To judge 'text mum' this morning...

[MooMooFarm]

DCs school entrance leads onto a fairly busy road. Often when I walk away from school I see a woman walking with a small toddler (approx 18 months?) who is very toddly and obviously hasn't been walking long. In my head she's 'text mum' because she always seems to have her head down texting as she walks along. It winds me up everytime I see her because her toddly child is usually a good 10ft or so behind her, and is sometimes precariously close to the road. Text mum seems oblivious.

Today text mum was doing her usual and also pushing an empty pushchair with the other hand. Toddly was toddling in front. Toddly was v close to the road and I was walking behind them; judgy pants chaffing badly.

Text mum unknowingly gets right up to toddly, pushes the pushchair right into toddly's legs and almost knocks her over INTO THE ROAD - one of toddlers arms is over the path & on the road. Text mum doesn't notice!!!! There are no cars about. I gasp loudly, feeling horrified, run round on the roadside and bend down to reach out for toddler. Text mum stops & finally notices - ignores me - says 'silly girl, up you pop', to toddler and puts her hand out for her to get up.

I'm still standing there doing my best impression of a goldfish. Text mum glares at me (with a very red face) and flounces off - with toddly walking behind again.

TODDLY TODDLY TODDLY

I like my new word

i agree OP. there is a woman in my town that does this. i have seen her about town for about 6/7 years but she has a little girl of about 4/5 now and ever since the child was toddling i have only ever seen them with mum 20ft infront of the girl, head down texting and for some reason, no matter what the weather, her coat is always slung over the crook of her arm. teh little girl always straggling behind, even when crossing roads, the mum just looks for traffic for herself and crosses. never looks behind to see if the girl is near her or safe. i dont know how that little girl hasn't been seriously injured.

YANBU I'd have had my catbumface on.

sorry but I was with you until the third use of toddly.

Some parents are unbelievable - I've had a couple of occasions where I've been driving along when suddenly a pushchair appears from between a row of parked cars - the mother is just pushing her baby out into the road without being able to see what's coming! Madness! Had this happen once when there was a pedestrian crossing only a minute up the road.

I have often wondered what it is that people feel the need to talk or text all the time? Can stuff not simply wait?

Sat at a really difficult junction yesterday behind an old chap in a small car with a phone glued to his ear, trying to negotiate the traffic. What is that farking important?

My DH used to phone me from work when I was out pushing DD in the pushchair and used to get quite grumpy that I would not talk to him as I couldn't push the chair up a hill with one hand. Plus I wanted to engage with DD not talk to him.

YANBU

OTOH there's a woman at my DC's primary school who still walks her primary 7 child into school every day, carrying his schoolbag and lunchbox. Walks him right into the classroom and kisses him before leaving. He's 11, and will be going to secondary in September.

My DC's think it's hilarious. I suggested to DD2 that I should walk her in this morning like his mum and she did the face.

OP YANBU

and Bupcakes you're on fire this morning :o

There used to be a family of 4 boys that lived near me when I was young. The oldest was my age then she had a gap of 5 years (I once heard her admit that was because she found the oldest one too naughty to even contemplate having another one before he went to school) then she had 3 quite close together. I used to see her walking along with the little ones all trailing behind. Not once did I see her hold hands with any of them, and often she would walk right up the long road without looking back once to check they were all still there and safe in the pavement. And this was when a couple of them were only toddlers. I was always happy when her friend did the school run, as she always held hands with the two littlest boys.

I hate seeing people walking around and just expecting their toddlers to trail after them. You're right, these days they are usually on phones. If I'm following behind I sometimes watch to see how long it takes for them to look round and check on their child, and usually it's a long time. It's so easy for toddlers to wander off and get lost while their parent's not looking. They could easily be snatched too, although fortunately of course that is rare.

The other day I watched as a woman lazily strolled across one road, just expecting her toddler son to follow her, and not even watching to make sure no cars were coming. They then got to the next road, she approached the kerb, finally looked round and he was about to cross in between parked cars. "Get here now!" she yelled. He walked over, she again stopped watching him, crossed the road and expected him to follow, and I presume just assumed no cars would come while he was on the road, because she definitely didn't check. My heart aches for some of the poor kids that are being dragged up round my way.

So are you saying you've never texted anybody with a child in tow? I think you're overreacting somewhat. Most people have a good idea of what their dc is like on roads/pavements and whether they need reigns or their hand held. Toddlers fall over a lot. Yes, maybe it was on the edge of the pavement, but it was fine, nobody was taken away in an ambulance. All sounds a bit busy bodying to me and as such YABU in my view.

Too funny.

mum765 Yes I can honestly say I've never texted anyone whilst walking along with my DC. Neither have I used my phone whilst driving - I've seen loads of people doing that too. Nothing is that important IMO.

Would love to see what text mum had been texting - probably 'on my way hun - lol x x'

YANBU poor kid. I went to the park with DD yesterday and this woman sat on a bench texting constantly whilst her son...who had SN...was left alone. He jammed up the slide by sitting on it so nobody could go down...he was about 8 and the other kids were all preschoolers..., hit a toddler with a big stick...pushed another little girl over and finally lost it because he was so alone and had a massive meltdown.

he was not able to cope and she ignored him....she then dragged hm off SHOUTING at hm... she was saying "You always spoil it!"

I asked my DD to say "Excuse me please" To him so she could slide and he just turned away...at which point texty mum said "He can't understand you!" all snappy.

I really don't think you can compare sending a text on the pavement to being on the phone whilst driving. What do you do if you're late getting to the childminder or something. Go home and use the landline?

if its any consolation i don't think they get any better when they are older... i was driving to my mothers and had about a twelve year old riding her bike on the pavement, texting, and had a "little brown bag" on her handlebars.. only for her to wobble about and straight off the pavement into the road in front of my car... luckily i did not hit her but i can guarantee if I had then i would have had some irate mother out shouting the odds at me for running over her kid...