Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In thinking theres nothing more humiliating..

106 replies

whimsicalmess · 14/03/2013 14:24

than having your card decline...several times, due to lack of funds in front of a whole shop.ShockSadAngry

I was buying some pizza, drumsticks etc for a birthday tea for my DP I had to put everything back,Sad

I just want someone to really piss me off so I would be justified in hitting something/crying.

Is there anything more humiliating?

OP posts:
smeeeheee · 14/03/2013 16:01

If it makes you feel any better I used to work in a restaurant and it happened all the time. I used to just say not to worry and that our card machine had been playing up for ages. Also, in terms of embarrassment; a pigeon once landed on my head in Princes Street (main shopping street in Edinburgh) during the festival. It was absolutely peeing down, and right outside a shop awning which people had gathered under (I assumed to get away from the rain, this turned out not to be the case), so I had a pretty large audience. I think the poor beast was as terrified as I was; I screamed like a girl, it fell off onto the road in front of me whereupon I accidentally booted it out into the middle of the road. I didn't mean to, I'm not cruel to feathered creatures generally, it just gave me a fright. I didn't know what to do, I turned round to find out that my audience included Max and OB from Hollyoaks who were signing autographs. Honestly, sometimes I have to remind myself that this did actually happen and wasn't some kind of awful surreal nightmare.

INeverSaidThat · 14/03/2013 16:05

Due to tavelling around quite a bit I get my card declined quite often. It doesn't bother me at all. I rather the banks are over cautious than risk getting my account hacked.

SummerRainIsADistantMemory · 14/03/2013 16:09

It happened to me and even more embarrassingly the older lady at the till knew me and insisted on giving me the stuff and told me I could run back later and pay (I'd gone for the 'Bloody bank, I just lodged money into that account' lie Blush). I tried to decline but she insisted and wouldn't let me give them back, or even leave them in the shop Shock

I had no money, at all. I had a credit card that i couldn't remember the PIN for and spent the whole afternoon wailing down the phone at dp and scouring th house for the notebook i'd written the credit card PIN in... never found it either. I ended up going to the pass machine with the two most likely options (I knew all the numbers, I just couldn't remember the order they were in!). Thankfully one of them worked and I was able to pay but I still get cold sweats at the thought of potentially having been barred from our only local supermarket if i hadn't found the money!!!

vladthedisorganised · 14/03/2013 16:11

On honeymoon, in a very out-of-the-way location, staying in a remote village. Luggage was lost on the way out so had picked up what I thought was a swimsuit in my size on the way out to remote location.
There's a festival, and the whole village heads down to a natural lagoon - waterfall, natural pond, the works - for a swim. It's seen as good luck to walk under the waterfall.
Walking under the waterfall, unfortunately, proves that I had picked up the wrong size of swimsuit in my haste, as swimsuit shoots to the ground and floats away downstream, leaving me butt-naked in full(ish) view of the festivities.

Fortunately DH is a good swimmer and could rescue the swimsuit fairly quickly, and we could explain the incident away vaguely as 'a cultural thing'..

Original poster
whimsicalmess · 14/03/2013 16:12

I am actually its my local :O oh well.

Oh god Emma that is gonna stick in my head,I have 'period pants' that are revolting and baggy lol.

aw seeeheee pidgeon gate!

Sugarice that is mean n awful poor you.

OP posts:
Snoopingforsoup · 14/03/2013 16:12

Smeehee that just gave me the belly laugh I needed.

Brilliant Grin

marmite69 · 14/03/2013 16:13

On a rare night out my sweaty boob enhancer (chicken fillet) slid out of the bottom of my bra and landed on the dance floor [embarrassed]

I used to work in retail and cards were always being rejected for whatever reason, I never thought anything of it so I wouldn't worry Smile

AmazingBouncingFerret · 14/03/2013 16:15

Yeah when I worked in retail I always used to say that it was probably our machine to save customer's embarrassment.

Used to backfire when I had customers get arsey with me when I knew it wasn't a system error!

marmite69 · 14/03/2013 16:15

On a rare night out my sweaty boob enhancer (chicken fillet) slid out of the bottom of my bra and landed on the dance floor Blush ,I just invented a new groovy dance move and stuffed it in my bag!

I used to work in retail and cards were always being rejected for whatever reason, I never thought anything of it so I wouldn't worry Smile

Touchmybum · 14/03/2013 16:17

What you do is brazen it out. Mutter a lot about that damn card and say it's not worked a couple of times, and rub it up and down your sweater a bit to get rid of imaginary dust...

greenfolder · 14/03/2013 16:18

Just to cheer you up.

On holiday in cornwall at the lost gardens of wotsit. Period from hell started, made a break for the loo-dh insisted I take dd who was 3. As we were with 2 sets of parents couldn't really tell him why not. Enormous queue of white haired ladies. Empty disabled toilet- pushed past them with the excuse of toddler. Dd finished. Lowered keks, sat on loo looking at carnage and pondering what thw heck to do when dd opened the door (opened outwards for easy access) and did a runner.

I will take a delined card over that anytime x

soaccidentprone · 14/03/2013 16:22

when ds1 was still being bf I hadn't put any breast pads in as I was back at work and only feeding him twice a day, once in the morning, and once at night.

anyway I was on my lunch break walking round the shops and thought 'my boobs feel cold' - yes I has leaked and had 2 lovely round wet patches on my plain fairly tight fitting topBlush

I crossed my arms and went to buy some pads, then poured some water through the breast milk patches and dried my top under the hand dryer in the toilets at work.

