What's the most WTF assumption you've heard about yourself.

[Motorwayview]

Mine is a hum dinger.
DH is significantly older than me - he is retired and I work PT. We have planned carefully so we were able to retire somewhere sunny. During our 35 years together he was a medium earner and I was the higher earner - his job was flexible for school drop offs/ pick ups ect. We have 2 adult DC and grandchildren.
He has joined a hobby group and last night they had a social evening so I went along.
Random woman - who was the wife of the organiser I found out later- " Well, you've landed on your feet - HIS children and ex wife must hate you " said very loudly in front of a group of people I don't really know.
I did put her straight , but WTF !

People assumed, a few time, exH was my dad.

We moved to a larger house using my savings and I paid for everything while exH played at his hobby job. Everyone assumed I was a kept woman with exH paying for everything as he was a lot older.

They also assumed he did all the DIY.

Obviously, he let them believe the last two as well.

As I've explained,there where a few 'mum bullies' at my dcs school

Ds would have been about a year old when he was rushed into hospital so I had to arrange childcare for his siblings

My mother had my boys and my bestie had dd

I stayed with ds for the week or so he was in hospital,we got out and I picked the dc up and back to normal life

First time I walked into the school playground,I heard a large intake of breath and I could hear the gossip mill churning

Turns out queen bully (who'd been a bully at school) had spread a rumour that I'd had all my dc taken away from me and put into care!

I was so upset and thankfully another mum put them straight and the ashamed faced where a sight apparently

All because I hadn't been seen at the school gates for about a week

Unfortunately it wasn't the end of this shite and I was so glad then they left that school

I have a disability. I’ve had the following conversations:

’And do you live with your mum, Choc?’
’No. I live and work in London.’
Cue massive and obvious reassessment of me as a person.

On hearing I worked for a charity:
’And do you make things?’
Oddly enough, neither of my two degrees is in anything that qualifies me for any kind of craft. My job at the time was editing and print production. I do have hobbies that might be considered occupational therapy, I suppose.

My chum is a farmer. So very many assume she is a farmer's wife.

As I’m slim, active & with a good appetite , I’ve been asked several times if I’m bulimic /anorexic.

People assume I have a degree. I'm a marketing director and I'm 64 yrs old. I have one A level and lots of experience.

Many times, out with my children and being asked by complete strangers while having general chit chat "do they all have the same dad?" 🙄

My children are mixed heritage i dont know if that plays a part or the fact I look younger for my age. Either way its damn rude.

...that could still mean you are a social worker....

Funnily enough, mine is similar - someone once implied that I had married my DH for his money.

This completely overlooked the fact that when we met & married, neither of us had any to speak of! We were just starting out in life with modest professional salaries.

And what makes it even more baffling is that it was a family member who said this, so she knew us at that time!

People really do choose to remember whatever fits their own preferred narrative

A couple of decades ago I went looking for a new car. Twat Citroen garage salesman when I declined to test drive a particularly expensive car “surely you can get your other half to put his hand in his pocket” snigger. I earned twice what my DH earned at the time. I ended up paying cash for a Peugeot special edition 206, a Roland Gaross. Oh how I loved that car.

I do home dog boarding. During Covid, when I couldn't operate, one of my customers proclaimed "It's a good job you only do this for pocket money".......Ha ha! I think all of my customers think I just make a few quid here and there, in fact I regularly bring in £3.5 - £4k a month.

Prior to this I worked for a huge corporate company for 27 years, and I also have a gold plated pension, thank you very much. I also got paid off from that job and knocked ££££ off the mortgage.

People have no idea......

People are always surprised when I say I have a degree (first class). Also I have had a lot of people act surprised, and even look a bit pissed off, when they come to my house.

I live in a nice house, my DC go to a private school, I drive a nice car and I go on nice holidays. All this is paid for by DH and I, no one has ever given us a penny.

I live in the SE in a nice area, and I have a WC northern accent. That is why they are surprised, because they "assume" that because I am from ooop north and have a WC accent, that I am uneducated and have a low paid job. I do actually have a low paid job now, but this is because I spent 20 years working overseas, 6 days a week, working my arse off, and I have zero debt.

From the guy who picked up two cars with dents for repair, assuming I'd driven one into the other on our own drive. "I'll bet you feel a bit stupid".

He did have the grace to apologise when I explained that two idiots had driven into me on the same day, one in a car park and the other when I was stopped at a red light after swapping into our other car.

