Getting older is hard enough without feeling like people have already decided who you are the moment they see you.

This truck driver says she often gets strange looks when she stops at restaurants in wealthier areas, but a recent trip to an ice cream shop took things to another level.

After a long day of work, she stopped for a banana split at a place she had loved since childhood.

Instead of enjoying her treat, she says a teenage employee mocked her appearance, called her a Karen, and left her questioning whether she was being judged for how she looked.

So, after getting a refund and walking away, she started wondering if this was simply what getting older felt like.

Read on to see how it all played out.

Aitah for feeling hurt I received really bad customer service? Is this the norm for being a middle-aged woman?

I am a middle aged female truck driver. I look rednecky, and I had a really bad day. It is a bougie area. I get dirty looks when I eat at some of the restaurants.

I was done working for a few days. So, I go to get a banana split at an ice cream place. I have gone there since I was a kid, but the teenager was totally rude, mocking me and calling me Karen.

She kept arguing with me about whether I can get water with my ice cream and bugging me for a tip. She also did something gross to my banana split and made fun of my appearance.

That wasn’t her only bad experience.

I took it back and was hurt. The other teenage employees apologized, and I got a refund. They just lost a customer.

I also had coffee dumped on me twice at another restaurant in a bougie place. He was my age and got fired because apparently he did that a lot. I try not to be mean, but I was mad about the coffee though. I had to change clothes. I do like my food done right, and I tip well unless treated badly if I eat in.

Is this part of getting old?

AITA?

Yikes! What a terrible way to feel.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a cashier who was rudely confronted by a teenager, only to have the teen’s father step up in an unexpected way.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit have to say about aging and hurt feelings.

According to this comment, the story sounds fake.

She does not want to hear this!

For this reader, there’s too much of that behavior.

Here’s an interesting perspective.

Nobody likes feeling judged the moment they walk through the door.

And if the employee really behaved this way, the woman’s reaction seems completely understandable.

The fact that the other workers apologized right away says quite a bit about how inappropriate the interaction must have been.

So, this sounds a lot less like a problem with getting older and a lot more like a teenager who chose to give terrible customer service.