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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To sit at the petrol pump for half an hour?!

173 replies

honeybeeridiculous · 17/07/2014 19:07

Right, just been to put some petrol in my car. Pulled up at a pump, started to put petrol in, only £20 so it didn't take long.
Meanwhile white van man pulled up behind me, the pump was closed so he was waiting to use my pump, fair enough
Anyway, I went into shop to pay, 2 people infront of me, all straightforward and quick.
I go back to my car after paying and white van man was revving his engine and getting closer and closer to my car, this is before I got in the car Shock
I get in the car and he continues to rev the engine and then beeped his horn.
I was about to pull away, but the rage got me so I just sat there, got my sunglasses out and put them on, zipped my bag up etc as he was being so rude! After 2 mins I pulled away as I thought he might get out and thump me!
But honestly, how rude!
Just wondered WWYD? WIBU?

OP posts:
WireCat · 17/07/2014 22:40

For fucks sake.

The professionally offended are out again. White can man has been around for years and years.

OP, yanbu.

Original poster
honeybeeridiculous · 17/07/2014 22:49

Thank you wirecat

OP posts:
OwlCapone · 18/07/2014 12:03

It's a term that's been around for years to describe someone who drives a white van for a living or indeed any van. There's absolutely nothing in it other than description

That's simply not true. It is used as a negative stereotype, not a simple description.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 18/07/2014 12:14

Actually, the deliberate sitting in your car would annoy me. It's a petrol station, not a car park.

Few years ago, I went (at work, I'm an NHS HCP, got a white tunic on and everything + badges - just building this up, the other driver could see who I was)
I pulled into the carpark of a Sheltered Housing block. There was a car parked across an empty parking space. A woman came out with a fairly mobile older woman (let's say it was her Mother)
She saw me waiting for the space that she was blocking (maybe her Mother couldn't get in the car if it was parked?)

So she gets the Mum into the car. Fastens her seat belt. Goes round her side. Puts her seat belt on, takes it off. Does something in the mirror, combs her hair.
Gets out. Opens the boot. Faffs around (doesn't get anything out)
Goes back, starts engine. Eventually moves off.
All the time laughing (maybe at me?)

I parked in another space that became vacant and she drove off.

Surely , the logical thing to do was say "Stand here Mum, I'll shift the car back"
But no.

Well, I hope she enjoyed her teeny bit of power, there are some sad cases in the world Hmm

Vintagejazz · 18/07/2014 12:29

YANBU. Good for you.

Birdsgottafly · 18/07/2014 13:29

The petrol stations I use, allow you to move and the next person use the pump, before the last has been paid for.

If that is the case, you should move and not hold up the queue.

It's very sad to start to deliberately take your time when someone has a legitimate reason for needing to use/be where you've plonked your arse.

I've been on a camping trip and answered this twatty behaviour by taking my dog over to their car to piss on it.

Shift, some of us have things to do (which you obviously don't if you can twat about for the sake of being a twat).

The same applies to people who park by the water, some if us have come off a campsite etc and are about to do motorway driving and have dog(s) in the car.

Vintagejazz · 18/07/2014 13:39

How does going into the shop to pay for her petrol equate to twatting about. The reason the OP deliberately delayed for another couple of minutes was because the van driver, totally unprovoked, was aggressively revving and moving forward before she'd even got into her car.

It's the same when people tail gate. Rather than reward that ignorant behaviour by speeding up for them, I deliberately slow down for a couple of minutes. They usually get the message and back off, and then I resume a normal speed. The really thick ones who continue to tailgate just get held up for longer.

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 13:53

OwlCapone you put it much better than I did. It just SOUNDS derogatory! "White van man"

It reduces the man to his vehicle!

"BMW Man"

"4x4 Woman"

Doesn't sound quite so bad somehow does it Hmm

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 13:55

Oh and Wire I am FAR from "professionally offended" which is a term used on here to put people down when they dare to voice an opinion others don't agree with.

I just don't like tags which reduce people to the vehicle they drive and which are aimed at putting working men into a neat (and shitty) hole "Where they belong" eh?

the term "Slag" has been around for years too but I don't use it. The length of time a saying has been used does not indicate it's suitability.

