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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think this is a very stupid/idiotic thing to say to your child about my dog?

21 replies

CheshireDing · 05/12/2012 05:33

Walking down the road with my dog and there was a woman walking towards me with a child (presumably her DS) on a bike.

The woman was having to hold the handlebars and the little boy was moaning a bit.

As they got close to me the woman said "if you don't stop whinging I will set that dog on you".

I didn't actually know what to say, I hesitated for a second as I wanted to say something but all I could think of was WTF !?

OP posts:

FellatioBellsOn · 05/12/2012 05:36

Bloody idiot.

Original poster

CheshireDing · 05/12/2012 06:14

"Mad" bint is what I might say next time

OP posts:

ripsishere · 05/12/2012 06:45

Ridiculous. It's the sort of thing my ILs would say. Stupid counts. DH was terrified of dogs, black ones in particular till we got our Podster. He was a muscular Staffie.
FiL insisted on calling him a devil dog.

KittieCat · 05/12/2012 06:47

Just stupid. Why would you want to make a child afraid of dogs? Healthy respect for any animal, yes, but not fear.

Crazy woman.

thebody · 05/12/2012 07:35

Fuckin mental. When I was a ward sister in hospital patients would say to their unruly child visitors or worse kids in casualty who were crying,' stop doing that/ making that noise or that nurse will smack you'!!

Unbelievable twats.

BeataNoxPotter · 05/12/2012 07:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BertieBotts · 05/12/2012 08:03

God, not only is that a sure fire way to make your kid afraid of dogs isn't that a totally fucked up thing to threaten? "Behave or I'll maim and possibly kill you." Yeah, great parenting

ParsleyTheLioness · 05/12/2012 08:04

Very stupid of them. But these sort of people have interchangeable 'bad guys'.... Like Body, I have had this experience too. Many years ago, I was in the Police, and people used to use us as the Bogey Man...used to make me mad. Just sloppy parenting really.

FanjoTimeMammariesAndWine · 05/12/2012 08:08

People do this sort of thing and it really annoys me..I work as a dental receptionist and people often tell their kids that I will throw them out...once a little girl was really upset about having to leave a toy behind that belonged to the practice and her mum said "it's that lady's toy and she won't let you have it". WTF!!!

freddiefrog · 05/12/2012 08:56

YANBU. It's a stupid thing to say

I was on the beach in the summer with my kids and our dog. Our dog was on a lead, lying sound asleep next to me.

Woman with young child walking past says to her son 'if you don't hold my hand now, that dog will come over here and bite you'

Way to terrify your child

I just said 'no, he won't, he's on a lead and won't be biting anyone'

I got such a filthy look from her

knackeredoutmum · 05/12/2012 08:59

this makes me boil

its not just why would you want to make your child afraid of dogs

it's a lie, how many more lies will you tell your child then?

its poor parenting, cant you get your child to listen to you without lying and threatening them with a dog bite ??

degutastic · 05/12/2012 09:06

Wow do people actually say things like this? What knobs YANBU, how stupid...

Gillyweed001 · 05/12/2012 09:06

I used to work in a bank, and was sat in an office. A little boy kept knocking on the window, and the mum said 'that lady will tell you off if you carry on'. She then came into the office and said to me 'can you come out and tell him off, otherwise he will keep doing it'. I looked up and said 'but its not bothering me' and carried on working. Much tutting from the mother!

KvetnutsRoastingOnAnOpenFire · 05/12/2012 09:10

I'd have said 'it's not the dog you need to worry about' and fixed the woman with a gimlet stare.

issey6cats · 05/12/2012 11:10

i cant understand why a parent would instill a fear of all dogs in small children, when my cairn was a puppy i took him for his first walk on the beach after he was safe to go outside at 15 weeks old, this woman with a child, obviously because skips was a cute wee puppy the little boy went to say hello to him, the mother dragged the little boy away saying ergh dogs are dirty you dont know what you will catch from him, i looked at her said this is his first trip out my dog is more likely to catch something from your child cue one catsbum face mother,

Calabria · 05/12/2012 11:45

When I was a teenager working on a checkout I had a customer tell her child that if they didn't behave that I would hit them with a stick! I burbled something like "no I won't, I don't even have a stick".

It was over 30 years ago and I can't remember the gender of the child even though I can still remember the shock I felt that someone would say something like that.

Some people don't seem to want to be the bad guy and shift the responsibility for some parenting onto strangers and/or their pets.

SquishyCinnamonSwirls · 05/12/2012 11:50

I've no idea why people are so idiotic. I had parents drag their children out of the way this morning as I took ours on the school run. He loves the snow and had a marvellous time with the kids. He wasn't charging about but walking nicely to heel and frankly wasn't interested in anyone else at all.

NolittleBuddahsorTigerMomshere · 05/12/2012 12:36

I think it's not really something I'd worry about personally. OP knows her dog's temprament and knows the dog doesn't/ hasn't bitten, this women was not casting aspertions on your dog keeping ability. The women was probably knackered and not having a very good day. I love the Dc's but god the whinging drives me bonkers at times! I would not have said it myself, but I wouldn't call someone who did idiotic. Squishy, maybe the parents in this case had been bitten as kids or their Dc's might not be trusted to approach your dog, as they should any unknown dog, with caution? I have 2 dogs, small breeds and love them, but bigger breads make me nervous sometimes, as I am wheelchair user they sometimes seem to get a bit to close to my upper body, which worries me 'just in case' they reacted to my large noisy chair out of fear. IMHO YABU to over think the encounter

BertieBotts · 05/12/2012 12:42

I think it's horrendous. We went to the park with a nursery mum once. She threatened to throw her son in the river if he didn't behave His crime? Crying because another kid hadn't let him have a go on something :(

Seriously though? How do people expect their children to trust them when they threaten stuff like this? You're supposed to keep them safe!

SantaIAmSoFuckingRock · 05/12/2012 12:43

i hate stupid threats like that.

i will never forget the woman on my childminding course who told us very proudly that when her ds was small she lived beside the beach and to keep him from going down on his own she told him the bad beach man would get him. she made up this awful story about how he takes little boys and keeps them forever and one day after her ds had been out of earshot and she couldn't find him for a while she decided to ram home her message by having her friend dress up in dark clothes and a balaclava and come round her house that night banging all the windows and asking if there were any boys he could have.

TwinkleReturns · 05/12/2012 12:52

My mother was a lunatic when it came to dogs. I was always a bit nervous around them and whenever we went to the park and I spotted one heading towards us she would yell at me to "Run away". So many memories of sprinting across the grass with big pounding hounds bombing after me.

Stupid woman

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