to pretend not to be me?

[Catnao]

I am always known by a nick name, have been since i was small - aquaintances call me by this nickname, it's not an affectionate thing, iyswim? Friends sometimes shorten the nickname as an affectionate diminutive.

If people ring up and ask for me by my given name, I pretend I'm out and ask to take a message - since, if I don't know them (which I don't, as they called me by given name, plus surname, sometimes), then the call is either annoying, eg sales cold call, in which case I have saved the irritation of answering it properly, or important, eg, doctor, in which case they can leave a message and I can be me again and phone straight back.

I did this half an hour ago and my next door neighbour, who was round for a coffee glass of wine thought it was really funny, and said I was paranoid! . Sensible, I think!.

i do this! although i did it a couple of months ago and it turned out to be a policeman i'd just been speaking too a couple of hours previous he was quite confused and i had to own up to it!

Good, I'm glad it's not just me!

I always put my toddler children on the phone when i get a cold caller- they lOVE talking ( jibberish ) and I don't want to burden my friends by saying ( will you just say "hi" to DC) so any time a cold caller calls, I hand the phone straight over to whichever pre-schooler it nearest!

if ever anyone phones my house and doesn't say "it's only me" i pretend i am not me and ask who is calling.

Plan! I have actually, finally, trained my son (10) to ask "Who's calling?" and " She will call you back".

He's censored my partner's mum twice when she asked for "Mummy" (I don't accept those ones either!) as she said "Marge" (not her name, an example!, not Granny X!

Yeah, I often take messages for myself. I sometimes say I'm my sister. (I don't have a sister) Sometimes they call back and say 'I talked to your sister' and I say "But I haven't..."

I once said "I'm not in..."

I'm better at it now...

Me too, my common used name is not the name on my birth cert etc. So if someone calls for me and uses that name I know chances are they've got it from electoral register etc and chances are I don't want to talk to them.. I also have a 'work' name and a friend name.
And if someone calls me by my initals I know they're a friend of ex-BF and ignore them [bgrin]

Before we got married, if some sales fool person called and asked for Mrs E I revelled in truthfully saying I was not her.

Now I just hang up, but when DD starts talking.....