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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What's the funniest misunderstanding you've had?

573 replies

CuriousLadyBird · 05/07/2023 23:42

Do you have a funny story about a misunderstanding where it be you've misunderstood something or another person has misunderstood you?

I'm just starting this thread because I thought about something that happened last week and giggled to myself.

I'm currently under the community mental health team as my mental health is not where I want it to be but next year I've been accepted on to a mental health nursing course and can start If my mental health is stable enough (just a bit of background).

So I had a home visit off someone from the CMHT and we were chatting and discussing my future etc and they asked what my goal was and I said "I think my long term goal is to be sitting where you are" and I meant like becoming qualified as a mental health nurse and helping people but this person must not have understood what I meant and said "Well you live here so you can sit here anytime you want".

I was a bit like what? But didn't say anything and carried on with the conversation so I don't know, I think maybe this person thinks my long term goal is to sit on the other side of the sofa (and I appreciate people with other mental health conditions may have issues sitting in certain places so maybe that's where we've got mixed up) but thinking back to it has really made me giggle.

Next time they come I might sit on that side of the sofa and they'll think I've reached my long term goal Grin

OP posts:
NotAboutToGoBackAndForth · 06/07/2023 23:27

on another occasion we mentioned to DS's girlfriend who was with us on a Ireland that we were going to 'Packies Bar' Packie being a common abbreviation for Patrick. She went very quiet and later said to my son that she hadn't realised we were racist and didn't we know how offensive the P word was!c

Oh ffs😂😂😂 this one has killed me😂

lovemycbf · 06/07/2023 23:27

Working on a till in retail years ago and an elderly man I served farted and it stunk, a couple of minutes later a younger man came up to the till, I sprayed air freshener and said oh I'm sorry about the smell to which he replied it's ok love we all fart sometimes 😳😳😳😳 I honestly nearly died of embarrassment as he thought it was me
I tried to explain it really wasn't me 😂😂

GrandTheftWalrus · 06/07/2023 23:29

Scottish mumsnetters will understand this.

My mum had to pop out when i was younger and told me to "watch the iron" so there is young me sitting on her bed watching the iron.

VintageBlossomHill · 06/07/2023 23:33

Cordeliathecat · 06/07/2023 12:47

On our honeymoon in a very fancy rooftop hotel bar, the waiter brought our cocktails over and DH asked if they had any nibbles. Cue waiter “nibbles, sir?”, DH “yes, nibbles, I just want to see if you have any nibbles”.

Waiter, looking confused and slightly distressed, puts down his tray and starts unbuttoning his shirt “yes sir, I have nipples…”

I couldn’t breathe for laughing

OMG I’m going to pee myself 😂😂😂😂

Mayorquimby2 · 06/07/2023 23:37

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CoffeeandCakeNow · 06/07/2023 23:41

I used to work in a pub, and a guy walked up and asked for a glass of broken ice. I thought he was trying to wind me up or belittle me, so I smashed a load of ice up and plonked it in front of him in a glass with a bit of an attitude (really not my character usually!). He looked at me, gone out, and said, "I asked for a glass of coke and ice?!".

VintageBlossomHill · 06/07/2023 23:41

YouOKHun · 06/07/2023 22:28

My late MiL was a pillar of the community, raconteuse, larger than life personality with a sense of humour but often getting herself into scrapes on account of being slightly deaf or choosing not to listen. My FIL was the village GP of many years and had hatched and dispatched many villagers over the decades.

My MiL was in the very busy village shop one day (years ago, 1960s) and saw one of her husband’s patients who she knew well and knew he’d had a complicated operation on his hand. She sidled up to him and said “how are you Mr Jenkins? Recovering well? It’s an awkward site for stitches”. He nodded and kept both his hands firmly in his pockets. There were quite a few locals gathered around at this point and as he seemed a bit bashful she teased him and said, “oh go on Mr Jenkins, show me your scar!”. He kept his hands firmly in his pockets and seemed unwilling, a bit sheepish, shifting about, “come on, just a quick peek!”. “No” he said, ducking away from her.

