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Original poster

Stupid things people have said to you

185 replies

JennH · 03/02/2004 13:42

I have never heard as much rubbish as i have heard since i had my baby.

Things i get a lot-
What is HE called? (He is a girl and always wears pink)
Aww is she a big sister (said when she was obviously new born)

Am i the only one who has a child that people constantly think is the opposite sex?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
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handlemecarefully · 04/02/2004 10:22

WWW - silly cow! (the deli counter woman, not you!)

wilbur · 04/02/2004 11:00

From my health visitor: "Are you giving her a lot of juice?" i.e. "Your daughter is a whale and you must be overfeeding her." DD was 12 weeks old at the time and had had just boob and a bit of water, and happened to be topping the s@@ding percentile chart.

arabella2 · 04/02/2004 11:00

"Has Mummy given you a cold" - when I popped round to the neighbour's with ds and he was sniffling...
Incidentally, I think everybody who makes comments that imply that the mother doesn't know how to care for her children are JEALOUS AS HELL...

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General parenting
twiglett · 04/02/2004 11:01

message withdrawn

nutcracker · 04/02/2004 11:19

When i was pregnant with my first child a scan at the early assessment unit (i'd been bleeding) discovered that i have a Bicornuate uterus (basically heart shaped but almost divided in to two). The doctor asked me if i knew i had it ???
How the hell would i

Angeliz · 04/02/2004 11:34

Recent one that bugged me was my MIL to be talking "through" dd about her hair, (my dd is 2.11 and has long dark hair ), MIL only sees her twice a year -ish and kept saying," Oh look at so and so's hair,she's just had it cut isn't it lovely, lets get the scissors" .
Then she said to me," there are some lovely cuts for little girls nowadays,.............not for dd of course!". I gave dd a big cuddle and said, "We like it natural don't we darling".

Batters · 04/02/2004 12:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

susanmt · 04/02/2004 15:17

When I told my Mum I thought I had PND "Well, you'll just have to snap out of it, you've not got time to sit around moping"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ponygirl · 04/02/2004 15:43

My favourite was to a friend, in the supermarket with her two boys, aged then about 3 and 1. One takes after her and the other after their father. old lady came up and said "Oh, what gorgeous boys! Shame they have different fathers!"

eidsvold · 04/02/2004 20:20

when pregnant was called a 'geriatric mother' ( at the grand old age of 33) knew I should have left my zimmerframe at home

'Ohhh you are not having any more children are you?!?!' ( dd 1st and only at this stage has down's syndrome and heart defect)

'Did you know she had down's syndrome before she was born'

  • love the look on their faces when I say - well pretty much so yes.....

last but not least - when expressing a desire not to give birth in the hospital near the school I teach in ... for obvious reasons ( least of all being in a ward with girls I taght) told by a midwife -

'with a pelvis like yours you won't have a say where you will be giving birth'.....

needless to say so shocked I could not reply to that....

eidsvold · 04/02/2004 20:22

althouhg flabbergasted at an opinion expressed by a teacher colleague of mine that Down's syndrome can be cured?!?!?!!?!?!

Paula71 · 04/02/2004 22:41

I am sure I am joined by the other mumsnetters with twins/triplets when I say there are plenty of stupid comments every time I take ds twins aged 2 out including...

"double trouble" oh yes hahaha haven't heard that one before. See also "buy one get one free...they must be a handful"

"are they twins?" no they just look very alike

"are they girls?" are you mad? They have short hair and very "boyish" faces as well as wearing boys clothes.

"did you have them by IVF?" honestly, would you ask a total stranger such a personal question. The answer is no but some don't believe me!

"are they identical?" look at them (actually the are fraternal but are almost identical in looks ie only myself, DH, my parents and close friends can tell who is who, and even then...!)

"So you don't work then." correct I stay at home watching tv, reading magazines and eating all day - not running around frazzled never getting anything completed without stopping and starting half a dozen times. What do people think they pay their childminders/nurseries for if they think it is that easy!

