to think this woman was unacceptably rude

[pamelat]

On holiday last week with DH and DC.

DH tells me of the following encounter .

DD (3.4) helping herself (he was lifting her up) to the buffet food. She wasn't messing about but is slower than an adult, she was helping herself with a large serving spoon to something or the other.

Woman comes up, removes the server from her hands (no word muttered) helps herself to the food and then puts the serving utensil back down and walks off

She wasn't British (German I think) but surely with or without language barriers this is utterly unacceptable.

DH says both he and DD were too shocked to say anything.

It wasnt as though there was a large queue, it was a help yourself buffet and no one else around.

Surely she could have waited!!

and the answer is I don;t give a shit - this woman was rude beyond rude, I dont; care what her culture, age, height or whatever else is - she was rude!!!

Perhaps she had had a traumatic carrot experience in her youth?

Hang on hang on.....just skimmed pg 4 and somone has mentioned that said carrots were flower shaped? Wtf? What sort of jeffing holiday was this?

Is this some sort of weirdy Annabel Karmel Miriam Stoppard child friendly carrot we are talking? (ie all children will love pigs liver as long as it's presented shaped like a rocket ship)

ok so she was rude, but no need to be rude back. Have some standards people, tell your kids to show respect and politeness to everyone even if they are rude. No, respect doesn't have to earned - respecting people is just politeness - you don't have to respect her right to wrench the last stick of carrot from your dying child's lips, or her audacity to put her desire for salad over your tot's desire to play with the pretty food or whatever, but this whole 'respect' culture is total bollix.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Perhaps the lady in question was carotene-dependent. She needed that carrot! Like Julie Waters and her BBC croissant.

no- bucharest?!! where?!!!

Shit, have I just totally imagined that? Been back and can't find it now.

I think I have carotene poisoning.

RESPECT la la la la la la la

Really rude!

Your dd wasn't messing about, she was just serving herself. She should have had a bit of patience.

Haven't read the entire post so sorry if someone else has mentioned this but it's not just children who might be a bit slow. Suppose a disabled adult was serving themselves and also being a bit slow - would she have taken the spoon from them too..?

That was me, I read that the carrots were pretty and decided (bizzarrely) that they were flower shaped (I've seen them like that in posh places, alongside curly-wurly cucumber etc)).

It must me that has the carotene poisoning Bucharest

I should add I assumed there were just one or two shaped carrots, to set off the rest of the carrots, not an entire tray of them

Right. Actually I believe that the carrot was grated and therefore unlikely to be floral. Perhaps it was more grass-like. Were there often fights over the orange devil scrapings?

There is nothing pretty about carrots,not even grated ones, the OP's daughter needs to get out more.

Perhaps the carrot thief had a night vision problem that we were not aware of? I fear i may have donned my salady judgey pants too soon

I don't understand why your husband didn't say a word. Odd.

Very very odd. Is he normally intimidated by spoon-taking women? Did his mother take his sppon away when he was a baby? I think he needs counselling as he clearly has PTSD.

Pmsl at Post Traumatic Spoon Disorder!

well there is no way this woman appeared out of nowhere - she must have been waiting for your DH to notice that she was waiting

your DH was in the wrong here (not your DD) he should have been aware of his surroundings and ensure that he did not hold other people up while indulging his toddler

a normal parent would have said "Oh sorry do you want this" given her the spoon then carried on

instead you ended up with a disgruntled DD, DH and stranger - who no doubt went back to table complaining about the stupid English holding everyone up while their kid played with the food

She is a mad carrot fiend. Everyone on that holiday noticed how she lurked near the table and pounced the second someone had the carrot spoon. Read the thread.

Quite amused by the people putting shocked faces because the little girl said "silly woman". Clearly she should be washing her mouth out with soap! In this partiular situation the woman was silly. The whole situation was pretty silly. Good choice of word by the 3.4 year old.

pml at saying 3.4 year old.

If no queue YANBU

If queue still YANBU - she should wait her turn as she would behind an adult.

Just as we have or had to teach our children to wait their turn.

Completely agree with the last post.

activate - she wasn't playing with the food, she was serving herself! Suppose it was a frail, older person or someone with arthritis in their hands or another disability. Is it then ok to take a spoon from their hands?

Perhaps she needed the carrot in order to fashion it into some kind of floral centrepiece. Or a big penis. One of those two things.

I am beginning to see how this could be a decade long conundrum.