This is pretty minor but still pissed me off. You may or may not remember how I complain about never receiving random compliments from strangers/never ever get hit on by strangers. Apparently I’m the only female doper left out of this phenomenon. So anyways, yesterday the animal care staff had their Christmas luncheon. The boss took us to a nice restaurant overlooking the pacific ocean. We all dressed up a little so I wore a short black and white dress with black tights and red shoes. It was nice being out of a lab coat and jeans for once.
Anyways, I go to use the restroom and there was a little girl probably about 4 or 5 by the sink with her mother. When I come in the little girl looks at me and says “you are so beautiful!! You look so beautiful!” Now we all know I am not exactly the most child friendly person but this compliment warmed the cockles of my tiny frozen heart. Considering that I have heard children say things in public like “that woman is soooo fat” or “eww that woman is really old and wrinkly!” I was touched by this compliment. I actually think it was the nicest compliment I’ve ever gotten.
So the little girl goes into the stall to use the restroom and the mother turns to me and says “oh she doesn’t really mean that, she just loves red shoes and tights also” I couldn’t decide if I wanted to cry or bitchslap that lady. I just said “of course” and slinked into my own stall defeated.
After washing my hands the little girl is still in there waiting for her mom to finish and again says “you are so beautiful!!!” and I decided that nasty woman be damned, I was going to take the compliment in the adorable spirit in which it was given. I said “thank you to the girl” as genuinely as I have ever said anything. Mom comes out and AGAIN says “it’s just the shoes”
WHY? Why did she have shit all over everything like that? I need an explanation.
I dunno; the most charitable explanation I can come up with is that some parents are very self-conscious any time their kids interact with strangers, and she was interpreting the little girl’s compliment as coming across as condescending or rude in some weird alternate universe way.
And now the part of this thread where I make it all about me! No, you’re not. I was waiting at an airport shuttle stop one time with a (cute and blonde) acquaintance. A guy came over to her and said, “I just wanted to tell you that I think you are SO GORGEOUS. Here’s my card. You can call me anytime.” Then he walked off.
She blushed and said, “God, don’t you hate it when that happens?” And I am thinking, IT WOULD HAVE TO HAPPEN, LIKE ONCE EVER IN MY LIFE, FOR ME TO HATE IT.
So you are not alone. And I am sure you did look totally rockin’ and it wasn’t just the shoes and that mom can cram it.
Oh that’s just the interweb. Doesn’t count. Those people can’t know what I actually look like based on a few pictures. And it’s easy to compliment someone over the internet. Not so easy in real life.
IMO, Mom is jealous, kidlet never having said anything complimentary to her in her life. Also, she lacks red shoes. 'Nough said.
I don’t get classy guys in trench coats at the airport handing me their cards…nope, not me. I get old black men with gold teeth looking me up and down and saying, “Mmmm good.” (and that’s at work–in scrubs!)
There’s a saying that goes, “Only children and fools tell the truth.” IME, children are frighteningly - sometimes cruelly - honest about commenting on appearances. So you should take her compliment as one of the highest order.
I think “huge, nasty bitch” is covering it. How insecure/jealous/clueless do you have to be to try to take a compliment away from a stranger, given by your own kid? I know women often have trouble taking compliments properly, but to try to take them away from someone else? Very strange.
By the way, we’re going to need a picture of this incident, also.
maybe the mom was afraid that you would think her daughter was a lesbian, and was rushing to convince herself that her daughter wasn’t taking a physical interest in other women at such a young age so she wouldn’t have to deal with an alternate lifestyle, and you were a victim of her narrowmindedness.
You nailed it, IMHO. A lot of parents won’t allow their children to speak without “interpreting”. It’s nauseating. How do they learn to speak in the world unless they express themselves without being corrected or edited or shushed??? God damn.