Oh arse. I've just been ridiculous.

[Hurr1cane]

Back story, my DS has autism, disabilities, and health problems.

I had to pull over on the way home from school because he was having a seizure in the car. I managed to get him stable enough to rush him home.

I got home to find a work van parked over my drive.

I beeped a couple of times and nothing
So rather than just beeping I sat and leant on the horn for ages.

A man came out. I didn't even look at him, he moved the van, I pulled into my drive and he smiled at me so I just gave him a look of death and carried my DS in stomping as I went and slammed my front door.

Now I've calmed down.... I must have looked unhinged.

I'm forever going to be known as "that strange angry woman" aren't I?

Please tell me your stories of misdirected anger or over reactions to make me feel better.

I'm honestly usually a very calm and reasonable human being. Not a huge burning ball of rage.

OP, you were not at all unreasonable.
hope your ds is ok x

If he's going to park like a twat then he has to expect any kind of reaction.

Yanbu. You didn't rise to it or make a fool of yourself ... or anything really.

Hope you feel better now

I wish you'd been around earlier to help me with the roofer's van who had parked on the double-yellow at the end of our street (T junction), thus making it impossible to see if there was any traffic coming from the left before I had to pull out

You were fine. You were under pressure and reacting to the adrenaline flooding your system after having to cope with a child having a seizure when you were driving. You managed to do all that, and not actually murder a van driver. You're a model of heroic restraint.

YWNBU or ridiculous at all.

Oh Hurr1cane this thread is badly needed for me! First and foremost, as it's your thread, I dont think YWBU at all, there is nothing more maddening than inconsiderate parking.

I do like the idea of a "red mist moment" - that's a classic....how long have you got ...?

My RMM was about a year ago and I'm still wishing I could turn back the clock.

About 4 months after moving house, the neighbour to one side of our house (we have a weird shaped garden) started burning green leylandii branches - they had cut down a massive amount off their high hedge. Mrs.started a bonfire which lasted at least 5 hours, smoke everywhere in our garden, thick plumes of smoke like a pea-souper. By the end of the day our whole house reeked of it. It was vile.

Bearing in mind this was the first time we had ever met or spoken to each other ....

Something snapped, the red mist descended at 6pm and I went stomping round there (DP in toe), marched up to her door, knocked loudly and Mrs Bonfire opened the door.

MB - "Oh hello, you must be our new neighbour, it's lovely to meet y...."

DC - "I'm sorry, I have just had about as much as I can take of your smoking heap of leylandii, how inconsiderate can you be???"

MB - "Oh dear, it won't be much longer .... I'll go and fetch MrB so he can say hello"

DC (looks at bonfire which is about 6 ft high, smoke belching out on all sides) - "No I'm sorry, I need you to put this out now, my DS has asthma and it's making him ill ( off-stage whisper .. he does have asthma but he wasn't with us that weekend ) eeek

MB - (meek) "I'm sorry I can't really put it out now, it should be finished soon" (weak smile)

D/C stomps off, back indoors, DP shell-shocked. Suddenly felt unhinged, crazy and just want to go back and say sorry let's be friends, but still feeling embarrassed by it all.

Mind you, their dog keeps escaping through the hedge and crapping on our lawn and digging up the border, they have an unfinished extension thingy poking over the fence, and their dog is kept indoors all day so it barks non-stop the whole time they are at work.... I had better stop before the Red Mist descends again

It's obviously a day for it. I indicated right to turn into my drive this afternoon. I had to be cautious and wait for a big gap because the bin men had left my wheelie bin in the middle of my drive AGAIN. It's too dangerous to get out of the car and leave it on the opposite side with the kids in the move the bin because people OVERTAKE WHILE I AM INDICATING RIGHT! Which happened this time. Then I had to turn and leave the car across the road while I move the bin. Fortunately I had a nice patient lady behind me who called 'its ok' when I mouthed sorry at her. Evened out my rage at mad overtaker and lazy binmen.

YABU to suggest you were being an arse.
The man smiling would have utterly tipped me over the edge.

for you and get well wishes to your son.

From your end it's understandable.

From his end and not knowing the back story, you probably just seem a bit high strung. Not the end of the world.

Maybe next time he won't park in front of your driveway.

