To have deliberately given this kid a fright?

[heavenisaplaceinperth]

School run this morning, I was almost at school when a boy of 4 or 5 pulled right off the pavement on his bike and directly into my path. His mum was walking along chatting to someone, neither of them noticed me. It's a small narrow road, speed limit is 20 and I was going at probably about 8mph, and pretty much anticipated that he was going to head off the pavement without even a glance backwards - I just had a feeling!

So I was prepared to brake, did sharply and although he hadn't been in any danger from me, I beeped my horn loudly anyway. He stopped, burst into tears and his mother reached into the road and grabbed him, while looking daggers at me as if I'd been at fault!!

I didn't beep just to make a point, but in the hope it would shock him into being more careful next time! If I'd been the mother I would have been so apologetic! WIBU??

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

Ywbu.

[RidersOnTheStorm]

No. YWNBU. You may have saved his life further down the line.

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

Nope you were not unreasonable, the mother got a fright and hence the daggers, I'm sure when she thought about it she's realise she was in the wrong.

[DropYourSword]

I bet you'll get some people saying you were but I don't think so at all. Thank goodness you are a decent enough driver to read the road and anticipate this was going to happen. I hope a shock like that will be enough to get him to be more careful in future because he might not be so lucky next time.

[AStreetcarNamedBob]

YANBU!

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

I'm sorry but you literally say in your post he was in no danger from you, yet you beeped. You took it upon yourself to 'teach him a lesson' when he wasn't in danger. Imagine if everyone started doing that. Sorry but I don't think that's right. If you literally had to do an emergency stop to avoid hitting him then totally. But you didn't.

[sooperdooper]

Yanbu - hopefully it'll teach him and his mum a lesson to watch more closely what's going on! You could've been another driver going quicker who couldn't stop in time

[DropYourSword]

He was in no danger from the OP but could have been if it was another driver PaulAnka.

Surely being beeped at is preferable to being run over in future by being so stupid as to just blindly go onto a road without even looking.

[zofranks]

I am on the fence with this one, I did something similar to a teenage girl who I did nearly hit but she fell off her bike in fright & I felt really guilty, ultimately though the mum should have been watching him

[readingrainbow]

Better a fright than being run over by a car.

[snorepatrol]

Ywnbu hopefully you taught him and his mum a lesson

[Ameliablue]

He probably got a fright anyway and would have had a telling off from his mum, so there wasn't any need for you to deliberately try to frighten him.

[Hariasa]

I would imagine the Mother's daggers were because she got a fright too.

[HopeClearwater]

You did the right thing!
I can still remember a fright or two that got as a child from this kind of thing and it damn well made me look out for myself better on the roads. And no it wasn't nice. But it's all part of learning road sense.

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

Yes Sword but are we all to start doling out lessons on 'what ifs'? It's not on really. He wasn't in danger right then, it was not the op's place to frighten him for the next time. She doesn't know, it could have been a simple lapse in judgment.

[ElderlyKoreanLady]

I've done similar OP, YANBU. In my case things were more sudden and I was doing 30mph (the limit) but made the decision to sound my horn to frighten the child once I realised their parent hadn't even realised he'd almost gotten run over. This is one of the few circumstances where I think it's perfectly fine to frighten someone's child on purpose.

[Lockheart]

No-one gets hurt from being beeped at. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

Perhaps next time he will remember and will look before darting into the road, and perhaps his mother will pay closer attention. A valuable lesson.

[OneMagnumisneverenough]

You can use your horn to alert someone as to your presence. Presumably he was still on the road in front of your car after you stopped so you were making him aware that there was a car on the road. Nothing wrong with that.

[heavenisaplaceinperth]

Phew! I'd been thinking I was ogre school run mum!

[DropYourSword]

It takes a village and all that PaulAnka.

[DonkeysDontRideBicycles]

Good job you anticipated what he'd do! I maybe would have wound the window down and hailed the mum. She really should have been watching her DC.

[Alexa444]

You were right. Clearly his mother wasn't parenting him and if you hadn't had a feeling about him he would now be dead. He might think in future. Better to make him jump now than him be killed a week later because he is convinced everyone will stop for him.

[PaulAnkaTheDog]

It takes a village and all that - I hate that being doled out as an excuse for unsolicited advice or 'help'!

You're on my list now Sword...

[DropYourSword]

I know, I generally hate it too. I'm now on my own bloody list