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Back handed compliments

(85 Posts)
MissAdventure Tue 24-Jan-17 13:41:17

You know the kind..
When I went to answer a buzzer in an old folks home I was working in, the man said "Oh, thank God it's you! I was worried it might be some dollybird!"

sunseeker Tue 24-Jan-17 13:45:08

A passer by once told me that I kept my garden very neat for someone my age!!

MissAdventure Tue 24-Jan-17 13:47:03

Ha! Made me laugh!

MissAdventure Tue 24-Jan-17 13:50:06

Again, when working with the elderly, as a long shift was coming to an end, I went in to help a lady get ready for bed
"You look worn out!" She said
I told her I was, and she asked if I had a nice husband at home to look after me
I told her I hadn't, and joked that I couldn't find anyone to have me.
"What a shame' she said.. "Mind you, you have really let yourself go lately!"

sunseeker Tue 24-Jan-17 13:51:29

grin

shysal Tue 24-Jan-17 14:41:22

When engaged to my now ex-husband, he once said to me 'In the dark you're not bad'!

MissAdventure Tue 24-Jan-17 14:44:12

My friend was sitting in front of her bedroom mirror, removing her make up, whilst her husband lay in bed, watching.
All was quiet, until he piped up with "never mind, Jan, when I win the lottery you can have a facelift."

kittylester Tue 24-Jan-17 14:47:49

My great aunt said - you look just like your mum did at your age though not so pretty!!shock

sunseeker Tue 24-Jan-17 15:51:46

A friend of mine, a New Yorker, was once told that she was surprisingly well educated for an American

fiorentina51 Tue 24-Jan-17 15:56:20

Whilst collecting my daughter from school, another young mum looked at her, then looked at me, then said with a puzzled frown,
"So that's your daughter...but she's so pretty!" ?

grannyqueenie Tue 24-Jan-17 16:15:10

I know that feeling f51 When my twin daughters were just babies an elderly lady told me how beautiful they were. Any feelings of joy were soon dispelled when she added, " they're not a bit like you are they?"

Christinefrance Tue 24-Jan-17 16:20:36

That's funny MissAdventure.

My daughter was helping me shop for a dress, I tried one on for her to see and she said 'well it's alright for you Mother but I wouldn't wear it' smile

MissAdventure Tue 24-Jan-17 16:28:37

I recently decorated my bland, cream coloured bedroom in white, with (tasteful - so I thought) touches of hot pink and animal skin.
My friend asked to see my work.
"Oh! Its lovely!" She exclaimed. "It looks like a whores boudoir!"

phoenix Tue 24-Jan-17 16:35:39

I was once told "you're lucky, when you're ill, you look ill" !!!

MissAdventure Tue 24-Jan-17 16:40:30

Years ago, my "young at heart" neighbour wanted to get some weightloss pills from a clinic, and was telling me she had been unable to, as one needed to be 3 stone or more overweight.
Suddenly, a gleam came into her eyes.. "You could get them for me!" she exclaimed.

Karen1959 Tue 24-Jan-17 16:55:51

An ex of mine would sometimes look searchingly at me and say, with passion, 'Why do I love you so much?'' I took it as a tremendous compliment. Sometime later I discovered that he had NPD (clinically diagnosed) He couldn't understand how somebody as wonderful as him could 'love' somebody like me ?

vampirequeen Wed 25-Jan-17 07:50:06

I was chuffed when a work colleague asked me if I'd lost weight but not so chuffed when she continued that she thought I must have because my bum took up a bit less room in the corridor.

Mind you this was the same colleague who decided to mend a bookcase with a hammer in the classroom as I was teaching because she felt my voice was loud enough to be heard over the hammering.

Eloethan Wed 25-Jan-17 11:36:05

A work colleague and her husband were giving me a lift home from work. For some reason we were discussing make up and she said she didn't bother wearing make up as her husband liked her to look natural "Not that natural" he said. She and I laughed but I'm not sure it was a joke!

I've mentioned this one before but a work colleague of mine said to me one day "Oh, I really like your dress, where did you get it from?". "Anne Brookes", I said. "It's really nice", she said, "do they do fashionable things as well". It made me laugh because she was always putting her foot in it with people and I knew she didn't mean it quite how it came out.

Greenfinch Wed 25-Jan-17 11:43:12

I just love all these. They are so natural..I have had some but cant recall at the moment. Keep them coming!

cangran Wed 25-Jan-17 11:50:30

In the early '70s when mini and maxi skirts were both popular, I made a couple of on-the-knee skirts for work. My husband said that I should either wear maxis or minis to 'distract from my knobbly knees'! The 'compliments' haven't got any better since - the best I can expect (and even that very rarely) is 'Is that new?', usually about something I've been wearing for ages.

notoveryet Wed 25-Jan-17 14:22:22

When I was a child my great aunt said to me" its a good job you're clever because you'll get nowhere with your looks"

CariGransnet (GNHQ) Wed 25-Jan-17 14:55:55

I was trying on clothes with a friend in a communal changing room. "You're so lucky not to have back fat" she said. I beamed - until she added "that's quite amazing at your age"

callgirl1 Wed 25-Jan-17 17:13:40

Many years ago, we`d only been married about a year, my little sister, aged 4, stood in our kitchen and looked around, then said "Oooh, I do like this house......isn`t it lovely and dirty?" May I just say, we`d recently had a kitchen fire and the ceiling was very grey with a hole in it.

edsnana Thu 26-Jan-17 09:41:01

My mother in law once said, "I can see you've lost weight but you've still got fat legs!" Never did like her much and it would seem the feeling was mutual. . .

edsnana Thu 26-Jan-17 09:44:15

Also having done the Moonwalk, 26 long miles through the night with my feet covered in blisters and feeling a bit weird as I'm diabetic but hadn't eaten much, I said to a friend how amazed I was to have done a marathon. Her response? Well you only walked it!