A confusing conversation

I am hoping that at least some of you will see the funny side of the following and be able to laugh with me, or at least smile knowingly.

On Saturday, I happened to be within earshot of a telephone conversation between my son and my mother (he'd got her on speakerphone). I heard her telling him that she had used the JustEat app to place an order for some groceries from Sainsbury's, but that before she had managed to complete the order, she had urgently needed to visit the bathroom. My mother then says that she was amazed at how quickly it was delivered. After a brief exchange of puzzled glances, my son and I quickly realised that my mother was referring to the speed of the JustEat delivery, and (thankfully) not to her bathroom activity.

Conversations with my mother can often seem confusing and utterly bizarre. I just hope that if I live long enough to be the age that my mother is, I don't end up causing my son as much confusion as my mother causes us. 

  • I'm with your mum. I wouldn't use a word 'delivery' to do with solids or liquids arriving in the toilet pan... It is something that comes to the front door, or through the letterbox. Some people are quite accurate in the words they use, but their brain works too fast and makes more connections than we can keep up with. It is hard to know which points to include when telling a story as there are lots of contextual things which are important to me, but may not help the other person understand the story I'm relating. Inferences (that there is another definition of, or way to use, 'delivery') wouldn't occur to me.

  • I'm glad it amused you.

    Oh dear! I am sorry to hear about your fear, but I think it's a fairly common one (not just within the autistic community).

  • Yes, that's true enough. 

  • Well, the thing with my mother is that it's not always obvious, especially as she's not averse to going into great detail with my son and I about her bowel movements. I think her exact words were that she was "amazed at how quickly it had come through". Laughing

  • Honestly I didn’t even think about the bathroom activity, it was somehow obvious to me that the delivery was about the order from the app, I started laughing when I red about yours and your son confusion. Funny story, made me smile in the morning :)) 

  • everyone gets a chance at it at some point.

  • That was funny! Joy

    And also this thing happens to me all the time and has turned into a fear: people somehow always knock on my door when I'm in the bathroom and sometimes I can't use it without being super anxious!