Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Sparklfairy · 07/07/2023 07:54

BadNomad · 06/07/2023 12:27

Oh that's me! I'm very literal. I would have thought you meant sit on the other side too!

My very first job was as a care worker in the community. I was still a teenager and very shy. When one of my colleagues went on holiday I was asked to cover one of her clients for the week. This woman misheard me when I told her my name and thought I'd said it was Patricia. I was too embarrassed to correct her so just I went with it because I was only going to be there for a week...

Except my colleague left a month later and they gave me this client permanently. She continued to call me Patricia. Her family called me Patricia. Her neighbours called me Patricia. I got Christmas and birthday cards from her with "To Patricia..." This went on for a terribly long time. I still feel mortified thinking about it.

I had this when I was a cleaner. One client was a lovely man in his 70s who completely misheard my very ordinary name for one that sounds similar, but unusual for someone my age and traditionally common in the older generation. Think Laura/Nora kind of thing.

I didn't even realise until he gave me a birthday card with 'Nora' on the front. It was WAY too late to correct him, and I didn't mind anyway so went with it. For weeks.

We sometimes worked in pairs, and my colleague was chatting to him and they were talking about me (while I was working upstairs). She didn't know he'd got my name wrong. She said my name a few times during the conversation and suddenly he clicked and questioned her about my 'real' name and she told him, a bit confused.

Luckily he thought it was hilarious. And spent weeks calling me all different names and teasing me. Melissa/Fiona/Sarah etc Grin

Sendmymillioninaninvoice · 07/07/2023 07:57

Trying to disguise which friend I was talking about (just an anecdote not anything nasty), I changed a few details resulting in someone else getting offended. Oops.

Isthatyoudoris · 07/07/2023 08:08

KimberleyClark · 06/07/2023 11:46

A former colleague of mine had copied down a curry recipe. When making it she’d written down 3/4 of pint of water but mistead it and added 3-4 pints of water. Couldn’t understand why it was so bland.

I did a similar thing with a curry recipe but in my case, I read the recipe wrong. I should of added 1 or 2 spoons of curry paste but I added 12. It was in the early days of dating my DH and I wanted to impress him.
He didn't complain and eat the meal but the next day he really suffered and was in the loo's at work most of the day.
25 years on, my cooking still isn't any better.

TheLadyofShalott1 · 07/07/2023 08:22

Oreosareawful · 06/07/2023 13:34

When my son was a toddler he called out from the living room that he had found cat piss. Filled with shock and embarrassment that my youngster would even know that word let alone say it- and worrying that one of the cats had a UTI or something I rushed into the living room to find him looking into the fish tank. "There it is mummy, behind the rock"
Cat Fish
Cat Fish sweetie....

Thank you so much @Oreosareawful, I think that you might have just solved a puzzle for me that I have wanted the answer to for about 58 years! Even though with the Internet we can look up almost anything these days, even Google couldn't have answered this question for me.

I must have been about 6 or 7 years old, and I was shopping with my dear Mum for some clothes for me. She used to like getting me pretty dresses from a shop called "Ladybird/s", the shop was in St Albans, which was quite near the town we lived in - it was quite a posh shop so I don't know if it was the same brand as the ladybird brand that Woolworths went on to stock some years later (if it was then the quality of clothes went down quite a lot in the interim) well according to my lovely Mum anyway!

It was almost a full day's outing for Mum and me as she didn't drive so we used to go on a bus to get there (where possible we would sit upstairs, and right at the front, as I used to love pretending I was driving the bus), and because we were out all day we would have lunch in our favourite restaurant - it was a proper restaurant with white tablecloths and a waitress service, the waitresses wore black dresses with white aprons (isn't it weird the strange things we suddenly remember). Even though it was a "proper restaurant" they seemed happy to serve me with my favourite lunch - Heinz tinned spaghetti on toast (they did take the spaghetti out of the tin and heat it up for me first!), and a glass of lemonade (the only time I was normally allowed to drink lemonade was on my birthday and at Christmas, so it really was a lovely treat for me.

At last I am getting to the point I have been trying to reach, in order to explain to you about how your son's word mix-up has satisfied me that I have the right answer at last to my frustrating, over half a century's year old, question.

I burped after drinking my lemonade, so I said sorry for the burp and I told my mum that I had fizz up my nose from the burp. My Mum gave me a very rare telling off, and said that I must never use that word again. I was very baffled by that, and I wished I had questioned her at the time, but I somehow thought that my Mum might think I was being rude by questioning her reason for the ban on the word fizz. Over the years I have sometimes gone back to wondering what was wrong with me saying the word fizz, I even asked my Mum about it once many years later, but she couldn't remember the incident at all.

If you are somehow still reading this @Oreosareawful - or anyone else for that matter 🤭 - I think you have probably guessed by now what I think my Mum thought I had said, ie that I had "piss up my nose from my burp"! I guess she must have thought I had picked up the word from school, as it wasn't one ever used at home. I find it quite amusing now that I wouldn't have had any idea about what the word piss meant in those days 😂

Anoushkaka · 07/07/2023 08:26

Literally tears rolling down my face 😂

MalloryMae · 07/07/2023 08:47

FuckingHateRats · 07/07/2023 01:32

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.

