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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be bewildered as to why people blank people?

69 replies

Thomasina · 19/04/2008 15:08

saw another mum from ds's class in the park today, smiled and she literally showed me her cheek and walked off. so strange, wtf do people do it??

OP posts:
MaryAnnSingleton · 19/04/2008 15:09

maybe she didn't see you properly - short sighted ?

Nagapie · 19/04/2008 15:10

I once had a long chat with a woman at our church - she was on the flipping welcoming committee - I bumped into her in town about a week later, said hello and she blanked me!!

Nowhere is safe...

CeilingCat · 19/04/2008 15:11

Thomasina - MAS may well be right. I'm sure I 'blank' people all the time if I'm out without my spectacles .

nancy75 · 19/04/2008 15:11

this sounds really silly, but if i see somebody in the wrong setting - eg mum from school at the shops, i often dont recognise them, maybe she is like me?

southeastastra · 19/04/2008 15:12

maybe they're shy, don't take it personally

MaryAnnSingleton · 19/04/2008 15:12

yes, seeing people out of their usual context can throw you !

Flibbertyjibbet · 19/04/2008 15:13

We know a mum that will rush over to engage dp in conversation if its him taking the boys to the park - but if its me I see her scurrying round the other side of the pond to avoid me!

She told someone else why she does it - because she thinks I am not worth talking to as a mother because I went back to work not only between babies (16m gap) full time but went back 4 days a week after ds2!

Dp keeps meaning to tell her that he works full time in the hope that she will disapprove of him too

talkingmongoose · 19/04/2008 15:13

It was probably me, I just can't recognise faces at all, I must seem so rude.

Chequers · 19/04/2008 15:13

Message withdrawn

Nagapie · 19/04/2008 15:14

But surely, if you don't recognise the person or are bad at names and faces, a smile or even a hello doesn't go amiss...

It's just rude...

Chequers · 19/04/2008 15:15

Message withdrawn

Original poster
Thomasina · 19/04/2008 15:15

do know her, I was about a foot away from her!

OP posts:
IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern · 19/04/2008 15:15

I am awful for being thrown when I see people out their usual setting, even people I see regularly. It can sometimes be much later that I slap my forehead and think ooooh that's who she was.

legacy · 19/04/2008 15:16

I'm sure a lot of this is not deliberate.

I sometimes do this if:

  • I meet someone out of context, then panic, can't decide if I relaly know then, or if they just look like someone I know , and then by the time I've worked it out they've walked past
  • I also sometimes genuinely don't see people if I'm lost in a wrold of thoughts about something else
  • I also know someone who regularly did this by accident when not wearing her glasses/ contacts
Psychomum5 · 19/04/2008 15:16

this could be me.....

I once was accused of being extremely rude to my MIL's sister, who was sat next to me in clarks one day while I was with flame and we were getting flameboys feet measured....she her DD's.

Apparently I looked right at her, and she said 'hello', and I then looked away.....

now, I have no memory of this....I DO remember being with flame, and being in clarks, but do I recall seeing this lady???

NOPE, no way, nada.

I have a real problem with recognisinf people 'out of context'....ie, if I see someone who is in a place I don;t normally see them, then I honestly do not recognise them in the slightest.

have been accused of being rude many a time, and luckily most people who know we well now understand this and will literally walk up to me and touch me to ensure that I see them...otherwise forget it!

SueW · 19/04/2008 15:18

Agree prob not deliberate.

I walked past a group of girls last night and about 10metres on realised I thought I prob recognised them from school. I'd actually looked at them but right through them, iyswim, as I was a million miles away,deep in thought.

Chequers · 19/04/2008 15:19

Message withdrawn

PosieParker · 19/04/2008 15:23

I was in a hair salon and a woman I knew from my child's montesorri pre school, said hello and then said I won't talk to you because I like to have my hai done in peace... I had only said hello! Stupid bitch, I barely knew her and wouldn't have chatted anyway.

Makingdo · 19/04/2008 15:26

Message withdrawn

littlelapin · 19/04/2008 15:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

southeastastra · 19/04/2008 15:28

lol chequers, my dp did that with david bowie (years ago) he thought he'd been at school with him

hoxtonchick · 19/04/2008 15:28

there's a very strange mum at school who blanks me. i therefore take great delight in blanking her . then bugger me, she rang me this morning. i couldn't get off the phone fast enough....

Original poster
Thomasina · 19/04/2008 15:29

she deffo saw me as was walking right towards me and looked at me..

OP posts:
sallyforth · 19/04/2008 15:29

I am also a blanker at times.. think I have mild proposagnosia - if I have spelt that right = an inabiity to recognise people!!!

PosieParker · 19/04/2008 15:31

South, I nodded at Rory Mcgragh when he walked into a pub and to a girl of the telly in my baby clinic, really quizzed her about what school she went to, Uni? friends at x college, I was so embarrassed when I realised she had been in a soap, as I ws driving home.