When I was eleven years old, my little brother, my mum, and I were on our way home from a day at Mum’s workplace. We waited at the bus station and got on our bus, and a few minutes later, we got off at the bus stop.

We were supposed to switch buses, but when we got off, I heard my brother tell Mum he felt dizzy. Then, he threw up on the ground. Mum hurried him to a flower bed and he puked even more there. I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there.

Mum: “Honey, I need you to go into the grocery store and get me some napkins and a bag. I’ll call us a taxi.”

I ran into the grocery store and got the napkins (which were free) and a bag. Then, I ran toward the checkout.

Cashier: “You gotta pay for that, kid!”

I am short, and she could just barely see the top of my shoulders from behind the register.

Me: *Holding out my credit card* “I was about to.”

Cashier: “But you can’t just buy a bag! You have to buy something else with it!”

Me: “Look, first, my brother just threw up outside the store, and I need this bag! Second, it’s not a crime to buy a bag without something else.”

Cashier: “But still, you gotta buy something with the bag! You can’t just buy the bag!”

I pointed to a large sign above my head that said, “Bag = [amount] kroner, with or without items,” or something like that.

Me: “As you can see, I can.”

The cashier then reluctantly proceeded to scan the bag, muttering something to herself.

Cashier: *Grumpily* “Anything else with that?”

Me: “No, thanks!”

The cashier then plastered a smile on her face.

Cashier: “Have a nice day!”

Me: *Smirking* “You, too!”

For the record, I am a woman, and I’m the one in charge of the Internet service and bills of the house. I’m also a programmer and gamer. My partner is a man.

One night, our doorbell rings at home, and I open the door.

Man: “Hello. Is [Partner] home?”

Me: “Yes.”

Man: “Can you call him?”

I do.

Man: *To my partner* “Which Internet provider do you have? How much are you paying?”

Partner: “That’s not something I handle. That’s her.” *Gestures to me*

Man: “Oh. In that case, I think she can listen to our talk, as well.”

By now, I considered this the first strike. He has learned that the Internet in the house was under my name, but I can still only listen.

Also, sadly, my partner wants to keep him going, while I would have shut the salesman down way earlier.

Man: “Do you know that your Internet price is now [amount] and will be [higher amount] starting next year?”

Me: “Wrong. I have the contract here, and these are the values we have now and will have next year.”

Man: “No, that can’t be right. That’s a good deal.”

Partner: “Yeah, she knew how to negotiate with them.”

We go back and forth about three times; he doesn’t believe the prices we have, even though I’ve shown him the contract.

Strike two.

Man: “And what speed do you have?”

Me: “500 Mb.”

Man: “Hmm, I don’t have anything to offer with that speed. But if you lower the speed, you can get a cheaper price.”

Well, duh!

Me: “Not interested.”

Man: *To my partner* “Are you a gamer?”

Partner: “Yes.”

Man: “But probably you can get by with a bit of a slower connection.”

Partner: *Pointing at me* “Again, she handles that.”

Man: *Very condescending* “Why do you need such speed? Obviously, you don’t need that.”

Strike three.

Me: “I am also a gamer! We both work from home. If we both want to play online, 250 Mb makes us lag in games.”

Man: *Very shocked and frustrated* “Oh, well… then I can’t really offer you anything. But remember my offer for next year.”

And then he finally goes away.

Partner: “Why was he so fixated on talking with me?”

Me: “Welcome to being a woman when it comes to technology.”

One thing is for sure: we won’t even consider that provider if I can’t negotiate a good contract with my current provider.

When I first moved away from home to study, I started out living in student housing. We all had our own rooms, but every floor shared a kitchen and common room. In Sweden, this is commonly referred to as a “student corridor”. There is no adult supervision, and people are expected to take care of themselves. I had a corridor neighbor who had, like most of us, just moved away from home. It was [Boy]’s first time on his own, and he was miserable.

We had to teach this poor boy EVERYTHING. It started with the mystery of why the plates in the communal kitchen were always greasy, even when they’d been put back into the cupboard as clean. It turned out that [Boy] didn’t know he had to use hot water to wash the dishes; he just rinsed them off and put them back.

He spent the first six months complaining about how he was always running out of money. This was because he didn’t know how to cook. The rest of us lived on the usual student diet of oatmeal and cheap pasta dishes and treated ourselves to a pizza on weekends. [Boy] got fast food every single day. I could feed myself for a month on his weekly meal budget.

I once found him in the laundry room, staring dumbfounded at a washing machine. He had no idea how to do laundry. I had to take him shopping for laundry detergent because he didn’t know what it was. He thought he could just put ordinary soap in there. 

To his credit, [Boy] was very grateful for the help and very frustrated that no one had taught him how to do all these things before he moved out.

Then, his mother came to visit. He happily introduced all of us as his friends. Then, she came up to me.

Mother: “I’ve heard so much about you! I’m so glad to finally meet my son’s girlfriend.”

Me: “Sorry, girlfriend?”

Mother: “Yes, [Boy] has been telling me all about how well you’re taking care of him.”

Boy: “Mom, I’ve already told you, we’re not together. She’s just been showing me how to do stuff. We’re friends, that’s all.”

Mother: “But you told me how good she is at cooking, and how she did your laundry, and—”

Me: “No, let me stop you there. We’re cooking together sometimes, but that’s so he can learn how it’s done. Same with the laundry; he didn’t know how to do it, so I showed him. People are supposed to know how to do this stuff for themselves when they move away from home!”

Mother: “How would my son be expected to know how to do housework?”

Me: “I don’t know. Maybe his parents should have taught him? Mine did!”

Boy: “She’s right, Mom. I should have known this before I moved out.”

