To ask if you have ever blanked someone to their face

[AllWeekendattheKitKatClub]

To ask: have you ever blanked anyone to their face when they've said hello to you and if so, why? AIBU to think that's rude in any circumstance?

A woman my DH used to know from a hobby did this to me after we walked past each other. I smiled and said hello to her but she just stared at me.

I've done it by accident, not seeing people I know, even when they've said hello to me. I only knew that I did this at all recently when a colleague I had a good relationship with pointed it out good-humouredly. Goodness knows how many people I've offended before.

@Nicholethejewellery

Yes sometimes, not to people I know but to strangers who say "hello" if I'm walking in the country. I got the idea from This Country, there's a bit which cracked me up when Kerry and Kurtan are walking in the countryside, Kurtan says "good morning" to a stranger who is passing them, and then he gets annoyed when the stranger ignores him. I always have a smirk on my face afterwards lol.

That's just plain rude

Yes I have done it unintentionally as my mind loves to wander off and I don’t pay attention to my surrounding sometimes but usually someone is with me to give me a nudge or grab my attention and I apologise!
I’ve also done it intentionally to people that I strongly dislike.

Oh and when I do recognise someone and say "God I haven't seen you for ages" they will usually say "We're on the same train every day you wagon, and you keep blanking me!"

Yes my sil. I dislike her so I refuse to speak to her. She said some horrible things about me when I tried my best to be nice. They split up and have got back together vand as soon as I heard that I said I will be having nothing to do with her.

There are three people who live near me who I intentionally blank.

Two are a married couple whose house backs on to a council owned field you can only access via a footpath. They think because their back garden gate opens onto the footpath they're entitled to drive across the grass and down said footpath. They did so once when I had DD with me as a toddler who'd not long learnt to walk and DDog on an extendable lead and drove right up behind me - and then on the grass around us. I was furious and they were so obnoxious. I reported them to the council and police. Dickheads.

The other is someone who decided to take issue with MIL and her dog and during some kind of spat wished DD1 (a baby at the time) dead.

@Nicholethejewellery

Yes sometimes, not to people I know but to strangers who say "hello" if I'm walking in the country. I got the idea from This Country, there's a bit which cracked me up when Kerry and Kurtan are walking in the countryside, Kurtan says "good morning" to a stranger who is passing them, and then he gets annoyed when the stranger ignores him. I always have a smirk on my face afterwards lol.

That's outrageously rude.

I have 😳 I'd rather premed I'd ignored some semi random than engage in shite inane chit chat

Yes I do it intentionally, I don't see the point of being pleasant to someone I dislike.
Tbf there is usually something that has happened between us. I like to hold a grudge

I man I used to work with was waiting to go to court for having images of children being abused. He admitted it to mutual colleagues. Apparently he wasn’t that bothered. I completely blanked him if he spoke to me.

Yes to my own family.....extremely easy to do

Yes! I'd had enough of the stupid cow and just completely walked past and did not acknowledge her. We were almost touching we were so close. This woman has made my life a misery, and it felt great.

I've probably done this before. I would hope to be able to blurt out a "Oh! Er... Hi?", but sometimes if I'm taken by surprise I might just stare.

My social phobia makes me terrible at things like answering the phone, and other unprompted social situations. I need to feel prepared and in control to handle these situations well, so other people initiating contact (especially in an unexpected place, and I don't immediately recognise the person) is stressful and can send me into fight/flight/freeze mode (especially if I've been having lots of my mind)
Blanking someone out sounds like a freeze response.

Assuming the person is being rude is rather uncharitable.

Oh, and just so you know: I don't wear my social phobia on my sleeve, it's not something I advertise. People I know well (e.g. who will be in my social comfort zone) tend to think I'm very talkative and sociable. People I know less probably think I'm shy or rude. Truth is I rather like people, but unprompted contact with strangers just freezes my brain.

Most definitely when my ex and I ended up at the same party for a mutual friend, I spent most of the night avoiding eye even though I could see the fucker loitering to try to talk to me.
When we did finally come face to face I just stared at him blankly til he eventually got the hint and fucked off! Twat!

The thought of bumping in to him is also putting right off attending another mutual friend's funeral, I would like to go to pay my respect but I have no interest in speaking to him and others who may be there!