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 13:58

For those people saying "It's just a way to describe a man in a white van" can you tell me then...why are there no similar phrases used for other vehicles?

Because white vans are typically driven by unskilled, manual workmen that's why. And they're shit on your shoe.

I accept that most people won't have thought this through but that's what it is. That's where it comes from. From a superior attitude.

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 14:04

Oh and yes, I'm labouring the point but this is from Wikipedia

"White van man" is a stereotype found in the United Kingdom of the driving of smaller-sized commercial vans,[1] perceived as selfish, inconsiderate, mostly working class and aggressive.[2] According to this stereotype, the "white van man" is an independent tradesperson, such as a plumber or locksmith, self-employed, or running a small enterprise,[2] for whom driving a commercial vehicle is not the main line of business, as it is for a professional freight-driver.

And it goes on..

The first recorded use in the British press was in an article titled "Number is up for White Van Man – scourge of the road." published by The Sunday Times on May 18, 1997 written by Jonathan Leake, that papers' then transport editor.

So. I will reiterate that it IS derogatory and as a working class woman I won't have it. I won't have people sniggering at me for standing up for what is basically an entire workforce of low paid, unskilled working class men who are doing their best. Men like my DH thanks.

Like ANY people I am sure some of them are wankers. Just like people who drive other vehicles.

GreeboOgg · 18/07/2014 14:15

Because white vans are typically driven by unskilled, manual workmen that's why.

Unskilled manual workmen eh? Think you might be projecting your own prejudices here.

Manual work doesn't mean unskilled, far from it.

"White van man" has never offended me in the least and I'm as working class as they come. Are all middle class mothers offended by 'chelsea tractor'? No, cause it probably doesn't apply to a large number of them.

GilbertBlytheWouldGetIt · 18/07/2014 14:16

He did seem to fit the stereotype, given his behaviour.

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 14:18

Green oh don't pick it's not becoming. You know what I mean...unskilled workers and self employed people are the ones who are knocking down the levels of unemployment in this country and they are vulnerable as fuck. No pensions no holidays no sick pay....I get mad as hell when I see people continue to denigrate the working classes into one, stereotypical, rude, lumpen pile.

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 14:19

I've never even heard the term "Chelsea Tractor" and suspect it's London based...which, in case you haven;t heard, is not the whole country. It's part of it.

Hissy · 18/07/2014 14:22

As i understood the term WVM, it was ONLY reserved for people who drive like tossers while driving a van. If anything it's stereotyping the VAN, rather than the man!

Not once did I ever think it was a class thing.

GreeboOgg · 18/07/2014 14:23

I don't give a shit about whether i'm 'becoming' or not to be honest. I'm self employed and do a fair bit of manual work. I'm far from unskilled. I don't consider people in trades to be unskilled either. They're mostly making a living by practicing a skill.

The only person I see here shoving us all into one rude stereotype is you to be honest. You're the one who seems to think the white van man stereotype seems to apply to the entire working class. Confused

Smilesandpiles · 18/07/2014 14:25

I would have waited until he drove to another pump, the second he moved out far enough to make it awkward for him to come back, I'd have gone.

TobyLerone · 18/07/2014 14:25

What is the vehicle you drive as a professionally offended woman, MrsWinnebago? You are clearly very high up in the Professionally Offended profession, given that you are excellent at being so. I bet it's some sort of executive sedan.

GreeboOgg · 18/07/2014 14:25

Chelsea tractor comes up on here quite a bit. I've become fairly familiar with it despite living in yorkshire.

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 14:25

Well it doesn't apply to middle class men who work in offices and drive BMWs does it!

MrsWinnibago · 18/07/2014 14:26

Toby I ride a bike. That poor enough for you?

TobyLerone · 18/07/2014 14:27

No, Greebo. You haven't. You are clearly mistaken. It's a London Thing, you see, and anyone north of Watford has to have a massive chip on their shoulder about London Not Being The Centre Of The Universe.

TobyLerone · 18/07/2014 14:27

So now you have to be poor to ride a bike?

How narrow-minded.

Smilesandpiles · 18/07/2014 14:28

WTF?

To sit at the petrol pump for half an hour?!
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