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?

I had my own ladybird WTF moment.

I was about 20 and waiting for a bus to go shopping with my boyfriend when a big (big for ladybird anyway) one landed on my hand. It was crawling up and down my fingers and across my hand. I said to DH, "aw, sweet". Then the little fucker bit me. Right on the web between thumb and index finger. Then to add insult to injury, it pissed, shat or puked some green stuff onto the bite for good measure. It actually hurt more than you would think. By the time we got back from shopping, I'd developed a weird blotchy little itchy rash around the bite mark. It took weeks to go away completely.

It was a WTF because I never knew they could bite through human skin.

Now, I'm wondering if I got da ladybird herpes.

A bloke tried to correct the way I was filling my car up at a petrol station. I had been driving for about 20 years at that point and I’ve never been told I was filling up incorrectly.

He just walked over from his car and insisted that he needed to show me how to do it properly. I said ‘no I’m fine thanks’ and he walked past and called me a fat Chinese cunt. I’m not of Chinese origin, so I don’t know where that came from.

What a charmer 🙄

One unwise Google search later...OMG 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮

Its a cyanide toxin they use to ward off predictors from eating them, several other harmless insects like millipedes have the same its just a defense mechanism... its far to week to poison a human though.

Glad to have made your day...😀

I do write for a living, but not what you may expect. Financial reports for private companies. Somewhere in me there is a J K Rowling trying to escape, or so I am told. Except, the chances of me successfully penning the next best seller is remote.

Approaching 70, I just do not have enough Thyme.

I think I'd have laughed too. It may not be the most polite thing to say but I don't think it's creepy.

I know. Phew! But then again weigh that up against getting three babies out of their seats and somehow carrying them into the till area or running out of petrol on the motorway with three babies in the car it seems the only sensible thing to do really. Any way it was a long time ago before kids regularly got burned alive in petrol stations and hysteria levels were lower. 🙂

This thread is mostly hilarious with all the stories, but also pretty annoying with the bickering—bore off, please, you make this forum unbearable sometimes.

I had an odd encounter on a train when I was in my late teens. I was lost in my own thoughts when I suddenly noticed the man in front of me had crouched down so he was at eye level with the view up my skirt! He gave such a sly look and didn't move, and I screamed because he scared me so much. A man was walking down the train at that moment and asked what was going on. After I explained, he told the man to leave the carriage, which he immediately did—so he was obviously up to no good. The helpful man told me to let him know if I had any more trouble. It was horrible, and I wish I had told someone more official on the train.

I had a sort of shoplifting incident too. I was at the checkout counter about to pack and pay when I pulled out a very wrinkled reusable shopping bag. The cashier insisted it was new and that I had to pay for it. It was honestly the scruffiest bag—which I pointed out. I ended up asking him to review the CCTV footage if he was so concerned. Thankfully, he dropped the imaginary issue after that.

Oh I know! And I actually meant, this being Mumsnet someone will be along in a minute someone will be saying "But she should have trailed all those babies out of the car, not left them alone for four minutes while she paid in case there was an alien invasion just at that moment".

Pesky aliens. Trouble is with MN you can never say never because bet your bottom dollar it will have happened to someone ……. only it was quads.

It was the late 80s but I still remember it as clear as yesterday
Best friend and me walking back to college after our lunch break, Watford town centre
A woman comes running out of Holland & Barratt, holding cartons of soy milk aloft (as I recall, it really wasn't a mainstream thing then, but her reaction was akin to winning the lottery...)
Runs up to friend and me, yelling 'soya ! It's soya ! IT'S SOYA!!!! SOYA!'
I'd never seen a stranger so thrilled before or since.
For the next 2 decades or so, friend and me greeted each other with 'it's SOYA!'
I never tasted soya milk myself until the noughties , and was severely disappointed.

Nah, the poster was commenting on an old thread from way back when....don't think they were actually being serious...

This was my first thought too. In the book the fish in question was a live goldfish. It was one of the most ridiculous passages I have ever read in any book.

An almost opposite to those "go back to your country" comments PPs have mentioned: I was doing a self guided tour of a stately home so there were assistants in most rooms to give more depth to the info cards. One started his spiel about the room being inspired by the owner's visits to China and I commented "shame I can't read Chinese" about a piece on display that was supposed to have a poem on it. He looked at me bemused and said, "but you're not Chinese though?"... I am. I am 100% Chinese so I can't look anything but. I didn't know how to respond except to say that I may have grown up in Britain but my heritage is certainly Chinese... He was still very baffled so I smiled politely and scuttled off into the next room.

