To hate it when men 'joke' like this.

[KindergartenKop]

Maybe it's not always men but I've never experienced a woman who has done this.

So today I took DS1 to a charity shop. He picked two books at 50p each. I gave Ds a pound coin. The man at the till took the books and said, 'That's four pounds please'. Ds looked worried and the man said 'Only joking, it's one pound'. We paid and left.
I've had people say this sort of thing to me so often and it always beffuddles me and makes me feel stupid. Am I the only person who attracts this form of idiocy? Aibu to be pissed off that this man worried my son? It's not fucking funny!

I assume he wouldn't take it! I don't think the man meant any harm in the slightest, he wouldn't mean to upset me but this "joke" would. I wouldn't return to the shop, but that is me and my disability and I beat myself up for being incapable of understanding these things or asserting myself.

I seem to attract idiots like this. I don't mind a bit of banter or
Joking but some people just get it wrong. In a situation like that I'd just want to be told how much it was. Some people just think they're funny when they're not.

I'd be annoyed but get over it pretty quick too.

Yes, Navy, this is still probably the healthiest MH-wise in a long time sadly.

I gave an example earlier where I was joking but you could also take what I said literally and I still upset the person and he portrayed me as mean Gruffalo.

I've remembered another one. DH told his friend he could store something in our shed. The friend also asked me, which was polite of him, adding: 'I hope it's not going to be a problem.'

I said I didn't mind but if it became a problem I'd ask him to move it. He looked taken aback and told my husband that I was being 'funny'

I don't think I was the one who was being 'funny'. I certainly wasn't the one who was running to someone else and making stuff up. That was very odd behaviour. What did he think my husband would do? Take his side against me, even if there was a 'side' to be taken? To my mind, what I said was normal - like 'let's see how this goes'. He ended up not storing the sodding thing in our shed in the end anyway because he couldn't be arsed to walk to our house to get it.

I can't legislate for how people take my words whether I am joking or being serious. If I've caused offence, I might apologise, but if I think your offence is unreasonable then I won't apologise and will simply repeat what I said.

I think he just wanted to use our shed as free storage space for an ever increasing amount of his junk. Unfortunately for him, that's what I use it for too and my junk gets first refusal.

I don't think it's right to do it to a child, it's not fair. It might have been funnier if the child was old enough to get such jokes and the amount was something outlandish and literally unbelievable, like a million pounds.

I bought a washing machine recently and enquired about having the old one disconnected and taken away and the new one connected. The salesman said that the charge would be £1000 for each service, so £2000 in all. This was silly enough to be an obvious joke, whereas if he'd said £65 I'd have believed him. It's OK to joke, but not OK to make someone feel silly by not making it obvious that you're only kidding.

When I was a child there was an advert where a tourist asks a New Yorker: 'How I get to Carnegie Hall?' and he said: 'Practise, lady. Practise.'

It took me ages to get that joke.

It's just wanky and irritating.

To be funny, the person to whom the joke's directed, should have a chance of understanding it. If the salesman had said it will cost a million squillion noodles it could be understood as a child as funny. Saying a slightly different price is just irritating.

My ex's dad made jokes like this all the time. Particularly to young female waitresses. They would turn red and try to find out if the meal was ok. My ex MIL would tell him off and the rest of us would be beetroot, but he enjoyed watching people squirm.

When my ex and I were together and having difficult times, he rubbed some dust off a plant leaf and said I should dust more in his "I'm not and I am" joking voice.

No wonder he doesn't have any friends!

You're not helping your son by teaching him to be offended by trivia like this. There are far worse people out there. Yes he was a bit of a prat but it was hardly life or death. I would just have gone "oh how hilarious" and "take no notice" to the child. That would have embarrassed him (hopefully) and not your son.

Where did op say she taught her son to be offended?

Or, actually, that she thought it was a super-massive deal, as some people have been saying?

It's just a "grr, something a bit annoying happened today, I'm pissed off" thread I'm feeling the same way about the fact I walked a mile to go and get a coffee, having forgotten that the coffee shop was being refurbished and wouldn't be open. If I started a thread about it, it wouldn't mean it had wrecked my day and I was thinking of writing to Starbucks head office asking why it takes so long to refurbish a shop, or that I shall spend the rest of the day lamenting about having been so forgetful. As far as I can tell, op was annoyed but didn't complain to the staff member or teach her child to be offended.

But the mother of a child with ASD in this situation would have intervened wouldn't she

Yes, but the damage would already have been done. At that point, it would have been instant meltdown. And while we are working on this (obviously), it doesn't help when some stranger thinks it's funny to tease dcs when we are out and about. It's not necessary. Tease your own bloody children so you can deal with the fallout, but leave strangers alone.

In any case, this (and others similar) are not "jokes", more like "I thought I'd amuse myself by making you confused and laughing at you".

Great.

Yes, I supposed we have to let these people and their "jokes" wash over us, but they are still prats.

13 pages on a guy that made an unfunny joke ...

13 pages on a guy that made an unfunny joke ... confused

It's mad isn't it!

Some totally precious people on here.

I bought a washing machine recently and enquired about having the old one disconnected and taken away and the new one connected. The salesman said that the charge would be £1000 for each service, so £2000 in all

Why on earth would a salesman say such a pointless thing? It's not funny. Not a joke. It's just a bit sad really. It would also not endear me to that shop.

Men aren't as terrified as women are that a child may be worried or upset. That's why many men throw children up in the air or try to scare them for a joke... while women watch horrified the child will be traumatised for life.

Some children can cope with being scared, or made to feel uncomfortable for an adult's pleasure- some can't , and they shouldn't have to. The 'joking/ teasing' of the (male, FWIW) dentist I had as a child was to tickle me and squirt water in my face while I was flat in the chair with his other hand in my mouth. It certainly wasn't funny, nor was it comforting in any way-it put me off going to the dentist for many years.

I find men do this with kids, or with my kids when they were little, a fair deal. Kids found it baffling in the extreme. It's annoying, but then I find women can be 100x worse with nasty little comments when at work. So on the "being weird and annoying" front, I'm going to award women the prize.

Agree completely with powershowerforanhour. I hate this too. It's obnoxious, pointless, annoying and demeaning. My dad has always done this to little kids - us kids when we were little, friends of ours, any other children he came into contact with, and now my own children. I had some sharp words with him at times about the latter, because when they were pre-schoolers they would get literally terrified by some of the things he said or did. He eventually learned that if he wanted to do anything along these lines, he had to make it OBVIOUS it was a game, such as using a very gentle sing-song voice. Things like "I'm going to eat your ice cream" is fine with slightly older kids or those who know what the game is (they squeal with laughter and then it's a gentle game of chase) but to younger kids they get terrified they'll lose their ice cream or confused that an adult they trusted is suddenly a 'danger'.

We recently visited an uncle of mine that my kids hadn't met. Despite being a complete stranger, and us in a strange house, he was like this. Made one of my 4 year olds literally run away and burst into tears terrified that he was going to be 'got' by my uncle, who was joking that he ate little boys, or something daft. These examples are slightly better than the OP because at least they're trying to play with the kids rather than just make them feel stupid, but I still hate it!