To have given the lady running this stall an honest answer

[comeandhaveteawithme]

Yesterday I was with my kids at a local event, there were several stalls there, some vendors, some charities promoting and fundraising. As we passed the cats' protection league and a lady popped up and said "hello, do you like cats?" and I answered "no".

It wasn't an aggressive "NO" it was a casual, very slightly cheery, slightly apologetic "no". Just an honest and polite and answer to her question - or so I thought and intended.

She said "Oh... OK.. well do you like dogs?" and I answered "yes" and she said, "oh that's good, so you do like animals then?" and I said, "yes, mostly". And then I had a polite glance around her stall, I said "enjoy the rest of the day" and she said "you too" and we moved on.

My DH and 12yo DS can't believe that I told a lady from the cat's protection league that I don't like cats and that it was really rude.

I don't think I was rude, but I am an honest person, and I gave her an honest answer.

So what do you think? rude or not?

Disclaimer This is not a debate about liking or not liking cats. Please do not derail the thread. I will not be discussing my reasons here. We have recently had a cat opinions thread, go there if you wish.
If you really can't handle it, replace the word cats with "chocolate". A lady from the chocolate protection league asked me if I like chocolate - You can do this!!

Honest, not rude, unless you said it in a rude way.

Not rude. She asked a question you answered it. No deeper than that.

It's overly blunt

Depends on how you said it. I see nothing wrong with being honest, as long as it wasn't said nastily. Doesn't sound like you were so I dont think theres a problem

I lie and say I don't like children/ animals. It stops them wasting both our times and energy trying to get me to donate to their charities.

She asked a question - you answered - not rude unless you screamed 'NOOO!' in her face. Also she will have heard that answer from other people before in answer to that question if she regularly works on stalls - it's happened before, hence her swift follow up questions.

Not rude at all else if you says yes you’d have been lying effectively.

Not rude at all.

Funny though.

What was she sposed to say?

Your husband and son are weird. Did they think she would take it personally? You gave an honest answer to a straight forward question, I don't think there is anything rude about that. A straight no was possibly a bit blunt but still not rude.

Honestly, if you ask random passers-by if they like cats, you are going to get a percentage of answers in the negative!
Thst's life - and I'm sure Cats Protection is very aware of this.
Please don't worry further abpit it, you were not rude.

Unless you grabbed her by the throat and hissed ‘Away with your feline dark spirits!’, no.

In my experience saying yes to any of these charities gets you signed up to a direct debit so it’s always NO! Good work.

Oh someone like this came to my door a few weeks ago and said "hi we're here trying to get support for [something schools don't need] in schools, which I'm sure you can agree is crucially important." I had the grace not to laugh as I said "not really." He gave up and walked off before I could close the door on him. I think they ask these questions they think they'll get agreement from you as the start of the sales funnel but it doesn't really work for them if you don't agree with the first semi-rhetorical question.
It was just a sales person. What she was selling (a charity subscription, most likely) was irrelevant. It's not rude to disagree with someone who is obviously trying to drag you into a funnel to sell you something.

She asked a stupid question so not sure what she was expecting.

Also this is a good teaching moment for your child to show them that it's good to have boundaries around randoms when you're out and about.

I didn't think you were rude yesterday, although you were a bit blunt about it.

I think you are rude today because this is a public forum and people can post whatever response they like, so you don't get to tell them what they can and can't do. Although I for one don't give a shit whether you like cats, or why.

I say the woman asking if you like cats was impolite. I hate being accosted in that way. Stupid question, honest answer. The End.

It was her come on question. As PP said “start of the sales funnel.” Teach your dh snd children how to answer that briskly so they can move through life without ending up buying or donating to causes they don’t support just to end an interaction they shouldn’t have bothered with in the first place.

The can if they want. They don't have to obey me.

I was merely trying to convey that I would prefer for the thread not to go that way and that I won't be participating if it does.
If it does end up going that way and people debate about cats among themselves, then there's nothing I can do about it
and unless the participants are very new to mumsnet, they will know they can say (almost) anything they like and I can do sweet FA to stop them.

She's probably hears that dozens of times a day.
Along with "witty" comments like "only with chips".
I doubt she's given it a second thought.

OP is perfectly fine; she's just politely made it clear that she doesn't want this thread derailed, as many people can't seem to stop themselves turning anything to do with liking/not liking cats/dogs into the most ridiculous batshittery which does, in fact, often get in the way of the actual question or discussion topic. That's not rude, that's just sensible so that people can either respect the request of the OP or they can be deleted for deliberately being obnoxious and/or obstructive.

That's exactly what I said. I said I bet I wasn't the only person to give an honest answer.

And yeah "I couldn't eat a whole one" was probably trotted out a fair few times, poor woman 🙄😂

The seller was asking you a closed question - expecting you to feel obliged to say yes - as a precursor to trying to get you to buy.

I would say the same about dogs if questioned.. and I know that would get me shot on here.

I also said, to DH and DS, that surely it's rude to waste her time? she's clearly looking for donations and trying to find the people most likely to donate. Answering "yes" would be a waste of her time as she would then start talking to me, who is never going to donate, while several people who might have donated walk past and she misses them.