😂😂

WomanStanleyWoman2 · 07/07/2023 08:56

I have a few of these 😄

I held a Eurovision party a few years back and put a Eurovision playlist on after the show. It got to “Save All Your Kisses For Me” by Brotherhood of Man and one of my friends was looking fuming. He said “That’s fucking disgusting!” I was bewildered. He said “‘Even though you’re only three’!!! All these years I’ve loved that song, and now I find up it’s about a fucking paedophile!!”

As everyone laughed, I said, head in hands, “It’s about his daughter”.

I’d requested an online quote from a plumber to install a washing machine and fix a tap. The girl from the office called back later and said “So you want a tap fixing and a washing machine and a toilet put in, yeah?” I said just the washing machine and the tap; no toilet. She replies “Err, yeah - it sez ere WC?”

W/C = week commencing. She probably should have got that from it being immediately before the date.

Friend is a nurse. A patient called her over and said “Can you eat up this pie for me please?” She hadn’t brought in any lunch, so said “Ooh yes, absolutely” and goes off to the break room to eat the pie.

When she got back from her break, the man calls her over again and says “What’s happening with that pie? Isn’t it ‘ot enough yet?”

CoffeeandCakeNow · 07/07/2023 09:02

My son is very literal. One day I overheard him tell someone we'd been to Blackpool. The guy said "did you go on a donkey?" And my son sounded really confused and said "no, we went in a car!".
Another time I asked him to hurry up in the bath and he said he'd not washed his shoulders yet and when I went in to see what he was talking about, he was rubbing head and shoulders shampoo onto his shoulders!

FeelingwearyFeeelingsmall · 07/07/2023 09:29

DH (Pete) and his brother (David) look very, very alike although they are very different in character, the big brother is a huge personality once met, never forgotten. DH is quieter and more self effacing.

When they were kids they used to go to the same barbers and the owner often confused them and sometimes called DH David not Pete. DH never corrected him (being shy and self effacing).

Big brother eventually grew up and emigrated but DH stayed local and continued going to the same barber who now knew him quite well but always, always called him the wrong name.

This went on until DH was in his early forties when a local school mum started working at the barbers. One day after the barber had yet again used the wrong name for DH she said, puzzled "it's weird, I've always thought your name was Pete not David'. DH was embarrassed but explained that David was actually his big brother.

The barber thought this was the funniest thing ever. He laughed and laughed and said to another customer "Can you believe this Michael- for 30 years I've been calling this man David and it's not even his name!' There was a bit of a pause and the man said sheepishly "actually my names not Michael!'

Such a lovely man - even if he was shite at names and sadly no longer with us.

WomanStanleyWoman2 · 07/07/2023 09:40

I’ve thought of another one…

A few years ago, I was attending a work event with a big party afterwards in the evening. If you lived more than a certain distance away, you were entitled to a hotel for the night. I lived just too close to the venue, but not close enough to go home to change and get back, so two colleagues let me use their hotel room.

The next day back at work, another colleague asked “Did you have to go all the way home to get changed?” I replied, “No, Jess and Lydia took pity on me and I changed in their hotel room”. Our reasonably new boss kind of half-heard this and said, aghast, “Why did they take pictures of you changing in their hotel room?!”

That could have been an embarrassing conversation with HR 😄

stanleytheflamingo · 07/07/2023 09:46

When I worked as a waitress at a fancy restaurant while at uni many moons ago, a Scottish businessman having dinner with a client asked me for a “cork”. I was confused but relayed the request to the bar staff, who were also confused but gave me a wine cooler full of all the corks from that evening so he could choose his own. Turned out he wanted a “coke”. They (and the entire restaurant staff) thought it was hilarious and for a few weeks every time I put an order for a coke through I got given a cork alongside it. (I was in NZ at that point so not used to the Scottish accent!)

CC4712 · 07/07/2023 09:49

In my late teens, my young aunt and I went to see a local play which involved audience participation. The following day at the supermarket, my aunt sees the lead character bent down getting groceries.

She goes up behind him and says 'Your performance last night was wonderful. All that movement and bravado- I can't wait to see you again!'

I pipe up 'Yes, I really enjoyed it too. Its the first time I've been to one where everyone has a go and gets involved'

His wife comes out of no where, and the man stands up, only he wasn't the man from the play at all. I honestly think that poor woman was convinced we'd had a threesome with her husband 😬

CaroleSinger · 07/07/2023 09:49

I've had a Thai penfriend almost 40 years. When we first started writing I saw a Thai travel show which gave some basic written pleasantries you could say in Thai like good morning, how are you ect, so I wrote one which meant 'Cheers, bye for now' at the bottom of my letter as I signed off to impress him.

The trouble is that unbeknownst to me regional dialect is so different that the slightest tiny difference in a Thai letter can make the entire word mean something completely different.

