What is the rudest thing anyone has ever said to you?

[tamlynn]

Wow, some of these are really rude! Most of the comments I can think of were probably (hopefully) just thoughtless or came out wrong.

Dh and I adopted both our kids, so we've had a few comments there to deal with. One was when fil wrote his annual Christmas letter telling about his kids and grandkids and described our family as "T and H and their adopted children..." Dh called fil up and told him off. We really try to stress that you can call us adoptive parents if you must, but our kids are just kids.

Another funny one was when dd was about 18 months and we were at the grocery store. We are both caucasian, but I have brown eyes and dd's are bright blue. (My mom's eyes are the same blue, so I don't know why people get so concerned that dd's eyes are blue and mine are brown.) Anyway, this total stranger came up to dd in the shopping cart and started gushing over her; "What a doll! Look at those eyes! She is so beautiful! She is just adorable!" Then she glanced up at me. "She must take after her daddy."

Lets see, We had a family member visiting. He insists on calling Brazil nuts N***** toes and did it in front of my kids just to say it. I called him on that one because that is just completely inappropriate and to say it in front of children who will repeat everything is extremely rude. This same person also commented that "beggars can't be choosers" when I listed off the things we had available for breakfast.

 

[bibliophile birds]

airplanes are particularly obnoxious when you are overweight. when i was flying home from California this summer, the man, an oily 50-something business type, i was supposed to be sitting next to gave me a very nasty look as i was putting my bag away. he asks "is this your seat? are you going to be able to fit in it? they should have made you reserve the seat next to you."

needless to say, i chewed him out and sat next to him anyway. as we were landing i looked at him and said "i would rather weigh 1000 lbs than be a pathetic curmudgeon like you. your mother should have taught you better manners, but perhaps she didn't think you were worth the effort."

yes, it was mean, but he deserved it.

there's one that i guess isn't particularly rude, but it annoyed me to no end. i was in the grocery store one day and needed pretzels for a party. they just happened to be above the Oreos. this other heavyset woman was filling her buggy with bags and bags of Oreos and like 15 2 liters. just as i was going to reach for the pretzels she says to me "don't you just LOVE double-stuffed? couldn't you just live on them?"

i can't tell you how absolutely disgusted and infuriated i was. i mean, i have spent a large portion of my personal life proving to people that not all fat people live on junk and this woman assumes, like so many skinny people, that because i'm also overweight i must pig out on Oreos. i still get irritated just thinking about it.

 

[ScottSD]

I don't necessarily consider this is the rudest...... but

Someone recently said the following to me:

"It's sad that I'd even have to explain it."

 

[miss_thenorth]

In all honesty, I can't even remember anything rude that has been said to me, although I am sure there has been lots. I try not to dwell on negative things. Sometimes they get the better of me, but I usually try to find excuses for them. For rude things that might be misconstrued, that is. For blatantly rude comments, I try to see the whole picture, as to where the person (that made the comment) might be coming from, or where he/she is in their lives.

 

[Ldychef2k]

Hmm. How does that work when it's from a perfect stranger? I guess I COULD take the high road, but there is a lot more personal pleasure from running them over with my shopping cart.

 

[delia_peterson]

I have learned to just smile and walk away. Or just change the subject. Its not worth my time to do battle with (my friends favorite saying) a "Mental Midget"

 

[miss_thenorth]

Funny!

Even if it is a stranger, they are usually hurting somehow on the inside, and it makes them feel better for their own shortcomings by taking some of it out on you. That, and strangers are just that. Strange.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Funny!

Even if it is a stranger, they are usually hurting somehow on the inside, and it makes them feel better for their own shortcomings by taking some of it out on you. That, and strangers are just that. Strange.

i agree with you on principle that most who are offensive and rude are vastly insecure, but that doesn't get them a get out of jail free card.

i usually try the kind road first and politely explain that what they've said isn't acceptable, but it rarely makes a difference. the two things i just can't seem to let go are racial and homophobic slurs. it sets me off like almost nothing else. of course, there are people who know this about me and will say inflammatory things just to get a response. i usually ignore them. but i have, on many many occasions, literally stopped perfect strangers in public to give them a good strong lecture on their behavior when they are bandying about with hateful language.

 

[ORChick]

Some years ago we had new neighbours move in behind us. The fence between was high, so we didn't have much contact. They immediately built a large addition on the back of their house. A year or so later we had part of our concrete patio taken out to enlarge the garden, and while the big equipment was doing its thing I was at the back fence pruning some roses. The new neighbour was in his yard, and when he saw me on the ladder he asked if we were building on to the house, and when I said no, we were making the garden bigger, he said, with great authority, oh no, you should make the house bigger, and have lots of kids! What he didn't know, and I had no inclination to tell him, was that DH and I were going through fertility treatments at the time, and would have loved the excuse to build a bigger house for the kids! I found it incredibly rude (bearing in mind that he did not know anything about me), but tried to be charitable and put it down to the fact that he was foreign, and probably had other standards of social conduct.

 

[ScottSD]

i agree with you on principle that most who are offensive and rude are vastly insecure,

I think you may be right.