Miscommunication is a huge part of life on Earth. Honestly, if the world is just a simulation, all of us would probably love it if it got patched out. It would make everything much simpler and help avoid a ton of headaches. But things are as they are: people constantly misinterpret things, which can lead to a lot of uncomfortable, hilarious, and embarrassing situations.

Case in point, redditor u/ZacZupAttack, who is a dad, opened up to the r/tifu online community about a recent misunderstanding with a random mom. While the dad was trying to set up a potential playdate for his kid, the woman completely missed this and thought he was picking her up. You’ll find the full viral story, as well as the internet’s reactions to the situation, as you scroll down. Bored Panda reached out to the author for further comment, and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from him.

Parents organizing playdates for their children isn’t something out of the ordinary

A dad went online to share how one mom completely misinterpreted his request for a playdate. Here’s his story

Image credits: ZacZupAttack

People often judge others based on initial appearances alone

Image credits: jpozzi /envatoelements (not the actual photo)

It’s possible that the mom saw the author and made some superficial judgments about his intentions without listening to what he was saying.

The halo effect is a common cognitive bias, where our impressions of a person influence how we perceive their character. Often, this is related to an individual’s physical appearance.

To oversimplify, this means that someone who is attractive is also likely to be seen as kind, smart, and skilled, even if they’re none of these things. It’s very common to see celebrities being overly glorified as being more capable than they are because they’re successful, beautiful, and likable.

The reverse halo effect, aka the horn effect, works in a similar fashion. It’s when somebody judges a person based on a single thing that they know about them. For instance, they might see someone who they deem to be unattractive and think that they’re also unkind, unintelligent, and lack competence.

It’s likely that the mom fell prey to this effect because of how the author looked. “I’m a big dude. Lotta people say I look scary type look,” u/ZacZupAttack wrote.

Asking strangers about a possible playdate for your kids can be a bit awkward at first

If someone’s got tunnel vision and is set on seeing everything through their narrow perception of the world, then there’s not much you can do about it. Someone who’s arrogant and entitled tends to put their ego first and generalizes other people based on superficialities.

It takes someone with an open mind and a dash of humility to at least consider the possibility that they might have misread a situation. Everyone’s wrong about something eventually. But whether or not we admit to this tells a lot about our character.

If you’ve been misheard or misinterpreted, the best you can do is repeat yourself or clarify what you meant. This is exactly what the author, u/ZacZupAttack, did. However, despite this, he still couldn’t find a way for the random mom to understand that he wasn’t flirting with her but trying to set up a playdate for their kids.

A bit of small talk and an introduction can help break the ice with other parents and make things less awkward while you all stand around waiting for your kids to finish playing.

If you want to set up a playdate for your and someone else’s kids, the best way to do this is to be direct but friendly. You could, for example, mention that you think your children seem to be getting along well, and then you could ask them if they’d be interested in a playdate at all.

You don’t want to make it seem like you’re pressuring them: you’re merely taking the opportunity to do what you think is best for everyone’s kids. In terms of location and activities, you could start things off by doing a simple get-together at the local playground to see if the vibes match.

If not, no worries—nobody is obligated to be best friends right off the bat, sometimes things don’t work out. But if things go fine, you could eventually move up to other fun activities that you think your children might enjoy.

The dad later added some further context in the comments of his post

The author got some mixed reactions. Here are some people’s perspectives on what happened

Some folks had similar stories of their own to tell