Who was right - me or my mother?

[DanglyBangly]

I was in the petrol station today with my mother in the passenger seat. It was busy so I vacated my pump by squeezing between two cars at the pumps in front. There was enough room but I was going carefully nonetheless. A middle-aged man who was coming across the forecourt from the shop stopped to beckon me through, indicating that I had enough space and was fine to continue.

I said, ah, that was nice of him. My mum snorted and said ‘ Hrmph. Sexist. If you were a man, he wouldn’t have done that’

I just thought it was a nice gesture but to be fair, she is probably right, he is much less likely to have done that if I were a 40-something man.

What do you think?!

I agree with your mum!

It sounds like he was trying to help. I wouldn’t be offended as long as he wasn’t making fun of me.

There are a lot more important things to worry about, surely.

I’m not worried about it, I’m just interested in the different perceptions of the same event!

I think you're both right. It was nice of him but also he probably wouldn't have done it if you were male.

My FIL would have done that to anyone, male or female.

I once observed him beckoning a white van man into a huge space - totally unnecessary. He can’t help himself!

So I think it depends on whether he’s kindly but interfering as a person, or just sexist. No way to know.

Why do men do this, and it is always men? Hey I can drive a car, park a car, parallel park, park in tight spots, I don't need some man to confirm whether or not I'm getting it right. No women, ever, has done this to me me, ever.

Absolutely cannot stand when men do this to me. They see a woman in a big car and immediately think she's out of her depth. Makes me want to run them over

I think in this case it was probably someone trying to helpful if it was a bit of a squeeze, but you can't tell what his thoughts were.

I would be offend in certain situaitons, but not that one I don't think.

Your mum was right.

I'm with your mum on this one. A couple of weeks ago I had a guy indicating (with his hands) when it was safe for me to pull out of parking space. Well-meaning but I need to be sure myself that there's nothing coming.