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 !

I have another one. My mum died when I was a teenager. I am the youngest of my siblings by a long way and I have nephews who are 8 and 10 years younger than me, and we all lived in the same village so were really close.

When I was about 20 I went on holiday with my dad, and we took my youngest nephew, who was about 8. Everyone round the pool stopped and stared when we walked in, and I got a lot of dirty looks. After a few days, we were having dinner and my dad took my nephew to the bathroom. One of the waiters came up to me really annoyed and he said to me "is that your husband?" The next day a British woman came up to me and started talking to me, and asked if my nephew was my DC. She said, I didn't think he (my dad) was your DH but thought the boy was yours.

People are so judgemental. I can honestly say that I do people watch and I may spend half a second on something I see, but I then move on with life and live and let live.

😅

I once changed my fb profile name to a combination of my first and middle names. Cue some of the other school parents asking in concern if we were separating.

Good point. I was close to some school mums at the time who were speculating noone sent me a message 😅 not close now...

I'm in my early 50s. I had to pop into an actual branch of a bank last year to sort out a small cash ISA I'd forgotten about.

The man who took me through the process of reactivating the account was really helpful but at the end of the conversation he suggested (in a very patronising tone) that I pop back in once I'd received the letter with my new online banking details so he could help me set up the app.

I started my career as an IT consultant over 30 years ago, I've written super complex code (inc for banking clients 😂) and designed data models for pretty big systems.

I think I can manage to log onto a banking app!

Did you tell him that?

I can trump that (slightly!)

DH and I went to get DH a new smart phone some 4 years ago, as he dropped his and broke it, and we were looking around a phone shop in a big shopping centre.. This young guy came up to us (about 22 years old,) and started talking about this phone and that phone, and he started talking about 'apps' and asked DH if he knew what an app was. 😂 This was 2022!

DH was like ... 'WHAT? Are you joking? It's my generation who invented the tech you're selling here pal!' Like half joking but half annoyed, and the young man was like 'sorry sir..' I had to hide behind a wall as I was about to burst out laughing. We were in our mid 50s at the time.

Have we heard of an app indeed?! It would have been a bit different if it had been 2009-2010. When apps were still new and fresh. He must have thought we had been living on the moon for 20 years!

My late DH was dark-haired, and as he was a professional gardener had a permanent tan. Whenever we were abroad, he was mistaken for Italian or Spanish!

I am nearly a decade younger than my DH. I think HE has landed on his feet :)

I had this too with my DH's stepmum. She thought I was aloof and up myself - truth was I was terribly shy and had really low self esteem. We get one alright now though.

Had saved and saved for ages for a deposit on my first ever apartment. I was super excited.

Went for a mortgage consultation (major high street bank). The advisor asked the usual questions about salary etc and then proceeded to tell me he thought I had procured my deposit via a divorce settlement and that my exhusband had given me the money for the deposit.

Spoiler: I wasn't married at the time and have never married since. I actually walked out of that appointment in tears.

I can't really think of any stories like this, although when a cousin got married, I was asked if I was his brother's wife. I was 15 at the time, and didn't look old for my age. At the same wedding, I was asked if I was a sister. The one who wasn't getting married that day and I do have the same eyes so that was perhaps more understandable.

It's interesting how people react isn't it? I would have been how the bloody dare you? Not get upset.

My boiler broke down and I was getting quotes for a new one. A major national company came out. He asked if my husband was going to be present and I said no.

He had a look at the old boiler, showed me some new ones and then calculated the price of the new boiler and fitting. He wouldn't tell me the price and said my husband needed to be present before he could tell me what the quote was.

I explained I don't have a husband and I live on my own. He then asked if I had a Dad or Uncle or close male friend who he could go through the quote with as he didn't think I would understand it.

I pointed out that it was my earned money that I was spending on my house that I own and I'm allowed to make decisions about boilers all by myself. I then showed him the door and told him I didn't want to buy a boiler from him.

I was really angry about that!

What did she say to that?

some years ago I took over managing a new service area so the staff didn’t know me. I was told that the general thought was that I had a rich husband and just came to work for some ‘pocket money’. I’ve actually never been married and brought up my children alone and really struggled financially, hence my strong drive to progress my career.

That reminds me of another one. This time by my FIL. He is wealthy but tight as.

When DH and I wanted to buy a house together, having been living together in a flat I paid for, he thought I was a gold digger. He said he'd help DH out with his side of the deposit so we could own it equally so I didn't get to freeload off DH (who was temping in NMW jobs when I met him and I was on a graduate scheme).

He was shocked when I said I was putting £60k towards the deposit - my original flat deposit + increase in value + further savings.

Obviously I was delighted DH was going to be able to match that but FIL was quietly seething that he'd been 'tricked' into committing to an equal deposit. I hadn't tricked him. He'd made assumptions about me being a gold digger that turned out to be completely false!

I've always out earned DH, except when on maternity leave and even then it was my savings I lived off. Even through the time when the DC were little and I was part time I still outearned him. My FIL is a misogynistic ass.

I have no idea who that chap is, but if he is as unpleasant and intimidating as my manager, I hope he gets dismissed/retires and leaves everyone in peace soon!

As it is, we have a "what to do if our manager drops down with a heart attack at work", and my appointed job is to run off with the de-fib machine...

DH and I are both in our 40s.

he runs a successful company. The number of people - men and women - that have over the years assumed I do nothing/should be grateful/got lucky is depressing.

As I (very occasionally say out loud) DH might have bought the house, but I bought the boat!

Even when there was a bit of publicity about the sale of my own company so many people - even ones we knew quite well - framed it as his success story although he had nothing (other than being a supportive partner) to do with it.

Why are you assuming the neighbour was a woman? Thats a bit sexist. Could have easily been a male neighbour.

I was quite young and saw the world differently then. It would be a different story now.

My mam met a friend she hadn't seen in about 20 years, he was pushing a child less than a year old. Both mam and friend were not far off 70. She commented how lovely it was to see him push his grandchild around, it was his son.

That I'm posh, rich, and born with a 'silver spoon in my mouth' because I had a southern English accent after moving to the NE.
Definitely not posh, or rich!

I met up with a friend for coffee after work. I was heavily pregnant and he had recently lost a large amount of weight but hadn't yet replaced his big, scruffy clothes. I ordered two drinks and the woman behind the counter looked uncomfortable and said, "Did the manager say it was OK?"

I was baffled for a moment but then it dawned on me and the woman at the same moment that she had wrongly assumed we were homeless people asking for a freebie. We stared in horror at each other for a few seconds until I broke the silence by snapping, "It's that bloody coat!" at my friend.

A neighbour asked what brought me to the area as I was not from there, I said I lived in the nearby city after university and liked where we bought our house. She was absolutely stunned that DH and I had bought a house as she thought we were “only renters” and she then followed by saying I didn’t realise you went to university, I thought you “only” worked as a clerical assistant!

nothing wrong with renting if I was, or if I had never gone to university either. DH and I saved very hard for many years to afford a house with a smallish mortgage in an area we both liked, And I work in a professional role and I earn very very well! DH also earns very well, no idea when she assumed this about us!

Also MIL and SIL acted equally stunned when discovered I went to university and they both surprised how well I have done in my career. They keep referencing how DH paid for all of our house. 🙄🙄

I think I need your holiday wardrobe as I imagine they are guessing from clothing styles, and you are dressing better than the average Brit abroad!