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AIBU?

to find people rude and bloody unfriendly

48 replies

uptherear · 17/02/2013 18:53

Perhaps its me and I am odd.

We moved area (few hundred miles) and i findsuch a difference in the people here.

It keeps coming up and today again i was left feeling like some odd bod.

In park and there are lots of folk with kids. At climbing tower Im waiting for my DD2 to get on when some Dad followinv his toddler up says 'i'm going to have to follow him up'. So I smiled/laughed and said 'no need to make excuses, on you get, have fun'!
No reply, no chat. Honestly if kid hadn't been up frame Im sure he'd have run. I was with DH and other dc btw, not hanging round looking lonely!!

Five mins later a 2/3 year old is hanging off s climbing frame at least 4 ft from groundand no obvious person with him, so i lift him down. Woman appears beside me, torn faced and says 'he is fine, i was watching him'.
Honestly is this where society is at or is it maybe a regional thing. I remember small talk wiyh dtrangers at the park and a general feeling of friendliness.
Aibu and should i just shut up and mind my own business?

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uptherear · 17/02/2013 18:54

sorry about typos, big fingers and small phone!

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TitHead · 17/02/2013 18:55

YANBU how strange.

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Seabright · 17/02/2013 18:56

Where are you now and where were you before?

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Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 18:56

Where did you move from and too? Sad

People are very lovely in my part of the country.

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HedgeHogGroup · 17/02/2013 18:58

Around here you can go ANYWHERE and be assured that someone (everyone) will stop to chat to you.
However, my PIL live 'Down South' (think medium market town, not London!) and I do find it different. People don't give each other the time of day and are generally more reluctant to chat in similar situations to those you describe.
I find it beyond irritating as I'll talk to anyone!

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ifso · 17/02/2013 19:02

Completely understand you OP it used to really bother me, but I've since learned to let it float over me. Hard though. Maybe they had no English? Maybe fed up? Maybe just downright rude! Yanbu. It is hard work out there!

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wintertimeisfun · 17/02/2013 19:07

at a guess she probably felt embarassed that she wasn't the one there looking after her child so she (rudely) put you down as she was embarassed/got defensive...

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uptherear · 17/02/2013 19:10

Moved from Glasgow to Inverness.
People in Highlands much more reserved. Not always a bad thing but some days i just feel so tired of it always being hard work.

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andubelievedthat · 17/02/2013 19:15

Yup, its like a bloody jungle out there ! there is imo no excuse, plain and simple,> ignorant people(mostly) populate this country.And they make ,with their ignorance ,daily living ,hard work.

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Melawen · 17/02/2013 19:20

It is a shame that people aren't more friendly, BUT I was originally thought very cold and unfriendly by someone who is now a good friend of mine because she didn't know I am deaf and I didn't know she was speaking to me!! I'm always super alert to the fact that someone might be talking to me but I don't always realise! Blush

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uptherear · 17/02/2013 19:27

Definitely no problems with hearing on their part. I have slight deafness in one ear so pretty aware of these things I hope.

I don't want to find a new best friend each time I go to the park but just exchanging a few words, bit of chit chat, its good. Makes the world a nicer place. I find ignoring everyone else completely wrong!

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MissyMooandherBeaverofSteel · 17/02/2013 19:30

People in the Highlands are reserved? Grin

I moved from the Highlands to the Midlands last year and have went from being able to talk to any old random on the street about anything for hours to people just looking at me weirdly and shuffling off.

Only one person here has really spoken to me and I had to ditch her pretty quick smart because she was just too much. Popping over at 1am if her dh was out walking the dog and saw my light on, popping over at 7am if she saw I was having a glass of wine in the evening to make sure I was up with the kids and not hung over, 'helpfully' pointing out all my flaws with my weight, parenting, job prospects, trying to set me up with her son despite me reminding her several times that I was married I just came down a couple of months before dh to settle the kids into school and home before his transfer with work, then going off on one because she 'acted like a mother' to me and I didn't get her a mothers day card Confused as well as many many other things. There is no middle ground here between over needy and nothing it seems.