When she got home from the shop she said to my FIL, “I saw that nice Mr Jenkins in the shop. He was in a funny mood. I asked to see how his wound was healing and he wasn’t at all willing to show me”. My FIL sighed and said, “I’m not surprised, Mr Jenkins had a vasectomy”.

Don’t… I returned to the gym last night after a very long absence and my abdominal muscles were already sore. 😂😂😂😂

Helpful800 · 06/07/2023 23:44

An elderly lady was admitted to the home I worked in and proceeded to tell everyone she met “I only came here to die.” I assured her she was fine and there was lots to do that she’d enjoy etc etc. The next day when I came in I heard her telling everyone “I only came here yesterday-die.”

highlandcoo · 06/07/2023 23:45

This happened to my friend: her grandchildren had a goldfish and for some reason decided to call it Graham. Her daughters husband had an elderly uncle also called Graham...
My friend was on the phone to her daughter who said towards the end of the conversation "Oh sad news by the way, Graham died". My friend replied "Oh no! What happened?"
"Well, they just found him floating" her daughter said and my friend did say she felt surprised she daughter could have talked about it so casually. Picturing poor old Uncle Graham dead in the bath, my friend went out and bought a sympathy card. Fortunately before she posted it she had another chat with her daughter and when her daughter could stop laughing for long enough to speak they established it was fish Graham who'd passed away.

Helpful800 · 06/07/2023 23:46

Helpful800 · 06/07/2023 23:44

An elderly lady was admitted to the home I worked in and proceeded to tell everyone she met “I only came here to die.” I assured her she was fine and there was lots to do that she’d enjoy etc etc. The next day when I came in I heard her telling everyone “I only came here yesterday-die.”

Autocorrect ruined that, I tried to type “yester-die”

everybodytidy · 06/07/2023 23:52

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Hahah, did you have a thread about this the other day?

Shambol1c · 06/07/2023 23:52

I have loved these and shed many tears of laughter! Throwing mine in the ring.

  1. New job, nervously delivering a workshop to a large group of Year 10 students while my manager shadowed. I asked what skills they would need at university. Student replies ‘gazillions’. I laugh, and say well, yes! But can you think of one specific skill? My manager steps in to explain to me that the confused student actually said ‘resilience’.
  2. Toddler sister in the bath, I am supervising as much older sister. Told her to wash her armpits, to which she unfolds each arm out in front of her and rubs the crook of her elbows. So sweet! And makes sense really!
  3. Getting ready to leave our uni halls to go to a ‘neon’ themed night out in freshers week. Tesco delivery driver turns up at the block as we’re on our way out, he’s fully kitted out in hi vis workwear. My friend isn’t wearing her glasses and exclaims in admiration ‘you’ve REALLY pulled out all the stops!’ i was so embarrassed and the delivery worker looked highly unamused.
XenoBitch · 06/07/2023 23:53

I bought a bicycle from Halfords, and wanted a comfy ladies saddle for it.
Shop assistant said we had to go to "size me up". I assumed he meant he was going to measure my arse! I got all flustered and said no. It was just a case of looking at the saddles that were available.

everybodytidy · 06/07/2023 23:55

Shopping in a clothes shop, huge poster hanging from the ceiling, I walk into it and it falls on top of my head. I can't get out from under it, start getting frantic. Finally appear from under it to the whole shop staring at me. I wanted the die on the spot😩

ImSoShiney · 07/07/2023 00:03

Cordeliathecat · 06/07/2023 12:47

On our honeymoon in a very fancy rooftop hotel bar, the waiter brought our cocktails over and DH asked if they had any nibbles. Cue waiter “nibbles, sir?”, DH “yes, nibbles, I just want to see if you have any nibbles”.

Waiter, looking confused and slightly distressed, puts down his tray and starts unbuttoning his shirt “yes sir, I have nipples…”

I couldn’t breathe for laughing

You win 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

NooNaNa · 07/07/2023 00:05

MissHoney85 · 06/07/2023 13:34

I once had to leave work early and was trying to manoeuvre my car out of its parking space in our very cramped carpark (I usually left late so didn't have to deal with it). A colleague came by, saw me and very helpfully started directing me with hand signals. We spent ages with me going backwards and forwards before eventually realising that she thought I was trying to get into the space not out of it!

Pah! Love this!

