"He won't be as handsome as my son. Never mind." Gutted by comment from random woman

[1Potato2]

On Friday I went with Dd and 4 month ds to the library to kill time. Random woman in her early 70s starts chatting about wishing he will live as long as her relation (104 apparently) and finished off with the comment in the title. I didn't process this at the time as I was keeping an eye on Dd and ds was threatening to poop. It has bugged me since. :(. He's a lovely smiley chap and can't help thinking wtaf?! Anyone else experienced this?

Thank you for your input thus far.

I mentioned approx age only to provide context ie she had a grown up son I presume. She said it in a matter of fact/sympathetic way so I'm pretty confident it wasn't her sense of humour. As a poster mentioned earlier, I think it was the "never mind" bit that got to me the most.

I think I'm possibly taking it too personally. I was bullied as a kid and I'm possibly over sensitive. I personally don't think it was a nice thing to say.

Sometimes old people are just weird
She's a nasty old bitch isn't she? Forget the old shrew
Charming.
Substitute 'old' with female, muslim, black, disabled, gay.
How clever do you sound now?
The elderly are people too. Yes, they may make mistakes and misunderstand things. As do we all.

OP, is it important to you that other people think your baby is more handsome than their own?

If so, why is that?

Maybe she's just the queen of deadpan?

She could have or be starting to have dementia.
A dear friend of my mothers made an out of character tactless remark to me. I was.
She was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimers a couple of years later.

My FIL once chatted to a stranger in the airport with a toddler the same age as DS. He said "oh my grandson is about that age. But he's cuter"

FIL has Alzheimer's but appeared like a normal old man (73yrs) just his mind wasn't really functioning. He came across lovely but then came out with a doozy like that. The poor mother he spoke to probably felt like you do but he can't help it!

She could have or be starting to have dementia.
A dear friend of my mothers made an out of character tactless remark to me. I was.
She was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimers a couple of years later.

'There is only one most gorgeous baby in the world and every woman has it!'

Very wise words when I entered my most gorgeous (obviously) DD1 in to a newspaper most beautiful baby competition!

It helped me no end when she did not even get into the second round fix and when I had my younger two and met competitive parents!

I can just think that we all think out child is the most gorgeous and they are deluded.

Aw, bless you OP! I'd have been a bit as well!

I am sure your baby is beautiful

Punkrock did you not see my update?

I'm going on my personal experience of a self confessed weird old person...

She could have or be starting to have dementia.
A dear friend of my mothers made an out of character tactless remark to me. I was.
She was subsequently diagnosed with Alzheimers a couple of years later.

Oops

Probably just a lonely old lady. Please don't think any more on it.

Probably said it as a joke and came out wrong

Rude but probably not deliberate

Too many ageist posts on here. It's really ugly.

Not just ageism on here but misogyny too. Women are not 'bitches', they are women. Bitches are female dogs in case you were unaware.

Oh dear, that's sounds like something I might say as a joke and would be supposed to be in the same vein as "Of course my child is very advanced".

Obviously only you were there and are in the best position to judge but as she expressed an opinion relative to someone who wasn't present and is completely unknown to you, that is what is sounds like to me.

Every grandmother thinks their children are the most beautiful and that their grandchildren are even more beautiful (if that's possible!) Yes it's annoying to hear sometimes, but let it go --- it probably wasn't said with malice.

Well if it helps my mother once commented that dd1 was really beautiful and then said she didn't get it from me or words to that effect.

I really don't think she meant it to be taken literally.

In the same vein as 'Oh, there'll never be another dog like Binky...'

I think you have a right to be upset.

I hope you will be able to get past it. She had no right to say an ill-judged thing like that.

It's possible as someone upthread suggested that she is suffering from alzheimers -- it makes people lose their filters and say hurtful things sometimes. Though maybe you had the bad luck to run into someone with a mean streak..

I remember a guy telling me that my son was obviously a proper handful. DS was 11 months and started crying when the plane we were in was about to land (as most babies do, it really hurts their ears). He may be a Hangul due to lots of things but never for being loud, he has only have two tantrums in his whole life! (he is a teen now).

The other one still bugs me though:
My MIL, who was besotted with DS at that age, said in front of SIL's friend "isn't he the most beautiful baby in the world?" Friend took a long look at DS and said "no". I still remember the cow with real resentment, mostly because she always looked like an old fashioned ant with 1950s glasses at the time they were not even fashionable, who did she think she was, being so ugly and looking as an insect herself, to put my darling handsome boy down?

Admittedly, like many babies at that age, he looked like a little toad covered in eczema patches, but I was too sleep deprived to see that back then.

My money is on a wry sense of humour. I say stuff like 'ds is the most handsome boy on the planet...'. I mean it as a joke, and usually follow up with... 'but then again I might be biassed ;)'. I think she was being similarly 'funny'.