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

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To find an old woman giving me the finger offensive?

35 replies

charlmarascoxo · 21/11/2012 16:22

I always park on the same street for work because its in a quiet area and you don't have to have a permit, so I save a lot of money and its only a 10 minute walk from work.

There is a row of flats on the street (only about 8 in total and only 2 storeys high)

Last week after I finished work I got in my car and was sat texting, I then had the feeling I was being watched. I looked to my side and there was an old lady on her balcony giving me the most evil look imaginable. I was slightly creeped out so I started up the engine to go, looked out the window again and she was sticking her finger up at me.

Confused, I wound down the window and asked what her problem was, to which she ignored me and carried on doing it.

Maybe she's annoyed that I park there and don't live on that street, however its a really quiet street and hardly any cars and so I don't think I'm ever preventing someone from parking on there. Also the flats have their own private parking so I'm definitely not taking her space.

OP posts:
Justforlaughs · 21/11/2012 16:24

Just had to laugh at the image of an old lady giving you the finger from behind her net curtains

Frontpaw · 21/11/2012 16:25

That'll be me in a few years time. Rants old lady giving everyone hell. I do hope so anyway.

TheVermiciousKnid · 21/11/2012 16:30

What does her age to do with it?

DuelingFanjo · 21/11/2012 16:33

would you be less offended if she was 25?

Caerlaverock · 21/11/2012 16:34

Lol

HeathRobinson · 21/11/2012 16:35

Try varying where you park a bit. Even in a quiet area, friends turn up and want to park and people have work done.

Pagwatch · 21/11/2012 16:35

If someone young gives you the finger are you quite relaxed about it?

GrimmaTheNome · 21/11/2012 16:36

Giving the finger is meant to be offensive, so YANBU to be offended I suppose. Confused

CombustionEngine · 21/11/2012 16:36

Surely anyone giving you the finger would be offensive.

Caerlaverock · 21/11/2012 16:36

Am imagining the 'I curse you' old lady from Harry and paul

Felicitywascold · 21/11/2012 16:37

You are going to get a rough time for the ageism.

However, Yanbu to be a bit offended by her sticking her finger up at you- after all parking on a public road is not a criminal offence and that gesture is generally considered to be rude.

I'm concerned about the fact she didn't answer you- it is odd behaviour to make that gesture but not engage verbally. Perhaps consider the possibility that the lady wasn't ok in herself- compassion needed?!

twofingerstoGideon · 21/11/2012 16:38

(a) What's her age got to do with anything?
(b) You 'asked what her problem was' from a range of what? 20 feet? Are you sure she heard you, or did you shout by any chance?

CaptainBarnaclesDaddyman · 21/11/2012 16:42

You've met my nan then? Grin

Caerlaverock · 21/11/2012 16:42

How is it ageist?

notnagging · 21/11/2012 16:43

I was thinking of that too CaerGrin

charlmarascoxo · 21/11/2012 16:44

Meh. Guess her age isn't a factor.

OP posts:
Caerlaverock · 21/11/2012 16:44

It is more shocking when old people behave like this, it is also funnier

Glitterknickaz · 21/11/2012 16:47

Sorry... it's tickled me.
Just imagining a little white haired lady stooped with a venomous look on her face....

No... sorry it's too much.

charlmarascoxo · 21/11/2012 16:47

It is more shocking when old people behave like this, it is also funnier.

^ yes thats probably why I found it a bit more strange. Maybe I just (rightly or wrongly) associate respect with age. Such as I think an OAP to have more respect towards society than perhaps a teenager would?

OP posts:
charlmarascoxo · 21/11/2012 16:49

Sorry... it's tickled me.
Just imagining a little white haired lady stooped with a venomous look on her face....

I was shocked when she did it, but then I wound up my window and waved to her and drove off and then preceded to laugh when she was out of sight.

Eek if I park there tomorrow maybe I'll get a brick through my window?

OP posts:
NoraGainesborough · 21/11/2012 16:50

I would have laughed. I too am more shocked when old people do things like this. People have usually grown out giving the finger to strangers st this age. But I want to be like that when I am older.

WhenShallWeThreeKingsMeetAgain · 21/11/2012 16:51

An OAP might have more respect towards society than perhaps a teenager would, but not necessarily have more respect for someone that keeps parking outside her flat. Perhaps she thinks you are spying on her. Perhaps she is fed-up with people parking in her road all day. Perhaps.......whatever.

p.s. was it an arthritic finger or a perfectly manicured one?

Pagwatch · 21/11/2012 16:53

But why?

Why should a pensioner not give the finger to people she thinks are using her road as a car park?
Assuming she shouldn't is like when teenagers think they invented sex - oldies know rude words and gestures too.

I think it is often quite funny. It's like a big old 'fuck you' to the idea that we have to grow into placid knitting grannies.

Besides, she had probably just been shouted at for looking at a baby without being decontaminated first..

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 21/11/2012 16:57

YANBU to be offended at an old woman giving you the finger offensive. Obviously. That's what the gesture is supposed to do. Her main objective was to be offensive, and I think it was very kind of you to comply.

BupcakesAndCunting · 21/11/2012 16:58

As Billy Conolly once so eloquently put it; young bastards turn into old bastards.

Bastards don't suddenly become mellow old sages the minute their free bus pass plops onto the doormat.