that only a mother of solely young female children would have reacted like this?

[OrmRenewed]

On holiday DD went for a hack at a stables. DH had taken the boys to the beach while she had her ride and they came back about 15 mins before she finished. I had a chat with one of the women who ran the place while I was waiting - she had a 6yr old DD. Just before DD was due to get back to the stables she went out into the yard. She came back a few seconds later, aghast, to say in a voice of horror 'there are two boys outside playing with plastic swords....!' DH said ' er yes, those'll be mine' and went out to remove them. She looked a bit uncertain and said 'Well, it's just the horses... you know...?'

AIBU to think that only a mother of girls only would have reacted like that? Anyone else would have felt the need to have finished the sentence with some further explanation, such as '..and they have poked each other's eyes out' or 'they have severed limbs' or even 'they have started a riot amongst the ponies'?

What a nutty thread!

Firstly not all boys are tomboys and not all girls are girly girls

Secondly not all parents of girls are screaming neurotics

Thirdly waving swords around would certainly spook horses

Maddy - did you read that there were no horses around, and that they were all out on a hack?

yeah right we're all namby-pamby neurotic types that would faint at the sight of a great rough boy being-er-boyish

I very much doubt that every horse was out on a hack - they have to rotate the horses so undoubtably some were still in the stable. Even if they were all out you say they were due back soon.

at the risk of being completely slated i wonder is it a 'horsey' world thing

my mil and sil own horses, as much as mil and sil love nephew they were so much more excited when neice came along!

also a lot of mil friends seem totally biased towards girls and tell of my ds and nephew for being too loud constantly

fwiw niece is turning out to be loudest and roughest of all of them!

They were all out - the OP makes it clear in an earlier post, and I'm sure that as soon as they heard them return they would have instantly stopped 2 little boys playing in a picnic area - if the horses were unable to cope with walking past that level of noise

At my stables it's perfectly normal for all horses to be out - either on hacks or in the fields.

Interesting that the op has disapeared. Perhaps she's realized how utterly idiotic this post is.

YABU. Although horses wern't there at the time she was probably expecting them back at any moment and sword playing would spook horses.

Well if they were due back at any time, I'm sure she and her DH would have stopped them playing. However, they weren't due back for another 15 minutes.

The hysteria from a woman in an empty stable yard over 2 little boys playing with plastic swords is what's utterly idiotic.

lol at 'hysteria'. you seem oddly invested in this, maisie.

I do so like a thread on MN with hysteria

I'm obviously far more laid back than I give myself credit for - 2 small boys waving 2 plastic swords around wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Either that or I've been surrounded by remarkably docile horses all my life!

wouldn't bother me either, which is MAD because i am a smog.

Ahh, but think of the po-neeeees - they are patently delicate fillies and mares if they are spooked by plastic sword waving boys

now now... that was NOT the point of the OP. everything to do with smogs, nothing to do with ponies.

Maybe not the point of the OP - but some of the responses have been a leeetle bit OTT, esp. when the po-neeees where nowhere to be seen.

Anyone - time to leave this thread I think. Nnnnneeeiiigghhhhhh

Anyway, even

Just read this thread and felt the need to comment. It seems to me that the OP was just letting of a bit of steam (it was posted in AIBU, after all!). At worst she was insensitive to mothers of only girls, but she was just being defensive of her children who had been criticised by a stranger, and who amongst us wouldn't have some sort of reaction to that?

I often enjoy the posts of expat and aitch on mumsnet, but on this thread you both came across as a pair of bullies, rounding on the OP - it was not her that turned the tone nasty, it was you two. There was no need to get so heated. Who gives a toss about the gender of our kids, or about how some parents behave? Life's too short for this nonsense!

bullies? really? you should report those posts, that sounds awful.

don't think there's any implicit criticism in pointing out that the OP's boys are, in fact, boys, is there? more a statement of fact i'd have thought.

Curry - I was moving house. Sorry for not being available for shouting at

Anyhow. Again I apologise for upsetting so many people, that was not my intention at all. I am genuinely taken aback by how offensive my OP was seen to be. It was meant to be in part tongue in cheek. Very sorry folks. I should known better having been on MN for a few years now....

As for the bullying? Thanks for defending me winogal - but I don't really think this was bullying, I've seen worse But as is the nature of MN, a little indignation tends to gather steam as it goes along until the thread reaches boiling point. I can cope

Only think that pisses me off (a lot) is the implication that I don't like girls. Crap! If you could see how miserable I am atm without my DD (she's gone to stay with my brother and his family for a few days) you'd realise how daft that is. I am bereft . I love being with my DD, and by and large, her mates. Some of my best friends are women . But I do take issue with those people (clearly none on MN) who dislike boys and think that they are thoughtless, nasty, thuggish monsters with parents who don't discipline them enough and who can be treated as such.

i take issue with those people as well, orm, i just don't think it's a given that they will all be smogs...

I am the mother of three boys. Our sadly lot pony wouldn't have been perturbed by most things. My son once jumped out of a tree in the field and landed next to him and pony barely lookd up from the grass he was eating. However, they do get spooked a the oddest of things, when you least expect it and I wou have still been pissed off had someone let their children sword fight in the yard.

I don't know why people can't teach their children to behave appropriately when out.

lost pony, not lot...

Erm, they weren't fighting in the yard. I think I may have mentioned this....