Used to work in telly. I was booked for a one day shoot as a director. Before I even had time to introduce myself everyone but everyone assumed I was some sort of assistant. The Big Brother 'celebrities' were particularly misogynistic.

I used to walk along the seafront as a teenager with my Dad. Because of all the disapproving looks, I used to joke that I was going to wear a t shirt that said "He IS my father".

That is wild.

That I was my children’s nanny.

So many!

A couple of years ago I started a new job (had young DC at the time of stating) and my manager said in my first 121 'now you're in, you'll see how good the maternity pay is'. I didn't really pay much thought to it as the firm had great benefits all round and I thought he was sign posting the great parental leave to highlight how progressive the firm was (lol).

Fast forward a couple of months, we were doing annual planning and he said 'well, wonderfulstuff will be off on mat leave by the middle of next year'. My colleagues all then started congratulating me to which I had to awkwardly say that I wasn't pregnant and had no plans to be.

He wasn't malicious, after all he had given me the job despite his weird af assumptions, but it just showed me how people (men) still thought about women in the workplace. He was just more open about it than most.

That I am a “Polish tart who only came over here (Britain) to sleep with other women’s husbands”. Said about me by a hateful woman to her 2 little girls aged about 2-5 years old at a train station while I was standing minding my own business. She went into detail about the diseases I probably give the men I sleep with. Absolutely vile stuff. To 2 little girls and everyone else on the platform who said and did nothing btw.

For context I am British and was born about 2 miles away from that train station. I have no Polish ancestry to my knowledge. I was heading to my first night out since my baby had been born so I was made up dressed nicely (jeans and a nice top nicely). I told the woman I am British in my best local (rough) accent. She apologised and tried to hug me(!) I called her a racist bitch and walked away from her and then cried. Ruined my whole night out- ruined make up etc. 15 years later it really sticks with me because it gave a tiny glimpse into what some non British people who come here have to put up with from people like that.

My exh was 12 years older than me and people often thought he was my father.

Many years ago he'd invited a couple of his friends, both male, to our house in relation to a hobby they all shared.

I'd never met these men before.

The first one came into the house, we said hello to one another, and I went back into the house.

When the second friend turned up a few minutes later I heard first friend declare in a really loud voice 'he', referring to my then husband, 'must be really loaded, his wife is really young and attractive.'

Who the hell says something like that about a woman, particularly within her hearing range?

And no, he wasn't 'loaded'. We lived in a perfectly normal four bedroom house.

They never came to the house again.

Not RTFT but there are some corkers here 😅
One assumption was that DH and I had divorced!!! A number of people thought it and we have a very happy marriage. We dont buy into all the social media lovey dovey crap and DH came off everything apart from X for football updates many years ago anyway so whats the point in "happy birthday/anniversary/DATE NIGHT!!!" posts.... also I started working away upto 3 days a week other end of the country so at school he does most pick ups/drop offs. School mums tounges wagging and a teacher actually then askrd dc if we had split. She was concered... could have been handled better. If we had split i ofcourse would bave informed the school to keep an eye on dc so for her to be asked by a teacher (not even her own) was a bit out there.

Fairly mild, I once had someone assume I was good at maths because I wear glasses. No, I just can’t see

My DD is adopted and her birth mum was white, birth dad another ethnicity that's unusual in the UK - not Asian. But ethnicity-wise she could have been my birth daughter.
As a baby whenever we were out with friends, without fail they'd ask one of my Asian friends whether DD would like a bottle warming/some puree/a toddler meal.
Each of the friends it happened to was not a parent and looked very confused!
It stopped when DD could say "Mummy...." 300 times a day.

@MartiniGlassHandbag that reminds me, we left a church when the DCs were small because they told us they were too noisy in the service and could we please sit with them in an area where you can't see or hear the service.
A few years later I bumped into a regular member of that church and she asked if I and DH had split up. Yes because that's the ONLY reason we'd stop going to a church is because we'd split up?
Nobody at that church ever got in touch to ask how we were. Or the next one we left.

My family have eye roll moments about me always being late. This is because when I used to visit it was from another part of the country, so lots of traffic and hold ups.
I stopped giving an ETA so no one could accuse me of being late.
This has however stuck years later, I live nearby now and they all still roll their eyes and say I’ll just be late.
The truth is I have always been punctual where it matters and always arrive to appointments and such like, early.