Not to be allowed near money

[mrissa]

I took timprov out for lunch today. I handed the waitbeing a credit card. It had my extremely femmey name on it. She brought it back and handed the slip to T. to sign.

Then I came home. The doorbell rang, so I went pattering down the stairs to answer it. It was the Schwann's man. "Hi, are your parents home?" He saw from the look on my face that this is the wrong question, so he amended it: "Or, y'know, the homeowners?" "I own this house," I said very quietly. He gulped. "I'm sorry! You look so young!"

ARRRRRRGH. Apparently I am not to be let near money, because I am too much of a wee little girl to handle it.

grumpgrumpgrousegrousegrump

I'm even dressed decently today, too, in one of the little black skirts I wore to Minicon and stockings and a green top and an elisem necklace. It's not like I had my hair in braids and was wearing a college T-shirt and a pair of soccer shorts, for heaven's sake. And I handed her the credit card. And she was a woman herself.

grumpGRUMPGRUMPGROUSEGRUMP

Comments

[lexiphanic.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling precisely. Conversely, I have been mistaken for my mother, which was just as displeasing. [sigh]

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Looking young is a Very Good Thing. But yeah, I hear ya. It's a formula for disrespect.

(Um, weren't you just telling me the other day that you are mentally only 12??? *g*)

[retrobabble.livejournal.com]

Some people just can't tell age.

And you might really, really like it when you get to my age. *cough* Just saying. *g*

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

A. If I hand them a card with my name on it, and they bring it back and hand it to my male companion, the tip automatically drops by 1/2.

B. We fired our last ISP for their extreme sexist piggydom. I'd call when they were having issues on their end, and they'd reach through the phone and pat me on the head and try to tech the issue from user side. I'd explain I used to work for an ISP and that I knew what the issue was, and they'd tell me I was wrong. Ryan would call five minutes later, same issue, and they'd jump to attention and "we'll get on that right away sir" him. Finally let them have it with both barrels and cancelled their service.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, I've handed the waitbeing a credit card before, and had it handed back to my fiancee for her to sign.

I haven't been asked if my parents are home in quite a long time, though. So perhaps any feeling-better I may have induced is gone now.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't actually believe it's a Very Good Thing. I think it's just a thing. I get very angry when people tell my mom she looks good for her age. She looks good. She is her age. The two are not particularly contingent upon each other.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm only mistaken for my mom on the phone, thank goodness. Well, and I've had to answer to her name my whole life, but some great-aunties will grab for the most recent girlchild name in memory, and if that comes up "Deb," they don't actually mean that they think I'm her, they just mean "young female person in my life."

[lthomas987.livejournal.com]

My favorite is when people call my house and ask to speak to the man of the house. I summon the elder beagle and give him the phone.
Also.. I got asked 6 times if I was the home owner by a guy trying to sell me a windows. Apparently women can't own property either.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

A. It wasn't half the tip, but it wasn't the whole I'd have otherwise given her, either.

B. ISPs are the worst. I would tell them, "We can ping the gateway, but the packets are getting dropped beyond there." And they would say, "Have you power-cycled your computer?" And I would say, "Can you get me someone who knows that the phrase 'ping the gateway' means?" And they would say, "Do you have a dog?" BLERG.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Knows what, not knows that. Sigh.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

One of the cashiers at Johnny's (on campus lunch place/grocery store) thought I was Jeff's daughter. She didn't say that to my face though, she asked if I was a student, then Jeff laughed and said I was his wife. She told Jeff later her "other" mistake.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It only makes me feel a tiny bit better, because I've never had that happen to me, and I've had the "I hand you a credit card/you hand it to the guy I'm with" thing happen multiple times with at least four male people in the last year.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Does he bay on command, or merely slobber on the phone? That's fabulous.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they are. This ISP kept having major server issues, and every time I called "OK, can you click on My Computer for me..."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I just can't see a way to make that work. I just can't see anybody thinking Jeff was over maybe 35, tops, and that would mean you'd have to be...well, 20, okay, if it was an extremely youthful mistake maybe.

Still, it seems like a pretty big stretch.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

I'd let the Schwann's man off before the waitress. Mistaking youth is one thing. Sexism is another.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It was the "homeowners" component of the question that really got me: that he could see he was going wrong somewhere, but he couldn't evaluate how.

I really think that the appropriate question for the Schwann's person to ask someone who appears 14 or older is, "Are you someone who makes food purchasing decisions at this house?" It's a simple question, and it doesn't assume that naturally the [man|woman|parent|etc.] will make the decisions at any given house.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I have a vocabulary of polysyllabic technical words I keep in reserve for just such occasions. *g*

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Me too. I do that on car salesmen too, start talking about gear ratios or some such. I do mean salesmen - I bought my first car from a woman and didn't have any trouble getting attention from her, even though at the time I was 22 and probably looked 15. When my husband has been with me, we have had sakesmen begin talking only to him, but they usually quit that when he jerks a thumb at me and says "She's buying." (Noticing that sort of thing when he's not the one being ignored gets him Spousal Brownie Points, too.)

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Yes, that strikes me as a reasonable question.

Maybe he thought you were a babysitter. :)

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

I growl on your behalf.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* When I worked as a waitress I often had people ask me if I was old enough to serve alcohol. "Um, yes, you only have to be 18. It's not like we're drinking it back there..." "Oh, I thought you were 16. And I would have said 14 but you have to be 16 to have a job..." "I'm 19." "Oh."

And when I was handed a credit card by either a man or a woman, I *always* put the bill thingie back on the table in the middle so either could grab it.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

I just say yes to all the standards and tell them same thing is happening. :P Having been a tech support person, I just wait for them to get to the pieces of documentation relevant to my problem. Charter is the worst now. You have to sit through 30-40 minutes of recording and having to answer stupid recording questions.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Ugh. :P

Some people once told Sonya ALL about how I was cheating on her and going to the store and the movies and holding hands with some other girl!!!!! The saw me out with my Mom.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I aargh on your general behalf. These are things I haven't had to put up with; I very much doubt that I would put up with them with good grace. But then I don't think good grace is really appropriate; I just think that, while removing the person's head, you shouldn't get too much blood on any valuable carpets. I mean, unless there's really no alternative.