There is also a far too long list of rude and unnecessary things people feel the need to tell me - like my life is not fufilled until I hear their opinion.

misdee · 04/02/2004 22:50

whats happened to her face- nothing she has ezcema

oh she looks like she is drunk - no she just cant walk very well

she doesnt talk much does she? - no, she is only 17months old, she may be the size of a 3year old but she is still a baby

did u perm her hair? - wtf, she's a baby, i assure you those curls are natural.

oh isnt he lovely, he has a lovely boys face- erm no she's a girl, look at the curls and the girls clothes!!

now i know one thats gonna bother me now is when people comment that dd1 looks tired as she has black rings round her eyes (we do get this a lot) now i know its because she is atopic its gonna annoy me more.

lou33 · 04/02/2004 22:56

Has your daughter got hydrocephalus?

(nod yes)

Oh I know someone who died from that.

(When dd1 was about 2.)

motherinferior · 05/02/2004 08:25

When informed that in fact dd1 was a girl, one oldish bloke said 'well, that noise isn't very feminine, is it.'

Around the same time a friend of dp's who'd dropped round asked me 'when are you thinking of going back to work?' I replied - really quite politely under the circumstances - that I'd been back at work for a year, and was actually up against a deadline at that moment and if he could please off NOW...

Original poster
JennH · 05/02/2004 11:18

A Dr. said this to a friend who had just been told that her amino was clear.
She asked the sex of the baby and he shouted at her for 20 mins about how selfish she was and how the amnio was not for that purpose.
But my favourite line from that rant which she can recite word for word is -
"It doesn't matter if it is a boy, girl or whatever!"

OP posts:
mothernature · 05/02/2004 11:29

On birth of twins, did you mean to have them both??? Did you have twins on perpose? Did you plan to have them so close together? derrrr!

sandyballs · 05/02/2004 11:44

Again, on the birth of twins:

"I don't suppose you know whether they are twins or not"??!!! WHAT!

"One egg or two"?

"She must be the eldest as she is so much bigger" - as if being born 3 minutes earlier is going to make that much difference!!!

suzywong · 05/02/2004 11:58

'OOh youa re a strange lady waling round in just your bra and trousers'
DH has just said this to me as I am elbow deep in laundry bleaching sicky sheets and the cream towel he was witless enough to put in with a dark wash.

Theday he a) remembers to separate colours
b) buys me a bleach-splach proof overall c) does it him self then he can make wise cracks about what I wear when I do the bloody drudgery.
I would prefer not to spend my late thirties being poor and doing bloody housework and becoming rapidly unemployable should I return to the real world, but I do do it, mostly without complaint, I just prefer it with out the bloody wise cracks

Rant over

suzywong · 05/02/2004 12:08

Sorry this thread is supposed to be about stupid things people have said to you about your kids I now realise

dejags · 05/02/2004 12:09

When I asked my parents not to smoke in my house when I was pregnant first time round my dad replied - well it's not human yet, so it can't be affected by passive smoking - WHATTTTT?????

He still moans about not being able to smoke around DS, although it's non-negotiable....

Janh · 05/02/2004 12:14

sandyballs, lol at "one egg or two?"!

(A refreshing change from the usual "are they identical?" though?)

suzywong · 05/02/2004 12:18

Whilst recovering from emergency C with first baby, doctor and students did rounds:
Dr: .. and this lady didn't have a blood transfusion, did you? Don't blame you, you never know where it's been. (those words did go through my head when I had to have one after similar fiasco with ds2)
one of same doctor's students leant over and patted me on the leg: 'Aw it was a big baby, too big for you little lady!;
I'm 5 foot 8, lucky for him I was too sedated to reach out and clip him round the ear.

motherinferior · 05/02/2004 13:15

Someone - admittedly a teenager who presumably just saw a blur of mummyhood - looked at the double buggy I was pushing yesterday and said 'aaah, twins'.

Admittedly as well, my daughters are so similar that the possibility of delayed twin pregnancy has been raised, but Dd1 is three and dd2 is seven months old.

motherinferior · 05/02/2004 13:18

In labour with dd1 a doctor put his hand up my wossname to check her head (things were going a bit pearshaped) and said 'it's very hairy'. Yeah right, mate, just because you're a prematurely balding bloke...

Actually I also find the questions about contraception when you've just had the biggest warning in your life pretty idiotic as well.