Give me the Highlands any day of the week.

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DreamingOfTheMaldives · 17/02/2013 19:35

Get a dog and then you're never short of someone to chat to in the park!

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uptherear · 17/02/2013 19:36

Missymoo perhaps you were in a different area of the Highlands? I do know some lovely folk I have met up here that are crazy mad and I love them. They speak their mind, a spades a spade and they have a sense of humour to boot. However it is my experience so far that they are a tiny minority and the reserved superficial business like people the norm.

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uptherear · 17/02/2013 19:49

I have dogs already, no different than when with the dc.
When I lived in Glasgow I made lots of friends through dog walking. Here I have made none. Ive offered to woman in my street to walk together, let dogs play but wasn't taken up on offer.

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LessMissAbs · 17/02/2013 21:11

YANBU. I moved from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and I found exactly the same thing. Bloody rude and unfriendly (with some exceptions). I went to Glasgow for the day recently and was almost shocked that people were friendly, I had got so used to being snapped at in shops, knocked out of the way in queues and totally blanked in social situations when I introduced myself to strangers. Went abroad recently to visit a couple of friends and I almost fainted several times, so unused was I to people at parties actually introducting themselves to me and being friendly and interested in what I had to say!

I think in Inverness there are some friendly types in sports clubs and hill walking groups perhaps?

My favourite "incident" was at New Year, DH and I went to a Hogmanany Dinner Dance, ticket only, with another couple, were seated at a table with some people we don't know. As I sat down, I said "hello" to the man I was sitting next to, he actually blanked me and turned away, never to glance at me again! Not one person spoke to us all evening, I tried a couple of times but after getting one or two word answers, gave up. It was one of the most soul-destroying, miserable evenings of my life.

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Piecesofmyheart · 17/02/2013 21:13

I agree about the Midlands - suspicious glances and 'You're not from round here are you' seemed to be the sum of conversation from anyone you tried to have a friendly word with Grin

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Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 21:14

Everyone come to Worcestershire. We are all lovely/chatty/friendly. Smile

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LessMissAbs · 17/02/2013 21:14

Did I mention the time I left a gap in the queue at the supermarket? You know when its really busy and the front of the last aisle before the checkouts would get blocked if you didn't leave a gap? The two men behind me took great consternation to this and after a bit of tutting and shoving me from behind, one actually said to me "Do you no want to stand in the queue?" I tried to explain the quaint custom of leaving a gap, but he actually swore at me under his breath before I'd finished, and nipped in front of me, followed by the other man!

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MissyMooandherBeaverofSteel · 17/02/2013 21:17

I was in Elgin mostly, but I've lived in Inverness for a while too, and I have lived just outside of Aberdeen as well. I have only encountered the odd weird unfriendly person in over 25 years up in Scotland. Maybe I was the strange over friendly person that everyone was trying to escape Grin

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NorksAreMessy · 17/02/2013 21:18

Yes sparkling we are!
Have been doing a crafty thing all day at a Worcestershire countryside centre and without exception every single person I spoke to was chatty, friendly and appreciative. It was BRILLIANT.

Please keep trying OP, you might just have fallen into 'miserable buggers' day' at the park and they might be lovely tomorrow

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NorksAreMessy · 17/02/2013 21:20

But I lived in Preston for 10 years (born in Essex)
They HATED me there :(

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BabyRoger · 17/02/2013 21:20

I moved from Edinburgh to the East Midlands - folk are much less friendly here, I have found. I find the West Midlander's very friendly.

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Sparklingbrook · 17/02/2013 21:20

Ooh did you have anything to eat there? If it's the one i am thinking of their cakes are fab Norks. Grin I think people in our County are lovely.

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DameFanny · 17/02/2013 21:23

Oh bollocks to Worcestershire being friendly. But at least it was bad enough to make me take a long hard look at the cunt I was going to marry and run back east

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