Just now, at the gym, a woman who worked there approached me, toddler in her arms, and asked, “It’s ok to give him goldfish, right?” I looked at the toddler, looked back at the woman, and, confused, tentatively answered, “Um…sure?” She laughed and asked, “You’re sure?” and I said, “Yeah, why not? Kids love goldfish. Everyone loves goldfish!” She smiled, said, “Ok, great!” and walked away.

20 minutes later, this woman approached me again (sans kid)….

Woman: “Why didn’t you tell me he wasn’t your kid?”
Me: “Um, I didn’t realize you THOUGHT he was my kid.”
Woman: “Why else would I ask you if he could eat goldfish?!”
Me: “I don’t know, I thought you were just looking for the genuine opinion of a complete stranger!”
Woman: “You didn’t think that was weird?”
Me: “Of course I did– but this is New York! Everyone is weird!”
Woman: “Yeah but that would be REALLY weird.”
Me: “You’re right…I guess I’m really weird for not realizing how weird it was…”

It turns out I happened to look like the woman who had dropped this kid off at the babysitting center in the gym, so when the gym babysitter had a question about the kid’s diet, she asked me, thinking I was the mom. When she told me this, I found it pretty amusing, so I started laughing and said, “Oh well– hope it was ok that you gave him goldfish!”

Woman (unamused): “It wasn’t.”

Oh.

I stopped laughing.