AIBU to think this lady was nuts? Share your WTF interactions with strangers here

[BarbaraVineFan]

In the park with 4 year old DD today and she became fascinated with a ladybird which she found near the path. We were standing by the side of the path as DD let the ladybird crawl over her arms and hands. A lady went past with a little kid of a similar age and was looking over, so I said 'we've got a ladybird!' (Not sure why really but I felt the need to explain.) Upon which this woman sort of sniggered and went 'ah..,Chlamydia!' And then just...went on her way.

Having googled, I see that apparently ladybirds carry all sorts of STIs, which they transmit to other ladybirds and not humans. So I guess that's what she meant. But at the time I was like 'What the actual fuck?' 😂 Who even says that to a stranger?!

Does anyone have any similar stories of batshit interactions with strangers to share?

It is always the old men! Confused about others wanting to hear their opinions…

I still remember during COVID, my doctor husband and NHS I working every hour god sends and trying to look after our 3 yo in a flat. I was literally at breaking point. Took the 3 yo out for a walk with some chalk and she drew tiny rainbows outside the (locked) park pavement. Woman had a massive go at us both for "graffiti" and that it would take a day or so for the chalk to go. I was utterly broken.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I was at a sandwich shop years ago with my work friend and as he took out orders the man behind the counter asked her, a propos of absolutely nothing, if she was pregnant. It was so irrelevant (it was really busy so we were just quickly ordering, not chatting with him) and also not true. She was wearing a slightly empire-line style dress, but also not looking like she was pregnant. I was just behind her and am shorter and probably around the same size at the same time so if anyone would've looked pregnant it was me.
She was baffled and visibly upset, as most people would be. I wish I'd thought to ask him why on earth he thought that was an okay thing to ask. Years later she looks lovely still but is very thin and I wonder whether this incident contributed to her feeling that her natural body size (not stick thin but definitely not fat) was not okay.

I was at the cinema with a friend. There was a woman a couple of rows behind us talking very loudly on her phone, through the adverts, through the trailers and didn't seem to be in any hurry to put the phone down.

My friend got up, turned around and said, "you have talked through all the adverts, then through the trailers do you think you could put the phone away now the film is starting?"

She looked as if he'd asked her to eat a dog turd, but she did put the phone down and my friend turned back to a round of applause.

I can't remember what the film was, it might have been one of the Scream franchise, but in it is a scene where someone is talking on their phone in the cinema and is killed, that got quite a big laugh.

Haha yeah I think I usually understand it but I’m from Glasgow tbf lol

Ah I’ve just realised I completely spelt “jordy” wrong 😵‍💫😂 it’s geordie - noted. Think I knew that but just forgot 🤭

I don't think many people would find it appropriate but I also don't think a lot of people would find it creepy

First child, absolutely skint but allowed myself one treat every now and then. I'd bought a Starbucks iced coffee thing and put it down carefully on the pavement to fiddle with toddler's pram seat (it could be forward or backwards facing so DC had to be taken out of the pram and asked nicely to hold the pram frame for safety while I quickly swapped it).

Despite being careful, somewhere in this action my full drink spilled everywhere all over the pavement. I felt crestfallen. Definitely couldn't buy another. Was exhausted and really wanted this coffee.

A woman walked past and spoke - I thought she was going to express sympathy so I looked up at her - she says "oh I bet that cost a lot as well" with a huge grin. What a bitch.

Of course it was dear..

Judging by the post thanks I got, seems I'm far from the only one who got fed up of seeing her make sly digs at those that disagreed with her that it was bad, across multiple pages of the thread, using other peoples (unrelated) posts to do so. Ridiculous behaviour.

Yes no one understands it so no one ever watches Ant & Dec, Big Brother, Geordie Shore or acts like Chris Ramsey because the accents are utter gibberish.

Geordie is also in fact a really rare accent in real life, most people mistaken by southerners as Geordie are actually from Durham or Northumberland which is an entirely different accent/dialect. Shows like Big Brother even put on a deliberately over the top fake accent and where still top running shows country wide.

Gordon Murray, the creator, was interviewed on BBC some years ago and asked that same question. He said that they were making up the names of the firemen so that they could do the roll call thing in the programme to a particular flowing rhythm. He explained that to maintain the flow they needed to create another crew member with a two syllable surname. It didn’t work for various reasons, so they decided it was easier to give McGrew a two syllable Christian name and use it in full.

@HeySummerWhereAreYou @VivienneDelacroix I couldn't agree more....what an unbelievable c*t! I bet you couldn't believe your ears! Did you respond? I remember being in Marks and Spencers cafe when my eldest was two. We were sitting quietly together enjoying our lunch. Suddenly a woman at the next table turned to me and said, "I bet he's your only child, isn't he? I doubt you have any others at your age". I was thirty-eight at the time. Incredulous, I got up to leave. I was heavily pregnant with my second at the time but she hadn't noticed until I stood up. She looked embarrassed and just said, "Oh". Honestly, people are bloody weird sometimes. You had too many children according to that nutter you encountered; I seemingly didn't have enough. There ain't no pleasing these fruitloops!