StillMedusa · 07/07/2023 00:16

When my brother was 9 he went on a school trip to a cathedral.
Came home and asked Mum 'what's a virgin?'
Assuming the Virgin Mary had been the topic , Mum went into a long explanation about how a virgin was someone who hadn't had sex yet...
Brother looked puzzled and then said, oh... it was a virgin who showed us the church.
VERGER... it was the Verger....

DreamTheMoors · 07/07/2023 00:22

When I was 12 and in middle school, it was a very cold day.
Class was out and as we were leaving, I said to my friend, “my lips are chapped.”
Some boys were nearby and yelled, ”YOUR TITS ARE CHAPPED???”
I spent the next several days with the boys yelling at me, ”HEY CHAPPED TITS!!!”
For a little girl, it was mortifying.
As a grownup, it’s pretty funny.

ThatFraggle · 07/07/2023 00:22

GrandTheftWalrus · 06/07/2023 23:29

Scottish mumsnetters will understand this.

My mum had to pop out when i was younger and told me to "watch the iron" so there is young me sitting on her bed watching the iron.

Can you explain for non-scots, please?

Bahhhhhumbug · 07/07/2023 00:26

This wasnt funny but neighbour managed chuckle about it some time later.
I once bumped into a next door neighbour with her adult DD l'd not seen her for a few days and l asked her if she was ok as you do. She said no she'd just lost her husband, to which l rolled my eyes and asked where was she supposed to meet him. Seeing the bafflement on her face l ploughed on regardless adding that mines the same they never listen, l tell him meet me in one shop and he ends up in another.
Yes youve guessed it he'd died -not gone missing in M&S .
As the awful realisation hit me l then heard myself blurt out in disbelief 'You're joking' l have never wanted the ground swallow me up as much as l did that moment.
I managed to avoid ndn for a couple of months standing right at the back at the funeral.
One day she collared me and said she knew l'd been avoiding her and she knew why and said l had no reason to and in fact her and DD had been talking one night and both had a right good laugh about poor old Bahhhs face that day and it was actually first time they'd both laughed since their dad/dh had died for which she gave me a big hug.

WowzerPopcorn · 07/07/2023 00:30

Icebreaker for a big row with my then boyfriend. I said well, it was just in case. He replied " yeah? Well who's this bloody Justin Case then?" Took me a while to explain as I couldn't stop laughing for ages.

Howdidtheydothat · 07/07/2023 00:31

I
was chaperoning a visitor at work. Her name was Regina. Yep. I introduced her as vagina.

Lovesabadboy · 07/07/2023 00:31

Theredfoxfliesatmidnight · 06/07/2023 13:57

I used to work as admin for an upmarket chauffeur/ taxi company. We had a lovely, but very loud, brusque and in-your-face American client who used us often. He prided himself on calling a spade a spade, and didn't care if his loud and honest approach offended people. In fact it made him laugh. "They call me Arsey!!" he would say of British people. "They love me because I'm arsey! Arsey by name, arsey by nature. People know what they're getting with me, I am what I am."

So, he books a pickup from Heathrow Airport, and I have to write the whiteboard, to give to our smartly dressed chauffeur to hold up in arrivals. I write "ARSEY" on it in big letters. As you have probably already guessed our lovely veryAmerican client was actually called R.C! Fortunately he saw the funny side

Crying with laughter as I read that out to my DH!!
I hadn't twigged, at all, that he would be RC!!

TheFireflies · 07/07/2023 00:32

Oh I’ve just remembered another one. I used to keep and show hamsters and sometimes I’d attend country show type events where we would talk to the public about hamster care etc.

one day I was talking to a fellow hamster keeper about Chinese hamsters. He said, loudly, “well the Chinese can be difficult because they’re small but can be quite aggressive to each other, and the males have those big balls.”

Looked up to find an Asian couple standing at the table looking rather shocked.

Anywaythewindblows1 · 07/07/2023 00:34

To my very elderly Indian neighbour who's front garden wad always immaculate, think privet hedge you could rest a wineglass on....
" Hello Mr Singh, isn't it about time you got your winter pansies in?" To which he replied:
" Not yet , it isn't cold enough yet".
He thought I'd said 'winter panties '.