Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have yanked DD away from the "Living statue"?

107 replies

NCForNow · 03/09/2012 08:12

One of those living statues in our town...he's doing his thing as we pass...he's holding a lollypop....a cheap and nasty one...he sees my 4 year old close to his feet and bends slowly down towards her whilst proffering the lolly...she naturally reaches out for it.

I yank her away a bit too quickly because of the following

A: You don't take sweets from weird painted men strangers

B: He has not asked my permission

C: He'll expect a pound in his bucket for the lolly

My Mum said "Oh that was a bit rude of you..."

I was annoyed and wanted to tell him to bugger off.

WIBU?

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 03/09/2012 08:36

I do like a bit of street theatre though. You can stand back and watch.

We were in Chester last year and there were 3 blokes who were brilliant. At the end they said if you can make a donation do but if you can't -do something nice for somebody. Grin

Pagwatch · 03/09/2012 08:36

I think yanking was an over reaction in the circumstances tbh.

I would have called my son to come away or, if he had taken the lolly, just walked on saying 'give me that sweetheart, you mustn't take sweets fom people you don't know'
I m slightly with our mum that you went into a slightly nutty overreaction.

NameChangeGalore · 03/09/2012 08:37

We have a bubble man that has a bubble making machine and points it over children so they cry to their parents to buy them it.

shesariver · 03/09/2012 08:40

Would it have been better if the lollipop had been expensive and organic instead of cheap and nasty eh?

FellatioNelson · 03/09/2012 08:40

YANBU. It's like begging by stealth and menaces. I have no issue with painting standing still people as artistes, but to offer your child sweets as a way of elliciting money from you is underhand a wrong.

I also hate:

The people who approach you in restaurants and ask your children of they'd like a balloon animal 'for free' and then tell them loudly that they don't get paid and perhaps their parents might like to make a donation of £1.

The gypsies who hang around in French markets with a kitten and a rabbit tied to a table at chest height of children, all bloody day with no shade, beckoning the children over and deliberately trying to catch their eye. They let the child pet the animal for a few seconds and then look menacingly at the parent and demand 5 euros, pointing to a partially obscured sign on the floor behind them.

They can fuck the fuck off. All of 'em.

Original poster
NCForNow · 03/09/2012 08:42

Pag why would I "call her away"? She was right there next to me and holding my hand...he was right beside us.

OP posts:
Original poster
NCForNow · 03/09/2012 08:43

Not really river but the fact that it was one of those nasty powdery ones added insult to injury.

OP posts:
Original poster
NCForNow · 03/09/2012 08:44

Cocky our balloon man looks like the child catcher!

OP posts:
pinkdelight · 03/09/2012 08:49

Just out of interest, what are the legalities here? With these people giving out balloons or sweets then expecting payment? Would you be in your rights just to keep the balloon/sweet and not pay, pointing out that they gave it to you unbidden and without any sign/mention of payment? It does seem to be messing with the boundaries of a proper retail arrangement, and I wonder what they'd do if you refused to pay. It's not like they give you a receipt so they may not be above-board tax-wise and might not want to make a fuss.

Sparklingbrook · 03/09/2012 08:50

Would love to see Living Statue Man's tax return. Grin

Pagwatch · 03/09/2012 08:59

Ok. But if I said to my dc, don't take that, they wouldn't so I guess I am just questioning why yanking was necessary. I don't like yanking.I only tend to yank if they were running in the road. I have a tone of voice that freezes blood Grin

But I am also a stroppy cow and,if he gave my dc a lolly without my permission I wouldn't dream of giving him any money. I'd give it back.

Leithlurker · 03/09/2012 09:01

I wondered where the pitchfork and "burn the weirdo" thread was, and here it is.

Firstly they are their to earn a living, or should they be on the benefit?
Which is why they stand where they dfo, very little point in standing by the side of a ring road hmmm!

Secondly, I bet everyone of the street performers has had to get official approval to be their or they would be constantly told to "move along now" by the local police. Each local authority normally has some kind of license to allow street artists especially in busy crowded areas to be there. This process may, I stress MAY involve a crb check. What it will absolutely involve is their contact details, and home address. Now even if they have no crb, you are raving nutters if you think someone who dresses so outlandishly, or goes out their way to make themselves the centre of peoples attention would then walk off with your child, or try and sneak up an ally with them. Predators are not going to do that as they need to blend in not stand out a mile.

So you are passing on your own issues to your child, maligning people trying to make a living, and carrying on some very dodgy stranger danger practice. God help your child should ever get lost at a circus they would be lucky to be found crying in a corner.

QuickLookUsainBolt · 03/09/2012 09:02

How is a Statue Man supposed to "ask your permission ".

He's a sodding statue!

QuickLookUsainBolt · 03/09/2012 09:04

Agree with you Leithlurker.

There's a lot of party poopers on this thread, if you ask me.

Sparklingbrook · 03/09/2012 09:05

Leith we are talking about someone giving your child an unwanted lolly.

Nobody mentioned pitchforks or burning, or predators. Confused

Or circuses.

Sparklingbrook · 03/09/2012 09:05

Well if he's a statue he should stand still then. Grin

Pagwatch · 03/09/2012 09:07

Yes. Exactly.

So if he gives a small child a lolly he is risking getting nothing for it.

The whole thing is only a problem because people are paying for the lolly and resenting it. Take it, take it and give him something or take it and give it back.

It's not a yanking, furious, peedo dilemma.

pinkdelight · 03/09/2012 09:13

"How is a Statue Man supposed to "ask your permission ". "

He's NOT supposed to be giving out the lollies in the first place. He's a statue, not a sweet shop. It's a crap cynical move to bring sweets into what was a performance act. That's the problem here. I like the statues. I always did and gave them money. No pitchforks in sight. But this lolly/sweet thing is new and it's not on.

JambalayaCodfishPie · 03/09/2012 09:16

YANBU. And anyone who thinks its ok for the strange man to approach their children offering sweets, and defends their right to do so is just a little but deluded.

JambalayaCodfishPie · 03/09/2012 09:16

little bit

SoupDragon · 03/09/2012 09:19

He's using dirty tactics to get money!

No he isn't. What do you think he's going to do? Chase you down the street?

SoupDragon · 03/09/2012 09:20

I'm not deluded, JambalayaCodfishPie. Not in the slightest.

Sparklingbrook · 03/09/2012 09:20

I think these look more fun.

thebeesnees79 · 03/09/2012 09:28

leith no one said he was going to run off with kids or that he was a peado. just that he shouldn't be handing out lollipops to kids without checking its ok with the childs parent first.

DreamingofSummer · 03/09/2012 09:30

OP - Total over reaction

Swipe left for the next trending thread