To be annoyed at "trampoline" woman at a fete

[springchik]

We went to a fete this afternoon. There was some trampolines which my boys wanted to go on. Anyway as my 2.8 year old was going up the steps to the trampolines he kicked over a slush puppy drink that was on the top step. I apoligised and the woman who had taken my money said that thats all right it was my daughters shes only just bought it and it cost her £1.50. Child looked around 10. She said it very sarcasticly and looked like she was fuming. Anyway ds1 came off first so I took him off and helped with his shoes and a minute later ds2 was called so i turned to dh and said I'd fetch him off he wont come off otherwise you know what he's like. At which point the woman turned to me and said oh yes I know what hes like he knocks over childrens drinks again looking annoyed!

He is 2 and the drink in question was on the top step leading up to the trampolines!

the drink was a health and safety risk anyway -

yanbu why did her daughter leave it there in the first place, the mum sounds a bit of a cow.

grr sad cow obviously has nothing better in her life to do than make petty comments.

yanbu, drink shouldn't have been left there.

Stupid place to put drink.
(I do hope it didn't stain his clothes or anything)

Have I missed something? Your child knocked over another child's drink, you didn't offer to replace it, and you're surprised her mother was annoyed.

the polite thing to do would be replace it im afraid. but then she shouldnt have been so bitey and bitchy!

Well I would have offered to replace it personally.

She shouldnt have offered to replace it simply because it shouldnt have been on the floor. It's not as if the boy did it on purpose !

You don't make it clear whether it was deliberate or accidentally kicked over. As you felt the need to apologise, I would suspect that the polite thing would be to have offered to replace it.

Although if I were the girl's mum, I would have politely declined. However, it sounds as if she felt your DS had done it deliberately.

Silly place to leave a drink (and dangerous too) but I would have offered to replace it

If drink had been on a table or he had knocked it out her hands I would have said polite to offer to replace but it had been left in the walkway so not somewhere you'd be expecting to look out for a drink. YANBU.

No ds did not do deliberately he was just very excitedly going up to the trampolines! I was quick to apologise but I am often rather too quick to apologise thats just me I'm afraid! She had already established his age because I had to go up with him to make sure he was ok etc. I felt it should not have been placed on the step for it to be kicked over.

Sounds to me like she was trying to wangle £1.50 out of you, probably kept topping it up from a cheap 29p bottle in her bag,putting it on the step, and waiting for unsuspecting mums and their unco-ordinated toodlers.

I honestly didnt see why I should. Hes a proper toddler always falling over etc. He doesnt look or act older than his age. I thought it was more that it was her with the proble iyswim!

Well, she didn't have to be rude, that was uncalled for, but accident or not, your son spilled the drink and manners dictate that you replace it.

You don't just replace things that have been broken / damaged / spilled / ruined on purpose, or that you have damaged while they were in a place that you consider acceptable, reasonable or suitable - you replace things that you have rendered unusable, however that occurs.

You can't complain about her rudeness when you displayed rudeness yourself by saying sorry and walking away.

Ok, it shouldn't have been there, but that's no reason to have a 'tough titty, you should have been more careful' attitude, while at the same time complaining about rudeness.

I can't imagine knocking over a drink (or watching DCs do it) and not offering to replace it TBH, no matter where it was.

She probably thought you'd been rude, which accounted for her reaction.

The polite thing to do would have been to replace it (through gritted teeth).

It's a £1.50 drink. Both of you should move on. And up. From such effing pettiness

You should have offered to replace it, even though it shouldnt really have been there, due to the obvious likelihood of it being knocked by someone. But maybe as she was running the trampolines, she just didn't have anywhere else to put the slush puppy.

I remember some woman knocking past my table in a restaurant and knocking my whole glass of wine right onto my dinner plate which had just arrived at my table (and so full of food). She just said "oh sorry" and carried on lurching drunkenly past. Whereas my food was ruined, the table was a mess, my wine had gone and it totally spoilt my evening as I had to go looking for a waiter and explain what happened. They fixed my plate up in the kitchen but didn't replace the chips on the plate (which I'd paid extra for as a side) and by the time they'd brought it back DH had finished his mains and I had to eat my chip-less one while DH sat there waiting for me to finish. Totally ruined the evening. I was FUMING at the woman, I can't tell you.

If you do knock someone's drink over, even if it IS an accident and it perhaps was in a precarious place, then you just offer to replace it. Totally bad manners not to. If I had been the woman whose drink it was, though, and you'd have offered to replace it, just the gesture of offering that would have placated me and I probably would have said "Oh, never mind, thanks, it was a silly place to leave it - I was asking for it to be knocked over." I probably wouldn't have taken the money.

But you HAVE to offer.

Oenopod, if you don't want to see pettiness, don't read AIBU posts!!