Yes.
An ex boss who made my.life awful. He would say hello to everyone in the room and say how nice they were but ignore me. Of course I felt , atvfirst, invisible then eventually humiliated. Every email he sent to me he sent a copy to his boss. He didnt do that with anyone else. The he escalated subtle bullying tactics. Every day going to work I turned into a whimpering mess. I was off work for months, my hair started to fall out, I was so Ill I put a grievance in and won.
A few months he walked into a restaurant I was in with a my family and did a big gush smile and exclaimed " dad!!!!! How are you! You look amazing" I just turned away and my Dh told him to clear off and dont come near me again.

I forgot to add to my post. I dont care if you think that's rude OP, he deserved much worse.

Almost certainly.
I am hopeless at faces.
I would aways say hello if you spoke to me, but im obviously not very convincing, as several times people have replied with "you have no idea who I am, do you?"

Yes, the twat who rents the office next door to ours. We talk to his employee as he's nice but even he agrees his boss is a twat. I totally blank him and he's barred from coming into our office 😂😂

I do it all the time and it's totally accidental. I've apparently looked people right in the face and ignored them. I actually haven't noticed them at all - I'm just in my own world and thinking about my own stuff and I'm not really focusing on what's happening around me.

A woman my DH used to know from a hobby

She clearly had absolutely no idea who you were. That isn’t “blanking”. Blanking would be if your sister or your best friend pretended not to know you, or your ex’s new girlfriend refused to acknowledge you when you went to collect your children.

This is “have you ever had a stranger say hello to you, and if so, did you have the presence of mind to say hello back, or did you just look surprised and stare at them wondering if you knew them?”

All the time. A woman I know has got a job at my work, I know her from years ago, she is a massive liar, got me into trouble by telling someone in charge utter lies about me and forced me off somewhere. I hate her. It may sound pathetic, can't be too outing, but she caused me a lot of grief and a terrible thing happened to me once I'd been made to move, so yes, I now blank her. She does not deserve a look or a smile.

I did this to a nurse a I walked by when ds broke his elbow. She said a warm "hello how are you?" and I said a quick hi and walked by her following the nurse with us wondering why she was so friendly.

It was a woman I bumped into and walked with/chatted to every week or so while out walking our dogs in the fields behind our estate. I knew she was a nurse working in that hospital but I just couldn't place the face out of the context of dog walking, it suddenly came to me later that evening. I apologised next time I saw her.

Yes I have

Yes I have.

@AllWeekendattheKitKatClub

Yes. I have 100% deliberately blanked someone. A few times in my life actually.

One example. I have just one child, and always have had, and one fucking work colleague (fortunately from another office, but I saw her 2-3 times a week in passing,) kept asking CONTINUALLY when I am going to start 'trying for another.' I was never having another for reasons I won't go into, but they were FUCK-ALL to do with her (or anyone else!) I told her REPEATEDLY that I was having no more, and she just shrugged her shoulders, walked off, and then asked AGAIN the next time she saw me.

So around the 21st time she asked me (over about 3-4 months,) I completely ignored her. 'When's the next one due then?' she wailed (in front of 5-6 other people.) I ignored her. 'GreenEyes, did you hear me? When you gonna start trying for baby number 2?' I didn't acknowledge her and walked off.

One colleague said 'GreenEyes, Julie's talking to you.' I said (and I was livid,) I don't hear anyone talking to me, just a stupid fucking idiot, asking for the UMPTEENTH time when I am having another fucking BABY, when I have said again and again I am having no more.'

The colleague said 'calm down' I said 'no I fucking won't. I am SICK of her saying it now. I am NOT having any more, and I have my reasons which are NOTHING to do with her.' The annoying/ goady/ nosey colleague (Julie) heard it all, and looked disgusted and never spoke to me again. RESULT.

There are other examples - several more. Another one (long story short,) was when someone decided to stop talking to me because I was friends with someone they'd fallen out with (school mum garbage.)

Then when the woman (who I was still friends with) left the area, the first woman who had ignored me for 6 months decided to suddenly start speaking to me again. 'Hi GreenEyes' she said one morning. I just glared at her, ignored her and carried on walking. Cheeky cow.

I haven't ignored/blanked people often, but it's been well justified when I have. And I don't feel a jot of guilt or remorse. Some people deserve it.