What's the funniest misunderstanding you've had?

[CuriousLadyBird]

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

I also used to be a trading standards officer. Went out to a primary school with my manager to do a talk on toy safety.

my manager was really hamming it up. “So if we see dangerous toys like this we stop people selling them, because look, they could hurt your fingers. And we all love our fingers, don’t we? We wouldn’t want to be without our fingers.”

Class teacher told him at the end about the child in the class with no fingers.

I bloody loved Multiplas!!

My 14 year old started a theatre school about an hour away and got the train every morning. She is deaf in one ear, and has reduced hearing in the other, but she copes very well.

She used to ring me when she got to the station as she preferred leaving early ‘just in case’. One morning she rang me panicking. Her train was delayed because of a lime sized fire at Vauxhall. I tried googling, but nothing was coming up. I’ve never much used a train, so I had no idea. We talked for ages about how weird it was that the compared fire sizes to fruit, and were laughing at the idea of banana sized, or watermelon, and how no one needed to worry about grape sized fires, when suddenly the announcement was played again and I heard it for myself.

Her train was delayed due to a line side fire!! Ohhhhh now it makes more sense

It still makes us laugh now, years later

My mum was at our house and a Phil Collins video came on from the 1980’s - he was singing ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’.

He is filmed as himself, and also as two backing singers with microphones, and each is dressed in a different outfit and style.

Mum looked confused and then said ‘you know, I never realised he was a triplet’.

To "watch" something means not to go near it or move it out the way.

Like if someone had their arm in the way you'd say "watch your arm" and they'd move it

This is so outing to anyone who knows me!

When I was very pregnant withy first child, I was changing a lightbulb and managed to give myself an electric shock. Baby was v quiet after (no movement even after cold drink) and, to be on the safe side, triage asked me to come in and double check all was okay.

Anyway, was hooked up to a monitor and all was well. Baby fine. Phew.

The nurse asked about the shock though, and was I okay? If it was a large shock I might have an exit wound they should see. Did I have any marks on my hands or feet?

I check my hands. Nothing. I try to check my feet but I'm so pregnant I can't see the soles properly. The nurse looks, and gasps. "There's a massive exit wound!" And she disappears to get a doctor. My mum, who drove me up, confirms that there is a fairly large circular dark mark on the sole of my foot.

The doctor arrives and examines me. The foot is lifted. The exit wound FALLS OFF. it was a Giant Cadbury's Chocolate Button.

Mortified.

When I was about 16 I had my first job working at a chemists in a very tourist heavy area so lots of varying accents etc. One day a man walked in briskly, came up to me and (rather abruptly on his part I might add!) said “Dramamine?” Only I thought he said “D’ya remember me..?” and, baffled, replied “No…?” He repeated “Dramamine?!” and it still didn’t click, I just stared and said “no….should I? Were you in here earlier?” Finally he informed me that he was looking for motion sickness tablets. I could’ve died.

But 'watch the iron'??

The iron will have been recently on, and still hot. The mum was warning her child to be safe around the iron whilst it cooled. Instead... She stared intently 🤣

Thanks

As a kid - camping and needed to light the bbq. Told to go get lighters from the car boot. I looked for ages... none.

Relative hands me a pack of highlighters (flourescent markers) and looks at me like duh 🙄 here...

Yep, they bought highlighters thinking they were lighters.

Only one I can think of right now (& I know there’s been many) is when I was about 12 I’d been watching tv while I was doing homework & sharpe came on, I was watching the credits roll up & one of the names caught my attention so I went up to my dad & told him I’d just seen a film with a man in it called SEEN bean! He replied (after he’d stopped laughing) ‘you don’t think his name could be SEAN bean by any chance’ .

😂😂😂😂😂😂

When I was little my aunt used to collect silver milk bottle tops "for the blind". I used to wonder what blind people would do with them.

My now DH and I went to Mexico a year into our relationship and My dad watched our dog whilst we were away. To say thank-you we took him and his dp out for dinner. During dinner My dad's dp commented saying that she had heard tequila was an aphrodisiac (strange comment to make I know) to which my dh turned round and said well it certainly was in Mexico! My dad's face was not impressed and in the car journey home I said to dh what he said was really inappropriate. He didn't understand what the word aphrodisiac meant and thought it just meant something you had a lot of which we obviously did. He was suitably embarrassed when I explained to him what he had just said in front of my dad 😂😂

I worked in ladies clothing boutique as a sales assistant. My colleague asked a customer if she could help, and she said "I'm a medium" - my colleague out of earshot to me "it's so cool, she's a medium!". Thinking sue could get rid of the store ghosts...

I’m loving these!

years ago in my more glamorous days some friends and I walked into a poncey pub place. There was a group of men who were clearly a semi famous rugby team.
one of the guys bought me a drink and was chatting and said “I’m Sam Owen”
I thought this was a bit arrogant famous behaviour but smiled sweetly and said “I’m sorry Sam Owen but I don’t follow the rugby and have no idea who you are”

turns out he was Samoan 🙄🤦‍♀️

when i was small i remember my mum's slightly religious friend coming for a visit, when she came in and got sat down she asked mum where my dad was, my mum replied that a horse came in, shocked and wide eyed she asked how did it get in? how long did it stay? and where is it now? my mum explained that dad had bet on a horse and it had won and he was out celebrating.

I’m from Essex and used to work with colleagues from Northumberland. One was going to be on leave the following week and I asked where he was going. I thought he said Norway so replied that was unusual, how exciting etc. a few minutes later he explained he had said he was going nowhere in his geordie accent

some of these are hilarious! I wish I had one like that!

my uncle’s (now ex) wife works as a school social worker.

one day the headmaster came to her in obvious distress, talking about how a student had tried to hang himself. she clearly needed to check up on him etc.

so she went, sat the young man down and looked at his neck.

his neck was covered in hickeys.
he confirmed that he had a new girlfriend…

can't breathe...

😂😂😂😂

i remember a colleague saying she had been to MFI at the weekend, and her friend said, oh whose Emma Fye?
bit like a friend of mine wanted to know who Jim Carner was

i went to a catholic wedding and said Pleased to meet you at all the people shaking my hand

Oh one of my colleagues did something similar, when I worked in trading standards.

She put a call through. “It’s the police for you.”

It was the manager of our local PC World.