AIBU to be highly amused and slightly confused by this comment?

[Omelette233]

I go to visit an elderly couple, not family, I’m just helping them out with something. They are lovely, late eighties and I’ve known them around two months now seeing them at least once a week.

I was explaining about a health condition my children and I have. It’s rare but rarely fatal, causes mainly skin infections and abscesses and has landed all three of us in hospital at various times. I was talking about my six year old DD and the wife of the couple replied “Well she won’t be able to marry then.”

I was so amused and astonished that I didn’t know how to reply. All that was running through my head was:
Why couldn’t she marry?
Did people with mild (ish) health condition never marry in the past?
Why would she want to get married?
She’s six, why should this have crossed my mind?

All the while desperately trying not to laugh. Have you had any gems from the older generation that you just didn’t know how to react to?

It’s quite Victorian.

V old fashioned. I'm guessing if you both have it, it might be sth genetic. My great aunt had a heart condition that meant pregnancy would've been dangerous for her so she never married because it wouldn't have been fair on her husband to not be able to have children. All very sad reallly, but I'm guessing this is what she meant by her comment

IRS not genetic but I suppose she may get have thought this. It made me chuckle that her first thought was regarding marriage. I’ve never been married myself and don’t ever intend to be!

You should have replied

'Yes I know, such a shame, she's also ineligible for chimney sweep jobs too which is a right pain as we were hoping for the cash'

It harks back to a time where there were few opportunities for ‘middle class’ women to live independently. One would either marry, or be a maiden aunt caring for others. Marriage could be an important opportunity for a woman.

After the world wars there was a gender imbalance with more eligible women than men around so it was a ‘buyer’s market’ and if there was ‘something wrong with you’ you wouldn’t get picked.

This is the generation they and their parents came from and it would be quite a tragedy not to marry and by extension, not have children. It was like them commenting ‘oh she’s only got one leg!’ They we’re acknowledging something they saw as a handicap in life.

Love it! Sorry it has amused me too and I'm glad you see the funny side. I would have been tempted to carry on at their level - I know, it's so sad isn't it? Poor DD what a lonely life ahead, and me, I'll never be a grandmother, I don't know why we carry on really... !

My Nan to Dad's very overweight sister on hugging goodbye - Ooh, it's like hugging a big springy mattress.

I didn't know where to look, what to say, but she seemed to take it well .

My granny to my first boyfriend " you just remember to keep your cock in its own henhouse" 😦

Also granny when I was talking about not fancying someone enough " you don't look at the mantelpiece when your stoking the fire"

Hmm, i dont know, my parents are in their eighties and would never say shit like that!
Maybe they’ve just moved with the times though?

Sorry but I just burst out laughing at that one.

Hilarious, and reminds me of my own dear granny.

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're stoking the fire!"
What a cracker!!!!
My gran once asked me to get her batteries. "You know, the durex ones"! Teehee! (I got her duracell just to be safe...!)

Could she think it's why uou never married? Or it's genetic if you all have it?

Potentially something missing in the communication that's thrown her.

Nan re cleaning the kitchen:
If you can see it, wipe it.

Nan, what cloth is that?
It's the one from the bathroom, I've given the toilet a wipe.

She also sent me a birthday card that said " to my dead granddaughter" instead of Dear

My gran once gave me a right old time because I didn’t have a boyfriend, was getting on a bit and tut, sigh, should really be married by now.

I was 23.