I've also managed to fill the car with fuel before realising I had left my purse at home in front if the pcBlush

Original poster
whimsicalmess · 14/03/2013 16:23

Dear, oh dear thanks green,

lots of period shame on here today GrinShock

OP posts:
marmite69 · 14/03/2013 16:23

Sorry posted twice,wasn't that funny!

tiredemma · 14/03/2013 16:27

OH GAH_ just been reminded of a further humiliation (period associated)

Plumber upstairs fitting new bathroom- had a dust sheet on the stairs to gather crap etc. I carried all washing down the stairs at approx 10am in the morning and then settled down to finish my assignment etc.
plumber keeps going about his business up and down the stairs all day taking out rubble/rubbish.

at about 3pm (so A full FIVE hours after i carried dirty washing down stairs) I go out to the hallway as plumber is getting ready to leave.
There in all its glory is a pair of GIANT windsock like knockers of mine, complete with period mass on show.

For FIVE WHOLE hours he had traipsed up and down the stairs, stepping over the knickers to take rubbish outside.

i actually wanted to die.

tiredemma · 14/03/2013 16:28

*knickers- not knockers.

PopeBenedictsP45 · 14/03/2013 16:33

Oh dear emma, I think you've won this thread!

You must be feeling better now, OP!

tiredemma · 14/03/2013 16:34

Im just sat here in a mess!

Monstermuncher · 14/03/2013 16:38

Not long after my son was born I witnessed a theft and two policemen came to my flat to take a statement from me. I thought it was bad enough that they came unannounced so I was still in my pyjamas but when they got up to leave I noticed that one of them had a breast pad stuck to his leg, it must have been on the sofa when he sat down

99problems · 14/03/2013 16:43

When I was traveling with my new born, we stopped off at a service station to change/breastfeed ds. We were in a baby change room so I was taking off my top and bra when a father walked in - the door hadn't locked properly. So he see's my huge, leaking, veiny boobs in all their glory as I literally had nothing on and was about to pick up ds. I don't know who was more horrified me or him.

toddlerama · 14/03/2013 16:52

When I was suffering from PND and totally in denial, my midwife was visiting each day (I thought this was normal. It was my first) to check on me beg me to see a GP and one morning I noticed she looked at me in a strange way. I had been in the shower, and dried my hair and got dressed without looking in the mirror.

Somehow, I had smeared black makeup all over my face. Not just around my eyes, but all down my cheeks, up on my forehead, there was some under my chin. I have no idea why there was so much, but I had no clue it was there. As she got more and more head-tilty, I started to behave more and more 'upbeat' (manically in retrospect...I think I started telling jokes...) to try and get rid of her. Only after she had gone did I see my reflection in a kitchen cupboard and think "what the hell?" It literally looked like I had taken fistfuls of coal and smeared them all over my face. I must have applied makeup several times the day before (to prove how awesome and un-depressed I was) and then just added water and friction.

When she came the next day, I tried to explain but very badly. The more I justified it, the more defensive I got. I ended up needing a fair bit of help and this wasn't the oddest thing I did when DD1 was small, but it felt the most embarrassing because it WASN'T BECAUSE I WAS CRAZY!!!! However, the more you say it, the less anyone buys it Grin

Original poster
whimsicalmess · 14/03/2013 16:56

Haha oh dear more good replies,

yeah feeling a little better, emma has won I think, although the tampon image will not leave me,LMAO!

did anyone notice?

OP posts:
smeeeheee · 14/03/2013 16:57

OH MY GOD I thought these things only happened to me... Once got my bag stolen when I was sunbathing in the meadows, I reported it to a policeman who diligently and sympathetically took down all the details, including a full description of the bag and its contents (as much as I could remember anyway). He contacted the other policeman nearby and gave him the description, who said they'd found a bag matching it. The thieves had obviously gone behind a nearby tree, emptied out the bag and its contents onto the ground and taken anything valuable. Which, unfortunately, did not include the crusty old pair of knickers I'd had to hurriedly change out of earlier in the day due to being 'caught short' a la greenfolder. I think the worst part was when one of the poor policemen had to ask if I wanted to file for victim compensation, while standing mournfully over my crusty pants. Just awful.

Having said that, since being pregnant I've had to redefine embarrassment. Sometimes I forget that things that are acceptable in my own house aren't in the outside world. I went to a cafe for lunch with my husband yesterday. Am getting to the heifer stage now, so have resorted to wearing the mammoth maternity bras that turn your boob into a giant sweaty monoboob in about 5 seconds, and seem to trap crumbs like a toaster tray. Anyhoo, I forgot where I was, and it was only when I saw the absolutely horrified expression on my husband's face that I realised I had just reached into the crack between my ginormous boobs, pulled out a piece of chicken that had fallen in there from the sandwich I was eating, and put it on the plate in front of me. Needless to say, we had to leave pretty soon after that.

ukatlast · 14/03/2013 17:11

Quote INEVERSAIDTHAT 'Due to tavelling around quite a bit I get my card declined quite often. It doesn't bother me at all. I rather the banks are over cautious than risk getting my account hacked.'

Are you for real? So how do you then pay for said item? It is beyond ridiculous when you have ample funds and it is done for security reasons only...especially when abroad.
I have been informed that actually these days you should always advise your bank when going abroad in order to avoid these situations...so this means risking telling a bank employee your house will likely be unoccupied. Makes me long for the Old Days when cards worked on signatures.

Never had problems as a poor student abroad in 1980s, now as much much wealthier adults with ample funds, you can be declined for a paltry purchase abroad just because you didn't tell the Bank you were going on a business trip/holiday.

eslteacher · 14/03/2013 17:15

smeehee, I love the Max/OB/pigeon story. It sounds so very surreal and dream-like...