Curious as to the numbers of those here who deal with face blindness.
When in public sales where you are required to go up to and sell, there were
advantages and disadvantages to my wiring. I started to notice that I couldn't recognize whom I had previously approached, and customers would laugh and say, ya already sold that to me. One woman whom I had approached said, in a rather surprisingly nasty way... You do not remember me? You are handicapped. That is ok, I work with the handicapped.
This has always happened.
Most of the time it happens with those I infrequently see.
Other times, it happens if the person I see has been taken out of the normal
environment I am accustomed to seeing them in.
It can be a person (teacher) who I do weekly volunteer in classroom work with.
In that case I may be at a checkout in a grocery store, and not connect their face as a result of that environment, which is no longer in the 'picture'.
In one case I had to turn to my son who was in 2nd grade and whisper... quick... who is that?
He turned to me and said What??? That is my kindergarten teacher mom! So embarrassing,
as I try to stay under the radar and not let on!
In another case, a woman comes up to me, leaving her place in line to ask how are ya? I say fine, and ask how she is.. totally flustered and embarrassed. That was the low for me, for she seemed to think I was weird. That last one was hard, for after wracking my brain, I remembered whom she was and somehow my response may have hurt her.
I mentioned in another post, when my dog is with me, I know to just respond like I really know the person and go into a lively Hey how are you? I just take his word this is a friend for how he greats the person with recognition in stead of comfort mode. Comfort mode he reserves for new people. Recognition mode is for people he and I have met. That is, unless he doesn't like the person, in which case for some reason, I never forget a face of a person my dog doesn't trust lol. It is worth noting *really noting!* which people he doesn't like for I stay at a distance from those. He also knows if a friend is at a crowded large indoor or outdoor market in Mexico. He sniffs them out, literally.
This pooch is very social and likes having friends. We call friends that pass our combined sniff test, Perro Amigos. My dogs presence acts as a buffer socially for me, as we get lots of dog lovers coming up to us. But again that's yet another topic!
When in public sales where you are required to go up to and sell, there were
advantages and disadvantages to my wiring. I started to notice that I couldn't recognize whom I had previously approached, and customers would laugh and say, ya already sold that to me. One woman whom I had approached said, in a rather surprisingly nasty way... You do not remember me? You are handicapped. That is ok, I work with the handicapped.
This has always happened.
Most of the time it happens with those I infrequently see.
Other times, it happens if the person I see has been taken out of the normal
environment I am accustomed to seeing them in.
It can be a person (teacher) who I do weekly volunteer in classroom work with.
In that case I may be at a checkout in a grocery store, and not connect their face as a result of that environment, which is no longer in the 'picture'.
In one case I had to turn to my son who was in 2nd grade and whisper... quick... who is that?
He turned to me and said What??? That is my kindergarten teacher mom! So embarrassing,
as I try to stay under the radar and not let on!
In another case, a woman comes up to me, leaving her place in line to ask how are ya? I say fine, and ask how she is.. totally flustered and embarrassed. That was the low for me, for she seemed to think I was weird. That last one was hard, for after wracking my brain, I remembered whom she was and somehow my response may have hurt her.
I mentioned in another post, when my dog is with me, I know to just respond like I really know the person and go into a lively Hey how are you? I just take his word this is a friend for how he greats the person with recognition in stead of comfort mode. Comfort mode he reserves for new people. Recognition mode is for people he and I have met. That is, unless he doesn't like the person, in which case for some reason, I never forget a face of a person my dog doesn't trust lol. It is worth noting *really noting!* which people he doesn't like for I stay at a distance from those. He also knows if a friend is at a crowded large indoor or outdoor market in Mexico. He sniffs them out, literally.
This pooch is very social and likes having friends. We call friends that pass our combined sniff test, Perro Amigos. My dogs presence acts as a buffer socially for me, as we get lots of dog lovers coming up to us. But again that's yet another topic!