He said he showed my letter to his friends and none of them could stop laughing because what I actually wrote was 'Screw you for now!' 😳🤣

WomanStanleyWoman2 · 07/07/2023 09:59

RuperttheBearHug · 06/07/2023 23:05

I started a new job. I juggle my horses around my hours and keep my phone on me when I’m mucking out etc.

Not many weeks into said job, my director messaged me with something he wanted me to review and I quickly replied “No probs, just poo picking, back shortly.”

I meant just clearing the field of manure. To my absolute horror, he only skim read it and genuinely thought I’d basically said I was having a shit and I could look at it when I was back at my desk.

This has reminded me of another one! My friend was WFH and her boss had messaged her, opening with “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?” My friend replied with “Oh yes; I went out for a nice walk over lunch.”

At least, that’s what she thought she’d written. She’d actually said she’d been out for a nice wank.

KimberleyClark · 07/07/2023 11:28

I once boarded a bus with my dog and asked for one and a half fares. The driver gave me a strange look and asked “who’s the half for?” I then realised he hadn’t seen the dog get on because she was so small. And thought that I was buying a ticket for an imaginary friend.

LightDrizzle · 07/07/2023 12:28

@KnottyKnitting
😂- “Meow, meow” - their phone and TV package is with MEO!

wutheringkites · 07/07/2023 12:30

@KimberleyClark

Do you have to pay a half fare for a dog? I had no idea!

KimberleyClark · 07/07/2023 12:31

wutheringkites · 07/07/2023 12:30

@KimberleyClark

Do you have to pay a half fare for a dog? I had no idea!

No you don’t, butI didn’t know that!

ExitThroughTheGiftShop · 07/07/2023 12:39

We had to have one of our lovely cats put down a couple of years back. We had a couple of days between finding out and him actually going back to the vet to be put to sleep.I was discussing this tearfully and snottily with my husband, and between snuffles I asked, "can we get him a statue?"My husband paused and looked at me funny, and then gave me a hug and said, "let's just get through it first. We'll see how we feel afterwards. I'd need time to think about it..."Cue my own confusion, so I asked, "just a little stone one for where he's buried?"Hubby looked very relieved. "OH thank God... I thought you asked if we could get him STUFFED."

KnottyKnitting · 07/07/2023 12:41

LightDrizzle · 07/07/2023 12:28

@KnottyKnitting
😂- “Meow, meow” - their phone and TV package is with MEO!

Ha ha! Yes very probably! Didn't think of that! 😂

BarnacleNora · 07/07/2023 12:42

On the ferry back to England from Ireland after an absolutely hellish end to our honeymoon. Car had been broken into in Dublin, smashed glass everywhere, bags taken, had to wait for gardai (sp) to arrive to get statements taken and crime ref number for insurance then absolute hell for leather drive down to Dun Laoghaire in order to catch the bloody ferry (I was the only driver, my now exh hadn't passed his test by that point). We literally drove onto the ferry and they closed the doors behind us! So.....a lot of adrenaline coursing round my system and trying to calm down as well as very upset by such a brutal end to our honeymoon! I was also newly pregnant although didn't realise it at the time!

So that's the context. Anyway we've been sailing for quite some time, I haven't managed to sleep but have been reading, sipping cup of tea and generally trying to unwind. Exh stands up and looks out the window and remarks 'Oh I think I can see Wales over in the distance there'

Apparently it was one of the most heartbreaking moments of his life because my little face absolutely lit up like a child at Christmas a huge great grin of astonishment and wonder and I LEAPT out of my seat. And in that moment he knew with absolute certainty that I believed I was about to spot some majestic sea mammals, some whales off in the distance and this would make up for the break in, the stolen bags, everything!

He let me down very gently. The snort of laughter from the man across the aisle wasn't quite as gentle but was kind of justified. 🐳

Sunnyweatherwoman · 07/07/2023 12:52

I bit my dentist on the finger once. I thought she had asked me to do it but I completely misheard her Blush

PinkRiceKrispies · 07/07/2023 13:14

Not that funny but in Nandos once I asked for a large coke and the server gave me a large corn on the cob obviously mistaking coke for corn !

SunsetsInVenice · 07/07/2023 13:19

My sister once walked into a job interview at a retail store, get led into a side room where she thought there were other prospective workers. They were role playing and had to be snakes (I know....) . Her and another guy got kicked out the room for laughing so she went home truly bemused by the whole experience. When she got home she called head office to complain and it turns out she was brought into the wrong room as this was an existing team building session!

Thebigblueballoon · 07/07/2023 13:30

SunsetsInVenice · 07/07/2023 13:19

My sister once walked into a job interview at a retail store, get led into a side room where she thought there were other prospective workers. They were role playing and had to be snakes (I know....) . Her and another guy got kicked out the room for laughing so she went home truly bemused by the whole experience. When she got home she called head office to complain and it turns out she was brought into the wrong room as this was an existing team building session!

WTAF 👀😂🐍

Did she get the job?!

Swipe left for the next trending thread