Not really light hearted I’m afraid.
On my mental illness and physical disability:
As pp everyone’s a fucking expert!
“Have you tried...
Just not thinking about it” yes as if it’s that simple!
They name numerous antidepressants that “worked wonders for my cousins stepsons dog” etc
“...therapy” no! It’s been over 10 years and that NEVER occurred to either me or the MANY hcps I’ve seen 🙄
“...Physio” as above
“...just powering through” yea cos I’d really love to risk losing the limited mobility I DO have still.
I also get a lot of
“You can come and clean my place” er no actually I struggle enough dealing with my own dirt let alone some strangers!
“Bet your place is spotless” I wish! If it were it would actually be an indication I was very unwell indeed!
I’m vegetarian, exs friends were mostly army “laddish” types. Very boring and pretty offensive being repeatedly asked, usually in a restaurant! Whether that meant I didn’t perform oral sex!
Also on the vegetarianism -
“Are you allowed that?” I’m allowed whatever I like. I CHOOSE not to eat meat or meat by-products. And as I’ve been one over 30 years I’m pretty good on what’s veggie and what isn’t by now! (Except when companies change ingredients without notifying customers which is annoying!)
My family of origin are all olive skinned and dark haired. I’m red head and very fair skinned. Very hurtful when growing up to frequently have people make “jokes” about whether I was adopted or the milkman’s! Both grans same colouring so we think it’s from there I get my colouring. In other ways I very much DO look like my parents and siblings.
I also have a birthmark on my face. Doesn’t cause me any issues but can’t be removed due to location. I absolutely don’t mind young children asking questions and being curious but older children and adults have been incredibly rude about it. Plus mum had to deal with accusations
“What happened to her”
“Did that hurt”
“You’d look so pretty except for that”
I’m a Scot but lived all over as dad was in army so my accent is a bit “odd” I’m now living in Scotland again though and am frequently asked where I’m from. When I say glasgow...
“But you don’t have a Scottish accent!”
I actually do a bit it’s just mixed in with other accents too.
On only having one child
“Isn’t she lonely?” No she prefers her own company
“Bit selfish only having one” wasn’t the plan! I’d 2 mc before her, a traumatic birth/emcs and we both nearly died. I’d have loved more but the thing that nearly killed me can and usually does hit again with subsequent pregnancies early on in pregnancy and could kill me leaving dd motherless. Not an option I was willing to risk.
“You could have adopted/used sperm donor” well being a single mum which I became when dd was still pretty young is hard enough anyway without adding the challenges of adopting. I didn’t think it would be fair on the potential adoptee either. And sperm donor wouldn’t have worked as I didn’t want to risk the aforementioned issue.
Also been asked loads where I get my hair dyed when it’s the natural colour because it’s not all one colour. Admittedly it’s now got grey/white streaks but it’s a weird mish mash of red/auburn/blonde/grey now but when it IS dyed (I generally used to dye it a very boring chestnut as that worked best) people thought it was my natural colour! I’ve even had hairdressers disbelieve that the “multicolured” version is natural.