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 !

DH and I both work as teachers at the same school. He has an ex wife who had an affair and left him. We then later married. I had a few years of 'Mrs Odellio is a home wrecker' written across tables etc. Pupils (and staff) forever assuming I was the other woman. In reality we barely spoke or acknowledged each other when he was married. Pupils would straight off the bat be judging me, and give me a hard time for it. I got so much more grief than my husband about it. And it's not exactly a conversation I was willing to entertain to defend myself, so I just always ignored it. Felt very unfair though.

I do remember excitedly exclaiming 'finally!' When I saw the only 'Mr Odellio is a man whore' written across a table. It was about time he got held accountable for his non-existent affair with me, I wasn't even the married one 😂 Women get judged far worse.

On holiday ( when locals like to play, guess the nationality😂) nobody ever guesses thatI am British. I am usually taken for German or French or occasionally Italian. I do actually speak German French and some Italian, but this happens before I even open my mouth. I’m just glad I’m not taking for an American 😂

I worked in London at one point, whilst living in the West Country - I commuted there on Monday morning and then rushed home on Thursday night. I often talked about wanting to get home to my cat who had a stereotypically female name (think, 'Harriet'), but I quite clearly didn't provide enough detail... One of my colleagues told me later that she was convinced that I was in a lesbian relationship with 'Harriet' and was rushing home to see her. She'd also decided that 'Harriet' was a district nurse and that we were living together in a lovely thatched cottage. Sadly, I'm in a small terrace. With my cats. And am also straight.

I'm dark skinned but two of my children are light skinned. Multiple people (including a teacher at their school!) have assumed I'm their nanny or childminder. I don't mind - I find it vaguely amusing if anything - but it is "wtf" in the sense that my skin colour makes people assume I'm hired help rather than e.g. they are adopted. When I was younger (dark skinned with a white mother) they assumed I was adopted.

I am not well educated. Have learning difficulties. So People think I'm thick.

Always the same thing.

People assume I am a) a stay at home mum, b) can barely speak English c) am on benefits- all because I wear a headscarf. I have an Oxbridge Masters, and am a working professional and have never been on benefits.

My favourite was a waitress who spoke really loudly and slowly to me and my friend who is a specialist medical consultant - both of us born in the UK. She got a bit of a shock when we answered her.

Even colleagues are always surprised when I tell them about my travelling alone and sport hobbies. The assumptions made about Muslim women are on another level.

My old neighbour

Shed been a spiteful bully at school and hadn't grown out of it as an adult (and her kids acted just like her)

A long story short,I ended up living next door to her

I just ignored her and was polite if I had to be

Anyway,one day 'a bloke' in full biker leathers on a moterbike,came round to my house and left 15 minutes later and an hour after he'd gone,'another bloke' in scruffy clothes came round and again,left after about 15 minutes

I set off for the school run about half an hour after the 'second man' left

I hadn't even made it to school when she started a rumour that I was a sex worker,had two men in my house and was earning on top of my benefits

If she'd bothered to get her facts right,I wasn't on benefits and the 'two men' where in fact my father

He'd popped in on his way home (he's a biker) and again in his normal clothes (he's a lot of a scruff) as he'd forgotten something and my mother had sent him back to mine

Sadly,a lot of people believed her bullshit and my dc had started to be bullied by her dc and the other dc of her mates (I had to fight the school to deal with it)

So yep,my father popping into my house meant I was a hooker

(She had a meltdown when my brother and his wife babysiat one night-i was having a threesome all night apparently!nothing to do with going out on my 30th birthday-i wasnt ecen at home,i ended up moving away just to get away from her)

What's an RNM? Google hasn't helped.

My partner lost his job. My salary was 4x via when he was employed. His family thought it was right I should stay at home with the children. I might have loved that but it wasn't something I could even consider. I know they think badly of me for it but what can I do

A young colleague had someone thinking that she was cheating on her fiancé, because she mentioned needing to get home to "Pierre".

Pierre was her rather neurotic rescue cat.

How did she react when you told her? Was she very apologetic or what?

I had to have time off work following surgery. Found out that a group of guys had been saying I was ‘right flaky’ because of my attendance. This was followed by jury service. It was surgery. And then jury service. I’d never had a day off work before that…

i used to work with a woman who was a forklift driver. She had a crew cut, tattoos, piercings, never wore make up and was a low key body builder. We went on a night out and she was bemoaning being single and was floored when we spoke about setting her up with the lovely girl who worked on reception. She was gobsmacked that we’d assumed she was gay and we were schooled that night.

A few over the years.
I am a lottery winner. I wish! My kids went to independent schools, bursaries and scholarships were the reality.
I was thought by a sports team I joined that I was married to a woman. Ok, fairly stereotypical within the sport. Im straight and married for 40 years.
Same vein, I'm often presumed to be lesbian as I'm not 'girly' and live in jeans and hoody and don't have 'girly' hobbies.

What do you do? How do you do it? What qualifications do I need to do it? Where do you do it? I want to earn 400k Pa 🙏🙏

Wackiest one was when I moved in my current house 20 years ago and my nosy neighbour accross the road who was always hanging over his gate staring at the neighbours and randoms walking by, told me gleefully that I was being talked about in the local post office as being a prostitute and I was running a brothel.

he said you want to be careful, the amount of men you’ve got going in and out your house..

you mean
my dad,
my ex to pick the kids up
my partner
and exs uncle in law who very kindly came to fix some shelves

😆

Probably RMN - registered mental nurse?

That is really bizarre. What an odd thing to think.

Sorry it's a typo. It's meant to say RMN. It's an MH nurse.

That I don't have a responsible job, I'm a rebel and I don't work in a professional environment.

All because I have peekaboo/under dye blue hair.

I am the deputy CEO in a highly respected professional organisation and I'm such a stickler for rules 😂 I've never even smoked never mind been a teenage drug taking rebel.

The CEO has never mentioned my hair once. Not at interview, not in any 1:1s and not when we go for a drink or coffee after a heavy meeting. Not in the 6 years I've known her. My appearance has never been a topic of conversation.

I love it when people underestimate me because you can get away with so much more stuff than when people have high expectations and you're expected to live up to them.

Appearances can be very deceptive and it's certainly helped me keep an open mind whoever I meet.

I love my hair. It's the teenage rebellion I never had the confidence for. And I'm close to 50!

My mum once told a shopkeeper (and her friend) that I was just finishing my exams. They asked how I thought my GCSEs had gone then. I was 23 doing a postgrad. That was quite a nice, if funny, assumption.

That Im offended by hearing swearing. And that I don't swear.

One older woman where I live makes comments about my husband ‘finally letting me’ have my baby!! It’s really quite odd and I thought it said a lot about what judgements she had made of us! We waited a long time because I wasn’t sure I was ready/wanted kids.. she seems to think I was desperate - I’ve zero idea why! She makes these sorts of comments when we bump into her , cooing over my son whilst we walk the dog 😂

I am the higher earner by far but we share money equally. Most of our spend is for our kids/house etc anyway. Neither of us have expensive taste.
my husbands family think that means they are entitled to ask for money, that we will pay for everything they can’t afford. I have even had it said to my face, “you have loads of money so why shouldn’t you pay our rent.” (I don’t have loads of money)

To be fair to the police officer: the main audience they get has kids very young and often a bit of a muddled family history.