have seen, it's also not what the NHS website or other medical websites say either.

From the NHS - Turner syndrome is a female-only genetic disorder that affects about 1 in every 2,000 baby girls.
A girl with Turner syndrome only has 1 normal X sex chromosome, rather than the usual 2.
This chromosome variation happens randomly when the baby is conceived in the womb. It is not linked to the mother's age.

My brothers do not have and have never had Turner syndrome, they just were never very big as their parents are a pair of short-arses! They never needed growth hormones and their development was entirely normal. My stepdad is an idiot who consistently argues that he (a carpenter) knows more about medical science than doctors.

that cinamon/lemon juice/vitamins can cure type 1 diabetes.

Conversation with French teacher at parents evening…
Me : all these annoying things you mention are aspects of dd autism. You do know she’s autistic?
teacher: well she doesn’t look autistic. I taught an autistic boy before and he had a ta with him.

drama teacher to same dc:
can you speak more autisticly?

Can’t decide which is the most ridiculous. They all surround my doctors surgery.

Explained to the doctor my ailment and she replied,
What do you want me to do about it

Same doctor after going to her about my insomnia.
I cant prescribe you 15000 sleeping pills

FWIW I hadn’t actually mentioned sleeping pills

Same Doctor on asking for the 1000th time could she refer me for an allergy test.

There is no such thing as allergy tests. You can’t take someone’s blood and say what they are allergic to.
(didn’t mention anything about having a blood test)

I explained that maybe they were called patch tests. But I was told that I should go away and try stuff and if I had a reaction then don't have that thing again

Different doctor, same surgery
I explained my issue and he turned to his computer and said “Let’s see what Dr Google says”

An anaesthetist told me that fasting (1 meal in every 48hrs) would cute autism. My son who has autism agreed that malnourishment and resulting death is a very effective autism cure.

My other child when saying they were thirsty..

Me: don't have cola it's a diuretic
Them: I like my poo sloppier

I then had to explain diuretic did not mean it would cause diarrhoea

Another one just came back to me-in school I once was asked 'When you look in the mirror how do you know it's YOU in the reflection and NOT your sister (identical twins)?

That brings back memories of quasi-philosophical discussions sitting around our college rooms in the 60s, How do you know the outside exists or that I am sitting here? If I drop a brick from an aircraft into the desert does it make a noise?

We spent hours and hours!

@JudgeJ Lol sounds fascinating!

When my DD was a small baby we'd gone out somewhere or other and I'd just popped her into the nearest babygro which was a blue one with some pink flowers.
A woman came up to me and asked, "What is it?"
I looked at her a little confused, and she elaborated, "I mean is it a boy or a girl?"
I told her "it" was a girl.
"Oh, what with the blue AND pink I wasn't sure."

Another time, we were in a local shop. The woman behind the counter said to DD, "Oh, are you having a nice time shopping with Grandma?"
I said that I was actually the mother.
The woman asked me if I was sure. She got offended when I offered to show her my C-section scar.

Years ago - friend, to me, when I was going to get my passport photo taken. "Can you get mine done whilst you're out?"

I was living in Montreal at the time, and went on holiday to Cuba. A French tourist asked me what was the time difference between Cuba and Montreal. There isn’t any, I replied, they’re in the same time zone.

French guy: “Oh, so the weather is the same then?”

DD14 was asked by a friend (who is a year older) the following question a couple of weeks ago: “Do you think reindeer can fly? I mean, I know reindeer don’t exist, but if they did exist, do you think they could fly?”

I’ve remembered another one - a friend’s grandmother used to tell all these tales about how she’d had all these dangerous operations and somehow survived: she’d had her lungs removed, her kidneys removed, her spleen etc… Apparently one day my friend’s mother snapped and said “For heaven’s sake, stop filling the child’s head with lies. You’ve only had your gall bladder out!”

The best bit was that, while my friend had swallowed all this nonsense because she was a child, the grandmother used to regale the neighbours with all these tales as well, and they were completely taken in. One even said “Isn’t it marvellous that you can get down to the shops?”!

SIL (who didn’t have children at the time) - apparently her work colleagues told her how bottle feeding instead of breastfeeding is akin to child abuse (as I bottle fed my 3 month old first born) 🙄🙄🙄

Some people are so thoughtless. The posts from people who have suffered awful losses and then the terrible things people have said afterwards are so sad. Hugs to you all.

Mine - working as an Office Manager. Staff member had exhausted annual leave and TOIL but wished to travel home urgently. Didn't qualify for compassionate leave. I suggested he consider unpaid leave if the need to travel was that great. He applied for unpaid leave, it was granted, he went off and came back. On return, he came to complain that his salary wasn't correct. "It's less because you took unpaid leave" I said. "Oh!" he answered, "I didn't realise it would come off my salary!" Eh?! Surely the clue is in the name?

As a veggie France is the worst... the act like the concept of eating meat doesn't even exist and look at you with this 'stupid' expression like the can't understand.

I ordered a veggie Pizza in Spain and it did seem to be veggie but my god the most bizaare Pizza I ever had. It has huge chunks (of pretty much raw) carrot, aubergine, cauliflower, courgette and asparagus thrown on top of a soggy margarita. Now I like all those things indervidually but it was the worst Pizza ever, who thought an inedible Pizza could exist.

Lots of posters have mentioned identical twins. While they are very rare, identical boy/girl twins do happen: https://www.twins.org.au/twins-and-families/frequently-asked-questions/62-twin-facts/19-can-male-female-twins-ever-be-identical#:~:text=However%2C%20in%20some%20extremely%20rare,into%20a%20male%20%2F%20female%20pair.

I may be able to explain the woman who doesn't eat yet looks well nourished.

I have a condition where I can't eat food because I can't digest and absorb it.

I had a feeding tube fitted into my small intestine (jejunostomy). My full nutrition comes from feeding at night.

And do you knock back a slice of lemon drizzle cake when the fancy takes you while simultaneous telling people that you never eat?

Drama teacher: ‘I have chosen this play and want you to play this part’

The part designated to my child was of an epileptic who gets murdered during a seizure.

The drama teacher thought it would be good as my child had seizures in real life.

Unsurprisingly it triggered a seizure when acting the lines.

But that 's true. One child depends on Mum for company, entertainment etc Two or three play with each other.