I used to work in retail in my early 20s which was largely online but we could take phone orders if necessary. One woman called up and asked if we had the rose gold version in stock. I said yes and her very matter of fact reply was, "oh good because the fairies in the garden don't like yellow gold, they would have been very upset." I didn't know what to respond so just started the part about taking her payment details. She said, "ah give me a minute, my card had been cut up into pieces so let me just find them and put it together again..." I put myself on mute while she reassembled her card and alerted my manager because it felt wrong to take money off someone clearly vulnerable. We agreed I couldn't take her order over the phone like this but thought she probably wasn't going to take that well, so I had to pretend the card machine wasn't working.

I was at a bus stop with my younger, obviously mixed race cousin (approx 9yo) and my also 100% Chinese sister (approx 7yo). I can't have been more than 15 and can't have looked older than that because I still had train track braces and those hideous NHS kids' glasses. An old lady sat down at the bus stop with us, looked over and asked, "oh are these your twins?" 😵‍💫

Karen White.

Is this the one with 'Which one of you bitches is my mother?' Or is that Lace 2?
I used to love a good bonkbuster.

At a gig last night, one weird guy story....

After support act finishes, most people behind us seem to disappear. Weird guy comes and stands pretty much on top of my friend and keep leaning over her trying to look around the post I'm stood next to. He doesn't take the hint to move back into the acres of space behind him when I nearly punch him in the face taking a selfie. When I eventually snap and tell him he's making us extremely uncomfortable he seems super surprised (who doesn't want some random old guy draping himself over them for no reason?!?!). Then he was most put out that I wouldn't move so he could stand in front of me 'between the post and the barrier'. Pretty sure the woman who was stood there didn't want him either. Nutter.

However!!!! One sweet guy story to counter it....

The bass player threw me a plectrum at the end which ended up in no man's land between the barrier and stage. The nice guy next to me gave me his!!! (He did get a set list instead). Absolutely did not expect him to do that. Super sweet.

having my hair cut, took my children with me, as usual, about to get married.
she asked if he was the father of the children.

then said, oh you can tell they have the same fathers, they are like peas in a pod

What potential danger did the pee one cause?
He said it, walked past, the end.

Poster didn't find it funny, fair enough.

Others found it funny but clearly not fair enough as she then went on to hammer anyone who didn't agree as @Toenailz explained.
As you say, different people, different takes, so not being offended isn't wrong.

I say this as someone who's experienced abuse but don't take offence or think to sexualise every male interaction.
Others might, and that's ok too, still doesn't make my take wrong.

There's a few on here I wouldn't find funny, but
If somone came along and said they would, I'd think, oh we're so different and move on, not try and attack them for having a different opinion/sense of humour.

The poster wasn't wrong to be offended, but wrong to expect everyone else to feel the same and accuse them of being men for not agreeing.

I'm not sure why this is "WTF"? She asked because it might have been awkward if she'd said something to the kids about you marrying daddy if he wasn't their daddy.

Some lone women may not feel comfortable with workmen in their homes and may like to employ females to do the job, if possible.

Could have been a perv, but could equally have been mentally not well. Seen a grown man pointing at my hair on the tube, saying on repeat 'nice hair, nice hair, nice hair' loudly and when I did not react, he poked my scull with his index finger. He was 20 years younger and unaccompanied. But with him it was obvious he was not very well. I did not mind in the least, only was really worried about him on his own, out and about.

it wasnt really her business
and they were very young
3 and 18 months and No she didnt talk to them anyway

@Treesandsheepeverywhere that's a misrepresentation of what happened. The first poster to respond about the piss comment was quite rude (and I can see their comments have now been deleted), and a load of other people then saw the opportunity for a pile one and started making light of/mocking a situation that obviously made the PP feel uncomfortable.

I'll tell you what it was like. Remember in high school when a group of kids were talking and laughing at each others jokes, and one of them makes a joke just like everyone else's, only no one laughs, and some of them even snigger and eye each other as if to say 'well that was embarrassing!'. That's what it was like and it's so unpleasant and unnecessary.

The psychology of people on MN in particular is fascinating - it really gives people the opportunity to revert to their adolescent selves, or for others, the opportunity to vent their anger and rudeness in a way they wish they could in real life.