@woolysnail It's almost like some people can't comprehend that bad stuff does happen, and it isn't some innocent bloke making a peeing comment just because they've never had a bad experience!

It's also good to recognise some men make jokes without it being sexual.
He might have thought wtf is she doing, then vocalised it without thinking.
Like some F posters have said, they've said weird stuff without thinking or experienced it from other F's.

If a man had said the fish one, most would be frothing at the mouth about how he wanted to fuck her, how dare he, hope ypu got him fired etc. As it was a woman, oh yes, just a joke. 🥱

And that’s rather the point isn’t it ? No-one appears to be in any hurry to cut off their dicks, because all they have to do is put on a dress, and hey presto, they’re a woman !!

@VivienneDelacroix Me again....you've just reminded me of some other weird child related know alls who feel the need to point things out! I was walking along the street with my double buggy with my two sons in - one of those ones where the seats are one in front of the other rather than side by side. A lady we passed on the pavement felt the need to say to me, "The one at the front's asleep; the one at the back is awake." ?!!!! 🤔😂

Another time, when I was pregnant with my second, just walking along the street, a random man who was walking towards me called out, "Pregnant woman.....on the move!" He said it really slowly and deliberately as if it was part of a rap. 😅

One more....I was frantically trying to get my sons into the car to take them to school. It had been one hell of a morning and nothing had gone to plan; husband was seriously ill in hospital, scooter had hit me in the ankle, kids were fighting....usual hell. As this was all occurring, a man walking past said to me in a condescending tone whilst tutting, "These Mums.....why don't you just get out of bed five minutes earlier?" I just felt lucky we don't have America's gun laws here. 😂

I don’t normally do this but I did want to say that I think what he said was vulgar. I understand many people may not have thought that but you did and it was your experience not theirs. Sometimes it depends on who is saying something but some random strange man stopping to remark that is to me distasteful.

They sound like MY KIND of weirdos 😁

@Thurien Oh God that's made me cry with laughter. "Two weak roars". 😂

@Toenailz 😆 of course you got a load of thanks, the worst side of MN love nothing more than a pile-on! I'm sure if you went through and counted the number of comments which unnecessarily called out @HeySummerWhereAreYou for 'overreacting' you'd find it exceeds by many factors the number of comments she's made in response.

But let's face it, there's nothing the likes of you enjoy more than the pile-on victim hitting back, it gives you more fuel to belittle them and get a load of backslaps from your compadres. Reminds me of schoolyard fights.

If a man had said the fish one, most would be frothing at the mouth about how he wanted to fuck her, how dare he, hope ypu got him fired etc. As it was a woman, oh yes, just a joke. 🥱

Personally I wouldn’t be that bothered by the street peeing one, but my life experiences could be different to that poster, so I’m not going to weigh in on their experience of it.

However, to your last point, male and female behaviour can’t equally be compared in this way. You just have to look through this thread and see how many instances men have been sexually threatening to women and girls, in ways no one is going to argue about. We don’t need to worry, for the most part, about our sexual safety around other women. So while I find the fish thing to be weird, inappropriate, and also creepy, we can laugh about it because it’s so wtf but not actually posing potential danger to us.

@HangingOver My goodness; so so weird! You've reminded me of a bus station encounter I once had. I was sitting waiting for a bus and must have been about twenty- two. A man came and sat down next to me. He suddenly said to me, "You've got nice arms. Can you put them on mine?" I said No and then we sat there in an awkward silence until the bus arrived. Guess who sat next to me on the bus. Yes, the weirdo man.

You win!! 🤣🤣🤣.

Totally agree, they were cool! Unusual, but friendly. Not even bothersome, I bet that man laughed afterwards about this park encounter.

Through out the history of the world men have been beaten and killed for wearing dresses. No straight man is risking his 'precious alpha masculinity' and even safety just to hear you blow out a public toilet either.

If a man wanted to abuse you trust me he wouldn't need or bother to put on a dress to do it. You are FAR more likely to get attacked by a man you know in your own home thats just statistical fact but don't let reality get in the way of being hateful.

I won’t, thanks. And I don’t know many women who would use your terminology to describe bodily functions, so I’ll assume you’re a man. Your argument makes no sense either. It’s not about being attacked, it’s about the invasion of womens’ spaces, not to mention sports, by men who think that dressing as a female actually makes them one.

Exactly there is no equivalence.

You often get posters trying to use the 'oh you wouldn't say that if it was a woman doing/saying it"

Well no, there's a massive power imbalance between men and women and also the motivations behind their behaviour. Women are deeply unlikely to sexually assault you.

With regard to the squatting comment, I do find that creepy because it shows exactly where the man's mind was. If I see a woman rooting round in her clothing, my first thought would be that she was looking for something or perhaps had an itch. Whereas the man in question went straight to urinating in a squatting position. But my life experience involves over 30 years of working in completely male dominated industries and in my experience there's not many good ones who aren't either misogynists or perverts.

I've had plenty of odd encounters.

One that springs to mind was when I was working on a building site in my professional role as a QS. I stepped out of the office and a subcontractor's joiner who I had not met before looked at me and said 'I'd love to see a big girl like you lap dance".

I was a size 12 so I'm assuming he was talking about my FFs.