Mother: “I guess I just expected you to have a girlfriend by now. You’re handsome enough. You’re going to be an engineer; you’ll make a lot of money someday!”

Boy: “And [My Name] is going to be a doctor. She still knows how to do her own laundry!”

Mother: “That’s different! She’s not a boy!”

He really was a sweet guy, and we did end up dating for a while a year or so later, but unfortunately, his mother was a dealbreaker.

After we graduated, I was invited to his wedding. He introduced me to his new wife as “the one who taught me how to be a man”.

I work in customer service for Danish customers; however, it is situated in Stockholm together with Swedish customer service. A customer calls in regarding a delayed shipment. It is always sad when this happens, but it does happen.

It turns out the shipping company sent the package in the wrong direction; it is in Norway! I offer to place a replacement order to have it to her as soon as possible. She does not like this; she wants the items the same day, and as I continue to tell her that isn’t possible, the magic words are said.

Customer: “I want to speak to your manager.”

Me: “Very well. You should know my manager doesn’t speak Danish, but he can speak English.”

Customer: “Then give me his manager.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but he doesn’t speak any Scandinavian language.”

Customer: “I want your Danish manager.”

Me: “I don’t have a Danish manager.”

Customer: “Yes, you do! I have spoken to him many times! He is the top manager.”

I realize who she is talking about; he is not at the top, but it might seem that way considering he is at the top of the sales department, which is in Denmark.

Me: “Oh, perhaps you mean the sales manager? Well, he isn’t here, but I can give you his number. You should know, though, that he is not my manager.”

Customer: “Well then, I don’t want to speak with him! I want to speak to your manager!”

Me: “Very well. I’ll get him for you.”

Customer: “And he has to speak Danish!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but he can’t—”

Customer: “I WANT YOUR DANISH MANAGER!”

There is a moment of silence.

Me: “I’ll get my manager for you.”

My manager takes the phone and replies in English.

Manager: “Hello, I’m the manager. What can I help you with?” *Pauses* “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t understand what you are saying.” *Pauses* “Ma’am…” *Pauses* “Ma’am…” *Pauses* “You know what? [My Name] can help you much better than I can. If she can’t fix your problem, neither can I, and she can understand you.”

He hands the phone back to me.

Customer: “I said I wanted your Danish manager!”

I give her the number to the Danish sales manager, telling her he is Danish and a manager. I also ask if I should proceed with the replacement order, but she says no, so I don’t. I do, however, keep working with the shipping company to reroute the package to the right country.

The next day the sales manager contacts me regarding a customer trying to contact him because [My Name] needs to get fired. Since he has no one there by that name, he assumes she means me, and he wants to know what happened. I tell him everything in detail, as well as the status of the package.

Sales Manager: “All right, I’ll call her.”

The day after that, he calls again.

Sales Manager: “So, the customer wants her order delivered today. Can we do that?”

Me: “No, she refused a replacement order; otherwise, it would’ve been there by now. I can place one now.”

Sales Manager: “No, she wanted you fired, so we won’t do her any favours.”

This was Thursday. Next Monday, the customer calls again.

Customer: “Your manager couldn’t help me, so I was hoping you could help me with a replacement order.”

Me: “Absolutely. Let me just check on your original order first. Let’s see… Yes, it will be delivered today.”

Customer: “Really?”

Me: “Yes, I’ve had them reroute it. A replacement order would’ve been there four to five days ago, but at least now you will have the items before the end of the day.”

Customer: “Oh… Well, I’ll need to call your manager again so he won’t fire you.”

Then, she hung up and I went on about my day. My manager never got any call, so I assume she called “my Danish manager”.

My husband and I were very excited to go to the movies. We did it all the time before having kids, but after, we never really had the time. This time, we were child-free for a few hours to see this movie we were both very excited about.

Because of the new rules after the global health crisis, we weren’t allowed to bring our own snacks, as they needed to get money back in order to survive after their losses, so we ended up spending quite a lot of money compared to our own income. But it was worth it, we thought.

A few scenes into the movie, the screen went black. We still heard the sound, so at first, we thought that maybe it was supposed to be black, but it just kept going. We were wondering when the staff would fix it, but no one did. Seeing as we were in the middle, we were quite happy to see someone go out to tell the staff. The image was fixed, and they rewound the movie. It was annoying, but they did fix it the best they could.

Then, it happened again. They were quicker to go and get the staff this time, and they did come after a while to fix it so we could actually see the movie and not just hear it, but this time, they did not rewind. So we decided we should get our money back for the tickets.

We went out and found the one service desk they have. Once it was our turn, we went up to the girl standing there.

Husband: “Hello. We were watching the movie when everything went black, twice, and we didn’t even get to see the whole movie.”

The girl listened and seemed to understand, but then she just stood there, waiting, not saying anything. We were waiting for a response but she was avoiding eye contact.

A man entered the service area and she let him by, and he printed something and went away again. She was still just standing there.

Me: “Um… Excuse me? Are you waiting for something, or…?”

She just nodded, still not looking at us. Then, the man from before came in again.

Girl: “Um, they also need help.”

Man: “Oh, you were also at that movie?”

Me: “Yes.”

Girl: “I thought you were printing it out for them.”

He hadn’t even been there when we explained, but we realised now that he was probably the manager and the only one who could fix it.

Man: “Oh, I am so sorry for the inconvenience.”

Then, he printed something and handed it to us: two new tickets.

Me: “Um, would it be possible to get our money back, instead? We aren’t sure when we’ll be able to go the movies again.”

Man: “Sorry, this is all we can do, and we are so sorry.”

With that, he left again. The girl still hadn’t even looked at us or said a word to us. We were rather confused not to get any information on what they could do or offer before they just shoved tickets into our hands. Well, at least we got something.