Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Beach etiquette question

68 replies

CocktailQueen · 09/03/2014 17:59

Aibu to expect other people to keep a reasonable distance on a quiet beach, not come and sit literally 2 feet from us and let their dc play in the castle and most my dc were building??

Because that is what happened today... Gorgeous day, kids loving being on the beach, but I felt uncomfortable that these people came and stood right by us, and also that they let their dc paddle in the canal and moat that our dc were building? Without asking us/the dc??

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 10/03/2014 16:58

I like the sound of your beach Midnite.

ISeeYouShiverWithAntici · 10/03/2014 17:04

People are really weird like this. I think humans are herd animals

I don't think folks who do it actually think about what they are doing for a second. They are just driven to go to where there are already people.

I (being a really antisocial bugger ) will happily just pack myself up and move.

Not nastily, not huffily, just nicely. If I am parked up I will move my car, if out somewhere I'll grab my stuff and move a bit. I like space.

This, apparently, is a highly offensive thing to do, judging by the reaction I sometimes get. people are as weird as hell, I tell you.

Sparklingbrook · 10/03/2014 17:06

I must have missed out on the herd thing-I like to stay as far away from 'other people' as much as possible.

Stinklebell · 10/03/2014 17:07

My DH, who is a massive child himself, always seems to attract every other child on the beach. He can be happily building castles with our kids, then within seconds we're swarming with other kids, helping themselves to our stuff. Drives me mad. Feel a bit of a grouchy knobber if I moan about it though

I also hate people who literally park themselves on your towel, despite acres of empty beach.

Last summer we were on the tiny bit of beach that allows dogs, with our dog when another family set up within spitting distance of us, within seconds their kids were in all our stuff while the parents ignored us except to complain about our dog. We should have left him in the car apparently. They got very cross when I pointed out the fact that there is a least a mile of dog free beach that was virtually empty and they didn't have to sit right on top of us

MrNorfolk · 10/03/2014 17:08

Not as bad as my experience. Sitting relaxing on the beach (before children). A couple walked past and sat down about 4 feet behind us. Five minutes later I turned round and they were lying there naked (aged about 70 and with a very high BMI). We rapidly decamped to further along the beach ...

RiverTam · 10/03/2014 17:14

ooh, this sounds like the beach equivalent of my favourite pet hate - being in a deserted cinema and some twat parking themselves either right in front (and they'll be 6'3 to my 5'2, no doubt) or right behind you.

why? why why why?

I need a load of stuff at the beach because a) I fry and get very hot and bothered in the baking sun and b) i have a bad back so lying on a towel is also v uncomfy. We don't actually have any of that stuff though, so normally I am just pretty uncomfortable on the beach .

Sparklingbrook · 10/03/2014 17:15

You can hire windbreaks, deckchairs and sunloungers on a lot of beaches.

Marylou62 · 10/03/2014 18:20

I know it's not about a deserted beach but just have to tell you all this!!! Shocked me at the time and I still think of it. I live in seaside village and (hope) I know beach etiquette..... one Bank Holiday, we went to beach early and got our usual spot .A group came and sat down. There were about 3 couples and 7-8 kids. My DH and I amused ourselves by watching while the dads with PROPER GARDEN SPADES made an absolutely huge sandcastle, with moat and bridges at least 20ft in diameter!!! It was amazing!! But.....they wouldn't let anyone elses kids play on it! By then beach was heaving and the funny thing was nobody entered this area. The fathers almost patrolled it!! Odd eh?

Catsmamma · 10/03/2014 18:35

what pees me off is the lazy arse feckers who appear on the beach and set up camp right near the entrance/exit area and then tut and scowl and gather in their children lest I prove to be a filthy child abuser and my dogs turn into child savaging maniacs

and btw I come to this beach every day in the winter....you have no business here on the sunny day.

MidniteScribbler · 10/03/2014 21:14

Sparklingbrook - This is our beach on a busy day

Sparklingbrook · 10/03/2014 22:36

EndoplasmicReticulum · 10/03/2014 23:40

This happens to us too. Last year a family of about 100 set up camp right next door to the extent that one of them was using the back of my chair to lean on at one point. And parents, keep a vague eye on your toddlers because if they suddenly turn up with a new plastic boat chances are it belongs to someone....

EndoplasmicReticulum · 10/03/2014 23:43

It's times like that I miss my granny. She would tut any interlopers away.

pictish · 11/03/2014 00:10

Not a beach....but had a similar experience camping once. We found a wild camp spot in the wilderness, with breathtaking views, and set up camp and lit a good roaring fire. We'd been there a couple of hours, when a wee car happened along....first one we'd seen the entire time, and parked up right next to ours.
Next thing we know this couple are setting up their tent directly in front of ours...as in smack bang in front of us, maybe 15 ft away, obscuring our view and hogging it for themselves. They never looked at us or spoke as they went about ruining our night. She fetched out her little foldy up fucking stool and shit Sophie Kinsella novel, while he dangled his fishing rod uselessly in the loch, and there they perched in our laps, while pretending we weren't even there.
Fucking bizarre!

We had the last laugh in the end though, as not only did we keep them awake making a racket late into the night, but I got up at 4.30 am for a pee and realised the heavens had opened copiously and we were a baw hair off being flooded out. I quickly roused dh and we packed up quicksmart in the very dim first light of dawn and took off.
They most definitely woke up in a pond that morning.
Serves them bloody right - interloping arseholes.

Booo to the space invaders...boooooo!!!

MidniteScribbler · 11/03/2014 00:26

Reminds me of this commercial

bragmatic · 11/03/2014 04:55

I wouldn't think to ask permission if my kids could play with yours. Nor would I expect you to ask permission if your kids came up to mine and started playing with their moat/castle. That's what children do, after all. So I am genuinely confused about that bit of your post.

Sitting right next to you on a vacant beach I can sympathise with.

Stinklebell · 11/03/2014 08:35

Oh, I wouldn't expect anyone to ask permission to play with my kids, but I wouldn't sit there and ignore them when they started making a nuisance of themselves and going through someone else's stuff, I'd send my child back when they appeared with a toy that wasn't theirs and generally keep an eye on them

6cats3gingerkittens · 11/03/2014 08:55

I love beaches and the seaside in general. My most unusual experience was on a Norfolk naturist beach. We had settled down in the shelter of the sand dunes, George stark naked apart from a large beach ball, us ladies still clothed. Lovely weather and a deserted beach. Time for lunch. Along the line of the dunes came a bloke wearing walking boots, thick beige woolly socks, and a blue and white striped bobble hat. Nothing else. All the bobbly bits were bobbling, mostly at knee level. It was a very warm day. He plonked himself down in front of us and generously offered us part of his food, peeled hard boiled eggs in a plastic lunch bag. I disgraced myself and got the giggles until I couldn't breath. Poor man, he was only being friendly and must have wondered what was the matter with these two silly women and the giant beach ball.

Flip

1 2 3