Hi, I take the bus to school with my children.
There is often another mother and child from the same school on the bus. I gave up saying good morning a while ago, because she ignored me each time, so now we pretend we don't know each other.
There have been a few strange incidents on the bus, one ended with the mother whispering to the child and abruptly dragging her away from the seat beside us. Very obviously directed at us.
There has been nothing for a while, just a bit of turning and staring at us and quickly turning back, by the Mother. All very uncomfortable, but it's public transport, so we have to share it!
Today, when I went to pick up, I was a bit early and there was noone around. She walked up very quickly behind me out of nowhere, and then in front of me, cutting me off. She seemed angry. I was taken aback so just passed her and walked further up to the next gate. After a few minutes, she came up and stood in front of me, uncomfortably close and started to turn and glare at me on and off. She was kind of muttering, but I could feel absolute rage/hatred from her.
Other parents arrived, and the children came out.
Her child came out, and was obviously expecting to go on a playmate with another child. They were holding hands and had swapped scarves. The mother grabbed her child, took the scarf off and threw it at the other child. She was dragging her at this point and the child began to cry because she was meant to be going on a playmate. The other child's mother was calling after her 'hey what about the playdate' .At this point she had picked up the child who was now screaming and was actually running down the road. People were kind of a bit dumbfounded.
I am as sure as you can be, that this was as a result of me being there. It felt directed at me.
It is obvious to me now, that she is mentally ill, and I am completely unnerved by the situation, and now don't feel she is so harmless.
I don't know what has made her take this view of me, but she has obviously demonised me, and I'm a little scared of what could happen next.
I don't know what to do. Should I say something to her like 'have I offended you, you seem quite upset with me?', or would that antagonise her?
If she is fixated on me, should I be worried?
I really want to me tell my Mum friends, but I don't want to seem like I'm gossiping about her, because she is obviously not well, but I also feel like if it's escalating I should probably tell someone?
Thank you for reading!