I had a job in a pub for a while. Serving drinks that sort of thing. It was quite busy one day. As I was making some drinks I hear this noise. It was this sort off owl sounding hooting. I had to pause a couple of times to confirm I wasn’t going mad. I asked my Co worker “can you hear that?”. They said what? I said it sounds like an owl. Then I start asking everyone very vocally can anybody hear that? Is there an owl outside?
Turns out behind the pillar next to the bar (not visible to me) was a critically disabled child in a wheelchair maybe 12 years old, making a series of groaning and hooting noises. It was obvious immediately how severe his disability was and I just had to look away and pretend I hadn’t confused him with a bird of prey.
TL;DR: I thought a Critically disabled child was an owl and proceeded to demand from the whole pub vocally if they could here an owl too. This was done while the child’s family were being seated.
Comments
You honestly thought it was an owl. Disabled child sounded like an owl. You had every right to think it’s an owl. I see no FU here.
i did something similar at my job in phone customer support, i started talking about parrots because i thought i could hear one in the background of my call and the lady goes “oh that’s my autistic son”…
Knowing any pub, bet the regulars responded Who?
You didnt see the source. You were busy working at a bar. Things happen – its not a FU but an Oops/misunderstanding.
This is a hoot!
Look at the bright side…that very disabled child had no idea you thought it was an owl.
It’s not your fault he kept asking who… you were just answering his question
I wouldn’t say that is the FU. My severely disabled daughter passed away at 12. She was nonverbal on a vent and gtube. She could make a cooing noise as a way to communicate when she made a leak in her cuffed trach. When we used a Passimuir valve she would constantly make noises. She became disabled so young she lost a good bit of fine motor control and making noise was something she could do easily on her own. As a parent I wouldn’t be offended if the noise was mistaken for someone else.
As a PSA, I think the only FU would be if you didn’t treat them like any other child. I know my Sophie wanted to be treated like a normal little girl. People either shied or looked away or stared but very few waved or greeted her or said anything to her. If I can do anything in her name I would say talk to them like they are normal, even if they cannot respond back. You may make their day.
Dont know why you think it’s a FU.
If the average child was making owl noises and you found out it wasn’t an owl but some kid, wouldn’t you compliment him for that insanely good impression?
Don’t know why the situation would be any different just because he’s disabled.
Also, complimenting the kid’s great impression might just make his day!
Did you know someone in this post is an owl in disguise?
Who?
This is funny. Please don’t feel bad. I have a nonverbal child that makes unique noises. At a big museum once I told my husband I could find them by listening for her noises.
The owls are not as they seem…
My mom had the opposite! For years she thought it was a disabled child…nope, just the neighbourhood owl😂I saw it flying around often and she never believed me until she saw it herself. Now she jokes about it every time we hear a hoot
“They say you sound like an owl”
“Who?”
“Exactly!”
For all we know, kid was trying to sound like an owl. mission accomplished.
As a parent of a nonverbal but very vocal disabled child this would have made me laugh. Don’t stress at all.
Omg I used to work at a grocery store and had the exact same experience!! I was like what the hell that sounds like an owl but there’s no fn way there’s an owl in here?? Turns out it was some disabled guy going “whoooo” over and over.
I once said “it’s alright I have two hands!” when someone told me I didn’t have to help them load my grocery order.
The words literally were pouring out of my mouth as I noticed.
He didn’t.
It’s ok. One time when I was home (apartment) all day, I kept hearing what sounded like a crying dog. It was like the dog wasn’t quite sure how to howl but was doing its best. As the day wore on, I got annoyed by it. I tried to be patient, figuring someone left their newly adopted dog at home for the first time.
When I took my dog for his afternoon walk, we passed the building next door and a woman was coming out of her apartment with her disabled child in a wheelchair. It instantly hit me that it wasn’t a dog I’d been hearing, it was the kid. The woman was nice, introduced herself and her son, said she was new, apologized for the noise, said it was the only way her son could communicate.
I felt like such an ass because I had decided that if the ‘dog’ was still going off by the time I got back from the walk, I’d call management.
I did the same thing thinking there was a baby in the building. It was a middle school student.
That’s funny because I hear kids screeching and squawking all the time at my grocery store job and I’ve taken to calling them ‘Little Birds’ whenever I hear them. It makes the parents laugh and feel less embarrassed about their loud kid, hopefully.
My friend had an aunt who was a little person and one time at my friend’s son’s baptism I started patting my 7yo on the head and I looked down and it was her aunt.
Oh no, that’s such an awkward mix-up! Hope you both laughed it off!
Dude. One time when my son was young we went trick or treating. I saw a little kid dressed exactly like Mr. Spock. I was like “omg, are you into Star Trek? I see you’re Mr. Spock!” And I did the hand/finger split thing.
Turns out it was a developmentally disabled child with weird ears, a bad haircut, and a light blue sweater. Mother. Fucker.
My cat frequently sits on the patio and meows frustratedly at birds, dogs, passersby and the general state of the universe. I often meow back at her from around the corner. We enjoy our little chats.
Last summer, I heard what I assumed was my cat up to her antics so I meowed back at her, she meowed back at me, we continued like this for several minutes until I went outside to see what she was so excited about anyways.
As you could probably assume, it wasn’t my cat I’d been meowing at. No, it was my new neighbor with her severely mentally disabled child enjoying a walk in the courtyard under my window, with the kid making some enthusiastic yowls and the mother glaring at me in a way that made me fear for my life for the rest of the summer.