You weren't being ridiculous, I'll also give you another example of ridiculous....
Last weekend in a big busy B&Q type store I was shopping with Dh for decorating things as we're freshening up our apartment.
All was well until Dh MADE A JOKE about some painting I'd done in a dodgy walled room in our UK house.

I fucking flipped, took it totally the wrong way and lost control of myself and my emotions.
In such a rage I threw all the things I had in my trolley into the closest stand/shelf - everything went in there while I had a right go at him and also trying to hold my tears in - didn't work - the tears came as did more anger.
I advised him to fuck off and then go and fuck himself as he headed for the queue. (I spoke in English so not many people would have been aware of what I was actually saying, not that it makes much difference) Everyone was staring at me - this strange, angry, crying English woman.
Dh tried to hand me the car key but at this point I was beyond reasoning with and I informed him to shove it and I'd be walking home.
Inside he must have been pissing himself but he didn't show it.
So, out I stormed, across the car park, away from Dh and the shop - then it dawned on me that I didn't fucking know how to actually get home and I had no cash, no card and no idea which way to walk.
Yes, I had to shamefully turn around and slink back to the car.
He didn't say anything to me, nothing at all and simply drove home when I'd got in.
I am NEVER like that, never ever and it usually takes a lot to push my buttons enough to make me react never mind get angry on that level.
To my eternal shame the only excuse that I can offer is that I was on day 3 or 4 of quitting smoking and right at that moment in the shop 'something' came over me. I was and am still embarrassed and have apologised to Dh a million times since.
I think I'd just, the night before, reported on my own stop smoking thread that I'd not had any anger or been moody, little did I know it was brewing :)

I read your OP and thought of the embarrassing time I yelled and screamed at someone in "my" wheelchair accessible space outside school. The only space I can pull into and lower the ramp and get dd out in her wheelchair.
It turned out that the driver was also disabled. We are now friends.
However, as I was reading the thread, I thought of quite a few more times when I have yelled at badly parked people stopping me go about my business. I may need to calm down about this.
I will leave you with something I witnessed in Venice as I waited for a water bus. It was evening and a lot of people were getting on, to the point that the boat was full. The official stopped people getting on and hung the chain across the step where you would cross from the jetty to the boat. At that moment a commuter type - sharp suit and briefcase arrived to find he could not board the boat. The body language of the official and the commuter suggested we were all going to be treated to a fantastic display of Italian histrionics, expletives etc. But no - as the boat left the jetty, Mr Commuter took hold of the chain, unhooked it, and slammed it onto the floor. Then he turned on his heel and presumably went to have wine until the next boat. Point made perfectly.

I had a proper tantrum about something at work when I was about 20. It was only in front of one colleague who wasn't a superior or anything but I still cringe about it from time to time.

It really mattered at the time but now I just think, FFS what a ridiculous cow I was.

Happens to everyone I suspect.

I had ordered a Dominos and had specified I wanted extra garlic sauce dips but it came with none. I got on the phone and lost the plot mortifying, I have never reacted so badly to a sauce related situation in my life. As I took a breath the poor woman on the other end said "I actually live on my new road name too" now I always wonder when I pass neighbours if it's her, if they know!

Well I once parked in front of someones driveway to take my dd into school.

I don't know why but I had it in my head that the man who lived there worked in London.

Anyway, when I came back to my car there was the very angry red in the face arms waving house owner waiting for me.

He looked completely dumbfounded when I said " Oh sorry I thought you were in London "

I was turning into my drive and was blocked by the neighbour in the centre of the road who having a nice chat with a passer by. He waved at me. I waited. And waited. I couldn't get past as its a narrow road. Finally they finished their chat, and magnanimously gave me a wave as he set off. I nearly broke my jaw smiling. He's a plumber so it pays to be nice. Plus dc were openly amazed at my calmness:) " are you alright mummy?"

And the school taxi driver likes to block people in. She walks extra slowly and makes sure all her crap on the passenger seat is still there, seat belt, checks hair and make up, ignores all the angry looks and slowly sets sail in her giant taxi van thing. Plucking up courage to block HER in:)

And today, in a hurry and dc like to abseil down the stairs using the banisters. FFS. Lost the plot and was screeching like a harpy at them when next door said " I was going to ask if you were ok but clearly not"

And I said " absolutely not. Excellent plan to not comment again on my hysterical parenting tactics" and swept off in a rage.

