To ask what's the rudest thing a stranger has done to you?

[YoungScrappyHungry]

Inspired by the lovely thread about kindest thing strangers have done for you, and also a chance for me to share this horror.

When I was 19, I worked on the tills at a supermarket in my holidays from university.

A woman I was serving was staring at me, trying to get my attention as I scanned her stuff. I looked up at her and smiled. She said, in still the most condescending tone I've ever heard:

'Don't you wish you'd studied now?'

I was so floored and ashamed, I didn't say a thing back and just carried on scanning her things. Fact was I was actually at university, but even if I hadn't been....aghh!....still gets me.

What are yours?

Dh and I have 4 children. I took them all shopping and they're well behaved, never shout or cause a scene in public. A middle-aged woman came up to me and loudly berated me for having all these 'unruly' kids that I can't mother, living on benefits paid by her and wasting her money on my tattoos and designer handbag. I explained that I'm married, live on my own farm, my husband does my tattoos as he's a retired tattoo artist and the handbag was a gift from my parents when I finished my cancer treatment. I interrupted her babbling apology to ask her to kindly shift, as she was blocking the honey. She walked straight out!

Some girls sang "who let the dogs out" at me on a night out.

They did have a point, to be fair.

While shopping on a Friday afternoon with my husband and baby (I worked full time on condensed hours and my husband was on paternity leave from being an accountant) and a woman made a remark to the woman she was with (I presumed her daughter) about the world being overpopulated with all these babies. We were in a lift with her at the time so it was definitely aimed at us.

Obviously I can't be sure but I think she only made the comment because she assumed neither of us worked as it was a weekday and we were out.

Years ago, I was working as a waitress in a very nice hotel. A large group of people had ordered drinks and coffees etc, so I took them over on a tray and bent down to put the tray on a fairly low coffee table. One of the men used both hands to grab my breasts quite hard as I was leant over. (I didn't have a low top on or anything, not that that was anything to do with it.) He said in a loud voice "I've always wanted to do that" What made it worse was that the mixed group of men and women he was with all laughed and found it hilarious.

I was just walked off and refused to serve them the rest of their order. I still wish I had made more of a fuss.

In a queue for teen disco, trapped by bodies all round, stuck his hand between my legs and then forced his fingers through my knickers into me. First experience of the male sex. I was so shocked I said nothing. I wish I had smashed his face in.

A woman once walked across LEGOLAND to tell me I had the whitest legs she had ever seen.
All the time smiling like she was sharing a joke.
No idea how I was supposed to react.

frolic mum

I'm sorry you had that terrible experience. There are far more people in this country who would be impressed by a child who is bilingual. Please do not let one Little Englander racist idiot put you off.

Age 17 I was standing outside school waiting to be picked up. I had had one of the worst school days of my life. A man in his 60s passed me by, looked me up and down, and said 'smile darlin'! You look miserable. Nobody will like you or think you are pretty if you dont smile'.

I told him to F off. Pretty proud of my 17 year old self considering I had zero idea what feminism or sexism was.

I was standing minding my own business and eating a posh cheese and onion pasty at clapham junction after a long day at uni...a man came and grabbed some of it and ate it before getting on his train

I threw the rest in the bin and burst into tears (and was hungry for the next hour plus it took to get home).

Definitely from living abroad in the Middle East.. they think nothing of telling you you look fat, too pale, dark, too wrinkly all with a smile.. and they aren't being passive aggressive, just blunt

Not me but my DH. As a student he was cycling in town and stopped at some lights next to a double decker bus. As the lights changed, some lads on the bus threw a McDonalds milkshake at him. He had to cycle across town with milkshake in his hair, dripping down his face and on his clothes. Unlike most of these, which are genuinely nasty, we laugh about this now.

I was 22 and had gone to the doctors to have a coil fitted after the birth of my first baby. Baby was just 6 weeks old.

GP fitting the coil said 'It's like a cavern in here'. That was over 40 years ago and I have never forgotten - or forgiven him.

Security bloke at the airport told me I should cut my arm off. Its not very pretty, and it doesn't work, but being randomly told that at 6am wasn't very nice.

Helpful strangers have also told me that my scars make them feel sick

CookPassBabtridge Much like my Italian aunties

School was going to be closed (training) so I decided to book a bus trip to the coast leaving on a Friday morning.
We got on the coach, sat down and settled when I heard a horrible woman behind me loudly say "They should be at school".
I'm ashamed to say I didn't retaliate. Just silently seethed the whole trip.

