I'm your waitress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something similar happened to me where I met a mom, and we both recognized each other’s name and face and thought we knew each other from somewhere, but we couldn’t figure out any common past interaction. We never did figure it out, but in this case, neither of us knew. Presumably the other mom knows in your case?

I do think she knows where we know each other from. The thing that is driving me nuts is that she appears to have some level of affection for me and for my kid, which is so kind, but also indicates that we knew each other more than just in passing. This is making me feel terrible, if I had some kind of friendship (even a casual or short-lived one) with this woman and I simply do not remember it.

Her face is extremely familiar to me but I cannot place her.

Sounds like a friend of the family or friend of a friend.

Next time just say it's so embarrassing and you're terrible with names and ask her.

was it at a swinger party?

Anonymous wrote:Ask an outgoing friend who doesn’t know her to come with you at the time and place you usually see her and said friend says “hi! I’m (your name here)’s friend Alalarla, nice to meet you” and she’ll introduce herself. Then said outgoing friend looks at the mystery person and asks “so how do you two know each other?”

Yes, this! Only twist is if the mystery person looks to OP to introduce her. Or gives her name but then looks at OP to explain how they met.

Maybe it's a gaslighting prank. Lol

Just ask her?!?!

Anonymous wrote:When you can’t figure it out it’s always the gym.

Or on the plane?

Ask an outgoing friend who doesn’t know her to come with you at the time and place you usually see her and said friend says “hi! I’m (your name here)’s friend Alalarla, nice to meet you” and she’ll introduce herself. Then said outgoing friend looks at the mystery person and asks “so how do you two know each other?”

OP here. I appreciate the support and ideas, even the silly ones. Thank you.

The last time this happened to me, I ran into a woman while shopping in a mall (a rare occurrence for me) who stopped and said hello to me by name and asked how I'd been doing. I was so flummoxed I wound up hugging her and having a whole conversation with her about vacation and kids. It was only later that I finally realized she was the fundraising director for a VERY prominent US Senator who I'd known only in a professional capacity while working on project two years prior. My behavior wasn't mortifying in that context, but she probably thought it was quite weird!

Anyway, since then I definitely worry more when I don't know where I know someone because, you know, different people have different contexts.

When you can’t figure it out it’s always the gym.

Ask a friend to introduce themself to her.

Snap a candid photo and then research to get an ID match.

I would put your kid on detective work and have him figure out the other child’s name and then go from there! One way that I checked to see if I know people once I know their name, it’s just search my emails for their name. I had a similar situation and when I finally find out the woman’s name, and did a quick email search, it turned out that she was in my playgroup 15 years ago!! I would never have put that piece together or figure out where I knew her from if I hadn’t found it in my email

You're not the only one. It took me 3 years to realize that a dad at my school was someone I knew professionally. I think a few months in, it's still OK to say, "This is a bit embarrassing, but I could you remind me of where we originally met?"

If she knows your kids name, the connection is fairly recent, correct? Not like someone from college.
More like pre-school, tiny tot soccer, summer camp, etc. You need to steer the conversation to things your kids did when they were little and see if you can uncover the connection there.
Or ask another mom at the school that you are friendly with. Tell her the issue and see if she knows were Larlo went to pre-school.