Nice things strangers have said.

[Differentforgirls]

There’s a brilliant thread on here about awful things strangers have said to you. Some of the things 😱.

They are awful but hilarious in many cases.

So, are there brilliant things strangers have said that you remember?

Mine is the first day my 2.5 year old son chose and put all his clothes on by himself and was delighted.

We both set out for the village shop. On the way there we passed an older man and my son said “Mr, I got myself ready today”.

He replied “ You are kidding wee man, that’s brilliant” and gave him 50p to “ celebrate” and shook his wee hand.

I will never forget the kindness of that man to my son.

When DD was 1 we flew to Florida and when we were getting up to leave when we landed a few people remarked that they didnt even realise we had a child with us, and how well behaved she must have been (copious amounts of snacks was key).
Few years later with DD and DS (they were about 10 and 6) in an Indian restaurant another couple on their way out stopped to say how lovely it was to see children out having dinner and how lovely they were.

These are not stories you can often repeat in real life as it just sounds so smug. I always try to compliment people whenever I get the chance. Everybody wins ❤️

Decades ago we were in a cafe in a miserable rainy morning on holiday, trying to work out what to do next. When we left a woman complemented us on how beautifully behaved the children were. I was absolutely made up as you can imagine and the ememory stuck with me.

Now I'm an old biddy myself, I do make a point of complementing nicely behaved children. Our neighbours kids for example, played so happily together in their garden for all those long months during the pandemic lockdown - I never once heard them sqabble! Afterwards I just had to tell my neighbour how impressed I had been.

As @Butthechildrentheylovethebooks says, it's treating yourself as much as the receiver of the complement

I was probably so sleep deprived at the time I can't remember anything specific but I remember a few women stopping me and telling me what a fab job I was doing when I was out with my son on maternity leave.

It felt like every time my now ex left the house with the pram he was coming home saying he'd been congratulated for doing a great job by walking to the shop and back even though behind the scenes he wasn't. And it was nice to have those women make the effort to comment.

I make a point of doing the same now for any women I see out with a small baby.

I was out with my partner and my son who was 16 months old at the time in a restaurant whilst we were away on a UK break and I was sitting next to my son in his high chair reading him a book whilst we waited for our meal to arrive. A lady came over to me and said it was lovely to see a child being entertained in a restaurant with books as it’s something she hasn’t ever seen and that my boy looked like a very happy and cheery little chap. I was heavily pregnant with my second at the time and feeling like a bit of a shit mom so it made my day!

Someone told me they always see me walking around the village and I always look really cool. I don’t think she meant cool as in “cool”, more like chilled… but either way, I loved that what ever she thought, it was a positive thing

Some lovely stories on here.
A few years ago I was saying good morning to a lady I saw most weeks in the shop and she said do you know you have such a lovely smile.

Since then I try and compliment others .

I love clothes but its not often that I get to dress up but I was going to a show and bought a new dress.
A lady said she loved my dress...lovely to hear.

I was told by a nurse last week that I had lovely veins!

Years ago DH and I were in London for a weekend break. It was the end of march but a lovely spring morning with no need for coat. I was wearing a cerise pink knitted dressed carrying a bright yellow handbag and we were browsing around Covent Garden. A lady with a camera asked if she could take my photograph, turned out she was part of a camera club and they’d been tasked to photograph spring. She thought I looked like spring! Said I looked amazing! I was chuffed to bits as a then late 40’s, 2 stone overweight granny. She made my weekend and I am still smiling at the memory.
Some people are just lovely.

Was paying for my veggies in the greengrocers recently and the girl at the till (who was about 17/18 ) said "I hope you don't mind me saying - you're very pretty"
As a 40 dressed in rags who had cycled into town on a push-bike to grab some carrots I was quite pleased with that.

After I had my first child I posted on Style & Beauty how I felt like I’d lost my way with my style and my clothes. Everyone was so nice and supportive.

I started to get more my confidence back in the way that I dressed and one night after work a woman on the street told me she loved my outfit. I was wearing knee high brown leather boots, a lovely burgundy wrap coat, a white scarf with butterfly print and a big White Russian furry hat .

I came home and told the women on my thread on Style and Beauty and thanked them!

I was in a taxi with my son when he was about 3. He was (still is!) a chatty little lad and spent the whole journey nattering away to the driver about goodness knows what. When we got to our destination, the driver turned to me and said 'His vocabulary is extraordinary. You've obviously read to him a lot.' I had, and it meant the world to me that someone recognised it.