Oh I'm so glad other people have had the red most descend as well!

I know he didn't know the situation, I know it's not illegal.

I didn't talk because I didn't trust myself to not say "why are you parking over the drive of a disabled child who has just had a seizure? Are you really that incredibly selfish?"

Poor man. He wasn't horrible. He didn't know and probably thought I was at work and wouldn't be home, he was gone a short while later.

I had a Red Mist Moment is Tesco's once over yoghurt. Well, I was pregnant and DH saw me pick one up and innocently asked 'is that made with pasteurized milk then?'. At which point I just erupted in rage at how unfair it was that every bastard felt they had a right to comment on what I was eating now that I was pregnant; I flung the yoghurt back on the shelf and shouted 'FINE. I WONT HAVE ANY FUCKING YOGHURT.' and may have stormed off...

Oh, and totally reasonable reaction, OP

I lost the plot with my daughter this morning for losing the tights I gave her to put on which were the last clean pair downstairs meaning I had to go upstairs and get more.

(Disclaimer - I am very ill at the moment with a virus and DH is away so I'm not at my best)

I was ranting at her for having absolutely no ambition in life and how its no wonder Britain lost the empire.

She is 4. She gazed up at me, whilst picking a large bogie from her nose, and babbled something about the Empire striking back.

Thank god it all went over her head. I don't shout or lose the plot generally (in fact I wasn't shouting even then because I can't basically because of said virus)

rubber absolutely pmsl

And tatty too

Lol

RubberBulletKisses I've done exactly the same thing to my DH over cheese. I still cringe....

I don't often get angry, but last mother's day I saw red.

I got up early on the Sunday made OH a cuppa in bed, went to a car boot sale ( to buy stuff for my business) did a weekly shop at the supermarket, got back with a car load of stuff at lunch time to find my OH still in bed. THe house was a mess, last night's dishes still in the sink, bins overflowing, kids unfed.

I went into a rage, screaming at my OH, I opened the back door and started chucking everything into the garden- dirty pots, plates, dirty cat bowls, mugs, emptied the rubbish bin upside down on the patio.

I wasn't proud of myself, but boy did it feel good. Needless to say he didn't even get a card on father's day.

Not that ridiculous. Parking and other traffic violations are a real problem area. I think driving must put an odd stress on us, after all if God had meant us to pootle along at 60 MPH while being responsible for other people with us...

I had a red mist moment in the car last month. DH 'helpfully' advised me how to turn right out of a busy junction (I'm 43 and have been driving for years. This had been a problem area previously creating a rule that the only advice to be given was warnings about speed cameras or idiot drivers) then at a roundabout 100 yards later reached over and beeped the horn at the traffic blocking the roundabout no yellow boxes but inconsiderate

red mist...

I may have slapped at him flappy-swatting motions while his hands were in MY driving space and screamed at him. I was so angry that I couldn't take my hands off the steering wheel to change gear. Shaking with rage is the correct term. As the rev counter went over 3k he 'helpfully' advised me that I needed to change gear. I may have suggested that the only reason he wasn't bleeding was that I was holding onto the steering wheel.

I pulled over into the first layby to scream at him about his family's generally misogynistic attitude to women and if I ever heard his father's voice from him questioning my driving ability I would refuse to drive him, or his children ever again, what with me being so bad a driver. He works away a lot so this would have a big impact, but I will follow through if needed.

He may have asked me not to shout at him with the DDs in the car; what example was I showing them? Red mist still warming up I suggested that my girls were learning that you don't put up with crap just because it comes from the superior master race that is a bloke. He was to shut up and not say another word to me for the rest of the journey. Not a word about anything.

As I drove off DD1 (5) may have reminded him of the rule that you don't interfere with the driver of a car. Usually this means don't throw rubbish into the front of the car, allow balloons to migrate into the front of the car, throw cuddly toys where they may surprise the driver, or kick the back of the driver's chair. But yes it would also include blocking the drivers arm while reaching for the steering wheel.

10 miles later he asked me if I knew I was in a 40 as I was only doing 30... sigh. I shouted at him my valid driver reasons for my speed and told him he was on thin ice.

I wonder what makes people flip over the smallest of things? Maybe it's a giant build up of stress and the tiniest little thing falls on top of the already massive pile and the barrier in your brain breaks and the red mist falls, and then passes?