Do you know anyone that pretends to be stupid for attention?

[Santaslittlehelper83]

Light hearted thread really.....My MIL does this and I can't get my head around it. She's early 60's, in good health and holds down a professional role. I know people with think 'how do you know She's not really stupid', but it's so fake and obviously an attention thing....she does the whole tinkly fake laugh and 'oh what am I like' lol! Examples have been saying the wrong thing like calling it 'Facelift' instead of Facebook, putting on odd shoes or wearing clothes inside out. Me and DH ignore it now and refuse to pander to the whole thing. I've never known anyone to pretend to be like this...anyone else? She does other crazy shit for attention...feigning illness etc, but I've come across that sort of thing before.

Hilariously my dm who is very intelligent but has a massive chip on her shoulder is the opposite.
One day me, my two dc, dsis and her dh and their two dc all sat having a meal with dm.
Dm told us that my db ( aka golden dc) had been surprised that dm knew some physics related guff. Db is a physicist.
I replied, completely straight faced, yes, I’m surprised you know that.
Obviously I was joking.
However dm went into a long, loud rant about having passed for grammar school but wasn’t allowed to go. That she was a very intelligent person, etc.
Meanwhile everyone including the dc were laughing and laughed even more as she went red in the face.
Still makes me chuckle.

She was a 60 year old mother/grandmother, HCP, there was also the time she was cleaning her windows, wondered why passers by were pointing and laughing, she’d forgotten to put her trousers on!! All attention seeking nonsense. Who knows why? 🤷🏼‍♀️

My mum who point blank refuses to learn how to use Netflix or Disney+ but can navigate Prime TV perfectly. She always says she can’t do it but she just won’t even try.

It’s the same when anything needs to be done on her phone but she lives on it scrolling none stop.

I am like this, because I have lost so much confidence that I am terrified of making mistakes, I know I can do it, spell it, but there is always that small chance that I can't. It's easier to be ignorant, stupid than make mistakes that will make me more anxious.
No one knows this, first time I've 'said' it out loud.

But surely it’s occurred to you that this behaviour is monumentally irritating to other people?

Ah @Santaslittlehelper83 looking and waiting for a reaction puts a new light on it. Just silly attention seeking.

I've occasionally asked a question I know the answer to keep a conversation going or to 'flatter' someone.
My mum was an excellent driver. Not much sense of direction but once she knew the route she was fine. I noticed that if she was driving my dad to work she would suddenly start saying 'John should I turn here'? Or 'is going this way right'? As if she hadn't done the trip dozens of times on her own. I think it was just a way of her acknowledging his 'head of household' role. I mean she was in control of the household budget etc but she would occasionally, not act dumb, but ask him things even though she was perfectly capable herself. She had a Masters from Harvard after all! They were born in the 1920s which I guess had something to do with it.

@mondaytosunday Yeah, I get that, that makes sense in that whole situation. Kind of in a way, not wanting to look like she was getting above her station, so to speak. Yeah I sort of get the generational thing.