These all go to show theres a lot of nasty people around, and their nastiness is all to do with them, and nothing to do with their victims.

A few of mine -

Chatting to friend of a friend at a party. He asked my age, I told him, he scoffed 'bloody hell, you must have had a hard life'.

When my son was young we lived on a grotty council estate, officially a deprived area. Social club in the same town made a donation to our playgroup for a christmas party for the children. It was my first year on the playgroup committee. Everyone very obviously dodged going to collect the cheque, fine, I'll go. The whole time I was in there 3 men stood looking at me singing who let the dogs out. I guess the donation came at a price each year.

These are awful ☹️

The rudest thing a stranger has done is to expose himself to me and a friend as we were parking our car to have a pizza after work. Broad daylight, summer evening. We were in our early 20s.

Some of these are shocking. I now use a walking frame but back when I lived in Fulham before I retired, I used a cane. It was a foldable one so easy to put in my bag on transport.

I was walking down the road and three schoolchildren aged mid teens passed me and as they did so one of them kicked my cane on purpose which collapsed and I ended up in the hedge. I was so furious I said I was going to call the police and they ran off laughing. I knew which school they were from as I recognised the school badges and one of them was very distinctive looking. I wrote to the headmaster with details and subsequently received a letter of apology signed by them.

I was browsing some clothes and was looking at a top. A random woman came up to me and said “you’ll never fit into that, you’re far too fat”.

I don't know, being stabbed was rather rude

Not the worst but at uni in Liverpool and walking through the city centre where one of the manic street preachers was condemning everyone to hell (as usual). He clocked me, looked me up and down and started ranting about homosexuality and how all queers needed to be shot dead.

Whilst shocked I gave him a mouthful back but it was no use against the megaphone.

Got shouted at by an Ice cream man crossing the road at a Zebra crossing with my son in his pram (22 years ago now) hollered "you might say thank you - stupid fat c u next Tuesday!!!" I always smile, nod my head and gesture now.

@hansgrueber I had the same thing happen to me I was at the train station and these two women were next to me speaking in their language which I understood and speak fluently. They were looking me up and down like I was dirt and slagging me off saying how bad my hairstyle was, how fat I was and how ugly my shoes were. I let them go on and as we got on the train I said to them in their language "Excuse me I understand what you're saying, have a lovely day" and smiled sweetly at them they looked quite shocked and very embarrassed, I stood next to them the whole journey staring and smirking whilst they couldn't even look me in face

The worst thing that happened to me and I didn't react to was when I was about 13 and in the dinner line at school, a lad from my year came up to me grabbed my boobs and grinned, I was very shy back then and was so embarrassed I walked out and went and hid in the toilets for the rest of my break. Later that day my form tutor and the lad's form tutor pulled me aside and asked what happened and if I was ok, I was surprised because I hadn't said anything to anyone but clearly someone else had, the lad's form tutor made him apologise to me in front of my whole class and made it very clear that his behaviour was unacceptable and it embarrassed him right back. A couple of days later one of the popular lads in my year came and spoke to me and asked me if I got an apology from "that perverted little dickhead" I said yeah and to be my shock he told me that it was him who told the teacher because what that lad did was disgusting and if anyone did that to his sister he would have knocked them clean out! I've never forgotten that and it totally restored my faith in people as I was going through a really hard time with bullies when it happened. Thankfully I'm much more confident now and and don't hesitate to stand up for myself!

All the people saying how customers were rude saying you will end up like this if you dont study. They then gleefully point out they were studying. You really are agreeing with the rude people. You are quick to point out you are more than just bar staff or shop workers, so you are just as rude. Its no come back or challenge to the ingrained snobbish in the remark.

"And I'm not even one of them"

I cant really think of any, I tend to either not notice (autism) or give as good as I got.

Some of these are killing me that you guys didn't respond, god I wish I'd been there and been able to give them a mouthful. I definitely get that from my mum and DH is just the same.
"They should be in school" "well they'd be the only fuckers there since it's closed" how does it not just fall out of your mouth?

A few years ago I had a driving lesson with a new instructor, at the start of the lesson she asked to check my license. So I handed it over and she glanced at it, looked back up at me and said “it’s amazing what makeup can do!”
I laughed it off and carried on using her for several more lessons during which she’d get me to pick up her son from football. Don’t ask me why