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Original poster

This weird thing today with a group of boys

132 replies

LostInClothes · 11/08/2025 20:29

Interested in some feedback or thoughts about this as I am not a mum to boys and don't currently know any early teens to compare to.

I was rushing home through a busy town and on turning a corner noticed a small group of teens aggravating pigeons. They were taller than me so i very quickly presumed they were a bit older, so walked up to one to say hey, stop that.
On turning to me he was quite young, about 13, so I just said you don't want to upset those birds you never know what they're up to (a sort of joke as felt uncomfortable telling off a random kid).

He just looked confused, not unpleasant, and as I began to walk off his friends moved over and crowded around me. Same age, just a bit taller. One started to mouth off at me telling me to stop making trouble for his mate, to which I replied we were fine, there was no issue, but he wouldn't shut up.

What struck me was his attitude, it was as if he was facing up to a man. I was almost a foot smaller than this guy and more than old enough to be his mother. He was giving a sort of gang vibe, but without the proper aggression. I didn't feel threatened exactly, he was obviously showing off, but I did think it was bloody weird.

I saw something similar a few months ago on a long train journey. A group of early teen boys piled over towards a set of seats where one single woman was sat. She had been dozing as they sat around her. Whilst they didn't interact with her or harass her in any obvious way, they just completely overtook her personal space and crushed her in. This was an otherwise empty carriage, so no idea why they did that.

Is it just a sort of blindness to other people's discomfort, a just-their-age sort of thing? Or is this different? It struck me as a pretty odd way to act around grown women who are alone, and don't recall noticing anything similar in the past.

OP posts:
Sunburstclocklover · 13/08/2025 09:56

Imogene · 11/08/2025 20:49

It’s not just teens. An aggressive nasty man of about 70 started squaring up to me the other day. My crime?
Getting in the taxi I had ordered at the hospital where I work. Apparently he’d ordered one. The taxi driver calmly said to him that he’d been booked by me (a woman) but the man never stopped shouting at me to listen to him.
I was really scared and got the driver to take off quickly.

I agree. Couple of months ago I slowed down to read the departures/arrivals at the station. Man in his 70 bumped into me. I apologised and he snarled at me to be more fucking careful. As I only appear to be a middle class lady of a certain age I told him to go fuck himself! He scuttled off. Daft old bugger!

Ladedahlia · 13/08/2025 11:39

Tofudinosaur · 13/08/2025 06:34

One thing I’ve noticed is this change to calling women Karens by young people. I think that label often gets applied to any woman who opens her mouth to say anything and unfortunately young teens then seem to feel justified in standing up to and ridiculing Karens, often videoing it. It’s a bizarre social media driven bit of sexism

Yes and young women calling their mothers Karens. Awful.

AmIthatSpringy · 13/08/2025 12:10

BoundaryGirl3939 · 12/08/2025 00:07

I'd say you started picking on them first.

'Aggrevating pigeons?🙄who on the world cares if theyre running after pigeons?....of all the things to start a battle over. You drew them on you.

Also, teenagers are allowed sit anywhere on a train. It doesn't appear that they were intentionally being disrespectful to that woman. You just appear to see a threat where there is none, or get irritated for no reason.

Really?

Onthebusses · 13/08/2025 12:13

They're on the internet unsupervised being told equality for women means violence against women. There's no one to counter this.

Emonade · 13/08/2025 14:09

LostInClothes · 11/08/2025 20:29

Interested in some feedback or thoughts about this as I am not a mum to boys and don't currently know any early teens to compare to.

I was rushing home through a busy town and on turning a corner noticed a small group of teens aggravating pigeons. They were taller than me so i very quickly presumed they were a bit older, so walked up to one to say hey, stop that.
On turning to me he was quite young, about 13, so I just said you don't want to upset those birds you never know what they're up to (a sort of joke as felt uncomfortable telling off a random kid).

He just looked confused, not unpleasant, and as I began to walk off his friends moved over and crowded around me. Same age, just a bit taller. One started to mouth off at me telling me to stop making trouble for his mate, to which I replied we were fine, there was no issue, but he wouldn't shut up.

What struck me was his attitude, it was as if he was facing up to a man. I was almost a foot smaller than this guy and more than old enough to be his mother. He was giving a sort of gang vibe, but without the proper aggression. I didn't feel threatened exactly, he was obviously showing off, but I did think it was bloody weird.

I saw something similar a few months ago on a long train journey. A group of early teen boys piled over towards a set of seats where one single woman was sat. She had been dozing as they sat around her. Whilst they didn't interact with her or harass her in any obvious way, they just completely overtook her personal space and crushed her in. This was an otherwise empty carriage, so no idea why they did that.

Is it just a sort of blindness to other people's discomfort, a just-their-age sort of thing? Or is this different? It struck me as a pretty odd way to act around grown women who are alone, and don't recall noticing anything similar in the past.

it does seem to be getting worse teenagers acting like this? I had a similar thing where my little boy was looking a pigeon and these lads said we’ll kick it for you if you want and i just couldn't believe it when a baby was looking at them. I have also had teenage boys shouting and swearing at my baby.

Etiennethemad · 13/08/2025 16:16

When I was a kid we had teddy boys. They were mainly harmless but some had bicycle chains and cut throat razors. This was in the fifties. Not a lot has changed.

Overnightoats1 · 13/08/2025 17:01

I recently reported a group of youngish teen boys in their school uniforms trying to harrass passers by doing wheelies towards them on their bikes.. I think a lot of parents have no idea where these kids are and don't seem to really care. I agree with a huge lack of "solid, good, kind and hardworking" male role models for a large groups of teens now and they grow up think that behaviour is acceptable because the "cool , mouthy boy" does it.

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