Many years ago, my late husband was in the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh having open heart surgery. Something went wrong and he was in there for a month.

I was working in a school full-time, driving an hour-and-a-half in rush hour traffic to see DH, picking up anything that Mum and Dad needed, driving to theirs to check on them and going home. I was exhausted.

One night, I got back to Fife and had to go for petrol. I was 49 at the time, frazzled, tired with bags under the bags under my eyes.

I filled up and headed into the garage to pay. An elderly gentleman held the door open for me and said "There you go, bonnie lass!"

I know that he could see how tired I was and just being kind - it had been many years since I was bonnie (if ever). It meant a great deal.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies- your post has reminded me of a similar encounter when my DS was about four or five. It was November and we'd walked through the dunes to the beach with our dogs. It was a really, unseasonably warm sunny day, so DS wanted to play in the sea. I hadn't taken any spare/paddling clothes but he nagged so much that I just whipped off his trousers and jumper and let him go in for a splash around in his t-shirt and pants. An older, slightly scary-looking woman sitting right at the top of the beach promptly gathered her things together and started striding purposefully towards me. I braced myself for a lecture about how he'd catch his death of cold, but she nodded at him, said 'I think that's brilliant!', nodded and walked off again!

My friends daughter got into her car and said oooh it smells of Defender, she asked what like she stinks, no it’s a lovely smell.

never confirmed whether it was my perfume or dry shampoo!

I took my then three year old to the swimming pool as I was heavily pregnant and it took the pressure off my massive bump and meant I could carry him around easily. We were there for ages and when we got out, a lady told my son he was very lucky to have a mummy like me, and the baby was lucky to have such a lovely big brother. I think about her a lot and aspire to live up to her perception of me!

Ironically, that toddler is now nearly 15 and a lot taller than me, and I recently picked him up like a baby in the swimming pool because I was bemoaning the fact that he got so big that I can't on land. A lady swam past and said 'ahh, that's a lovely thing to see' which was very sweet 😍. Clearly I do my best parenting in swimming pools! 🤣

Trying on a dress in TK maxx (anne klein, absolute bargain!) and a woman said “if you don’t buy that, I’ll buy it for you as it fits you like it was made for you”
I did buy it and it’s been my lucky interview dress!

a neighbour I didn’t know that well came to borrow something and said “everything from your house always smells amazing”

I love this.

This is a lovely thread, thank you, @Differentforgirls . So often there are such negative threads on here, it makes a very positive change!
Also, many of those showing care and kindness are older women, who often get a bad deal on here. The ageism in society is bad enough, but on MN can be particularly pernicious.
It's good to acknowledge positive experiences about older people.

Was in an art gallery in London recently more dressed up than normal as we were there for the day and going out in the evening. A young handsome French beautifully dressed man came up gestured at me sort of waved his hands up and down and said “ your look - dress coat scarf boots - love it” and walked off! Made my day! I’m 50 and pretty certain he was not straight so wasn’t a pick up!

35 years ago I was 41 weeks pregnant and on a busy bus. Someone stood to let me sit down and an elderly lady in front of me turned around and said ‘they bring you love’. She was talking about my baby. She was right. It’s made me cry thinking about that moment.

I parked next to a lady at the supermarket car park and she had her window down and was smoking a cigarette, as I got out the car she remarked on what a lovely day it was, sun shining, blue sky etc. and I agreed with her.

As I shut the car door she said how lovely my hair looked. I have a graduated highlighted bob and I'd washed it that morning and it had blow dried really well too.

That pleased me for the rest of the day. Amazing how just one compliment can make all the difference. 😊

I was coming on here to share a similarly lovely compliment - 10 years ago now and it still makes me smile!
Walked into a B&B in Australia wearing a halter neck skater style floral short summer dress and the proprietor, and elderly lady, looked at me over the top of her glasses and said “well don’t you look like summer on legs!” And it was such a lovely compliment!

Just after Christmas I nipped into Tesco with my toddler. I didn’t have £1 for a trolley so was managing a basket with far too much in it and DS who wasn’t doing what I asked. A lovely older lady said I have a little helper and I said in passing, he’s a torture I didn’t have change for a trolley and carried on. She appeared 2 mins later with a trolley for me.

I love this. I often see people trying things on in shops if I’m waiting for my daughter, And if they look great, I want to say that looks amazing on you, especially if they’re on their own and have no one to give them any feedback. Something always stops me, I don’t want to sound creepy!

Maybe I’ll give it a go!

I know how much something like that would mean to me