Why some mums are so weird ?

Honestly don't let it take up too much space in your head. Maybe this woman was hideously under slept or just having a bad day. I will say I've found that certain middle class mums can be very standoffish and unfriendly (and at times downright rude) in London and I've had some slightly weird interactions similar to the one you just described in playgrounds, soft play etc. i mean, it doesn't happen all the time but not rare either.... I definitely feel more wary about striking up conversations with mums in "naice" parts of town versus my slightly scruffy south London suburb where people seem to be more open and easier to read (massive generalisation, I know)

I suspect she just misunderstood you.

I attended an antenatal group many years ago and recognised a woman there. After the session had ended I asked her if we had met before because I recognised her. She looked me up and down and said no in a blunt way and walked off. I lived in north London at the time and there were many other instances of snooty behaviour. People are just weird. Glad I moved to the north where they are so much friendlier.

It’s just that some people behave differently to you. I expected some camaraderie of mums but got put in my place! It’s how people are, dealing with their own lives and issues. You do you, you sound like a nice person and don’t overthink regarding anyone who comes across as less positive.

Jeez some people even on this thread aren’t very nice either . This is why I hate Mumsnet at times coz if you don’t word a post exactly right people jump on you .

Some have forgotten how to be kind in life . We are all so busy that some refuse to help others and yet there’s a lot of people who make it their destiny to go out of their way to be kind . They have lovely souls .

Hands down, in the top 10 of weirdest posts I ever read. Who cares?!?! There are about the same amount of weirdos who are mothers as those who aren't.

Some people are just pricks.

A midwife walked down with me to be picked up from the hospital entrance after my c section. A pregnant woman, obviously in a state of distress, saw her in uniform and said “please tell me where the maternity unit is”. Midwife said, “sorry I have no idea”
and stood there smirking.

People can just be cunts.

Don't always assume the worst. Maybe she misheard you, maybe her auditory processing is poor, there are a hundred reasons she might have responded this way aside from "she's a dick".

I imagine she just misunderstood your question or answered automatically. Maybe she thought you were asking for the main entrance to the museum, rather than the activity, for example. And she wasn't lying when she said she was waiting for someone - she was waiting for the person running the activity to let her in.

I wouldn't automatically assume that she was maliciously giving you the wrong information - that would be quite unusual. I'd assume incompetence rather than malice in most situations!

Flipping heck @Butterfly1940 your last update 😲 deciding people are racists and calling them derogatory names based on a momentary exchange is not a good look. No wonder the woman didn’t want to engage further with you!

Why wouldn't you ask someone who was working there though? I don't think her reactions were that strange.

Dads, on the other hand- they're all such normal, rational people!

Sometimes stuff like this is just a brain fart though.

I had someone ask me where Maintland Park was a couple of years ago. Not a clue sorry, never heard of it. I get home and Google it out of interest and find out it's the closest park to me, that everyone just calls little park. (Because it's a park and littler than the other park nearby). Must have walked past it a million times and never realised that that wasn't it's real name.

I wouldn't think anything of it, not that weird. Maybe she was waiting for a friend who didn't show up. If there were a few mums & children waiting outside couldn't you have asked someone else where the entrance was/if there was a queue instead of asking the same mum again? Very odd to assume she was lying.

1. It might be that the park is known as something else locally to whatever name you referred to it by. Or they ‘knew’ where the festival was but didn’t actually know the name of the park

2. They might not have wanted you tagging along with them so didn’t say they were going there (avoiding the awkward walk you do with people you don’t really know)

I didn't mention the festival and they didn't have maps out, but probably.

No idea - there were still a few normal people a few local and a few who'd move there like us - and it did make me appreciate them even more but overall a huge relief to move on.

Day we moved here neigbours were round to welcome us and offer help and give us all the local information they thought might help us - couldn't have had a bigger contrast.

So she represents most mums does she? How strange to even be concerned about this

This took place in a very nice and pleasant area in London, so people were not in a rush nor stressed.

I must live on the unpleasant side of London then, here we are all in a rush and stressed 🤣

Or maybe they said to each other "That sounds interesting, let's go and check it out". And looked it up on the map themselves.

Do you mean the Natural History Museum? Is the area in front of it nasty and unpleasant? First I'd heard of it.

Some one probably would actually been helpful there

Being in a nice and pleasant area of London is no guarantee that people aren't rushed or stressed.

This woman might have terrible social anxiety that makes it hard for her to talk to anyone. She might have panicked when asked a question and lied as a default response. She might be living through some sort of horrible situation which was occupying her mind. She might be a victim of abuse, or have serious mental health challenges, or had her mum die the day before, or any of a million lesser but still unpleasant and difficult things.

It is possible, of course, that she deliberately lied about why she was there and not knowing about the entrance because she wanted to be malicious and hoped you'd get lost and not join the group. Some people are dicks sometimes. It happens.

It doesn't seem the most likely explanation, though.

Ideally, even people going through really difficult things would still make the effort to be helpful and polite. I agree that I would be quite put out / confused by her reaction in this situation. However, I would also argue that it's helpful to remember that we have no idea what other people have going on or what it's like to be in their heads.