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.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

To have told a woman to take her shivering child home to bed in Primark

742 replies

BigRedBall · 05/11/2014 17:55

I went out today to get a few bits and bobs and ended up in a Primark. Got to the lifts and saw a woman waiting with a pushchair and on it was hanging a school bag. Looked to her side and she had a school aged child with her who was visibly ill, shivering, moaning. I assumed she'd picked him up from school and was dropping by on way home, but then realised school bag was from a school other side of town.

We went up together and the boy was whimpering now and looked really bad. The mother didn't seem to notice/care.

So I was walking around and the tanoy went off asking for a store cleaner to go to "area bla bla bla" for a clean up. Didn't really take any notice until I walked to the other side of the shop and the same woman was standing there with a now crying baby in pushchair and crying/ shivering child who had been sick all over the shop floor. There were splatters of pink sick on clothes, the mirrors, it was disgusting and she was stood there on the phone to someone and was telling the boy off.

I don't know about anyone else, but when my children get ill and shiver like that with fever, the last thing I'd do is traipse them across town. I'd give them a hug and put them in bed and hold their head if they were being sick. Goodness knows vomiting is draining even for an adult.

I felt so angry for the poor boy. So I walked up to her and said "instead of bringing him to the shops from school, you should've taken him home to bed. I'd take him straight home and give the poor thing a hug".

I think she was more shocked than anything.

DH thinks I wbu and is shocked I'd say that to someone. I don't think I am. Also, I now feel sick and think I have his germs.

OP posts:
Johnogroats · 05/11/2014 17:57

YWDNBU! Sounds appalling. Poor boy and poor you.

shinynewname · 05/11/2014 17:57

YANBU!

The poor boy and the poor shop staff . :(

shinynewname · 05/11/2014 17:58

Hope you're not ill. :(

LuckyLopez · 05/11/2014 17:58

Gosh do people really talk to strangers like that??! I'd have kept my beak out to be honest even if I thought it.

LadyLuck10 · 05/11/2014 17:58

Yanbu to feel that way but ywbu to say that to her. Not sure who you think you are.

WorraLiberty · 05/11/2014 17:59

I would have told you to fuck off to be honest.

Yes the poor child is ill but other than that, you know nothing else of why she was there.

Also you dont know if she 'traipsed' him across town or simply popped him in the car.

divingoffthebalcony · 05/11/2014 17:59

That's brave of you! But you're right. I could never drag a sick, suffering child around running errands when they should be at home in bed.

Nice for the cleaner to have to clean up the (probably contagious) vomit as well.

I hope the clothes weren't swiftly wiped and put back on sale Confused

Ohfourfoxache · 05/11/2014 18:02

Poor kid Sad

There is nothing - NOTHING - that can justify dragging a sick child round the shops like that, then telling them off when they've hrown up in public.

Priorities anyone?

FavaBeanPyramidScheme · 05/11/2014 18:02

YANBU

Poor mite. Thanks for saying what everyone else was thinking!!! Flowers

EatDessertFirst · 05/11/2014 18:03

I think you were very rude. Who exactly do you think you are talking to strangers like that?

Aeroflotgirl · 05/11/2014 18:04

Yanbu at all, someone needed to tell her! If I had to puck up my child from school as they are not well, they go straight to bed with a hug.

hmc · 05/11/2014 18:05

Well done on being the child's advocate - somebody has to be

amyhamster · 05/11/2014 18:05

but maybe she had to go into town to buy him calpol hence the pink sick
& maybe she was buying him a hot water bottle from Primark < hopeful >

northernlurker · 05/11/2014 18:05

Wow OP I bet you made her feel really great and enabled her to effectively manage that sick child Hmm

YABU. In fact you were rude and made assumptions about a situation you knew nothing about. I wouldn't take a sick child walking about Primark personally and yes he needed to be in bed - but his mother had made another choice. Was that because she was some sort of sadist hating Primark? No, I doubt that. I think she made that choice for reasons that felt right to her (and they may indeed have been selfish, feckless reasons). She ended up with sick on her shoes, two distressed kids, public embarrassment and to top it all some woman telling her what to do. I think we can deduce from all of this she knows she made a mistake. Do you think you really needed to berate her? I don't.

Aeroflotgirl · 05/11/2014 18:06

Instead of telling him off and talking on the phone, good on you op, some peoples priorities are elsewhere. You were not rude at all.

BigRedBall · 05/11/2014 18:07

I think I'm a concerned citizen who doesn't want others getting ill from vomit germs.

If she was in a bank or post office, I'd still think she had important things to do and would have kept quiet. There is nothing important to do in Primark in the baby boys section.

OP posts:
VanitasVanitatum · 05/11/2014 18:08

I don't think anyone can really defend the Primark woman tbh, what kind of reason to shop in Primark can be urgent enough to put her child through that misery?!

WorraLiberty · 05/11/2014 18:08

Of course she was rude

For all the OP knows the boy might have been ok-ish when she picked him up, so maybe he said he'd be fine to pop into the shop.

Maybe he asked for something in the shop.

It's all ifs, buts and maybes which is why the OP shouldn't have made the woman feel any more shit, than she probably already did.

Seriouslyffs · 05/11/2014 18:09

She made a bad choice. However your intervention probably meant they went straight home, so good call. She probably doesn't now need pillorying by internet, so posting about it for plaudits doesn't exactly cover you in glory!

WorraLiberty · 05/11/2014 18:11

Yes, I hope all this has made you feel like a superior parent OP.

Wasn't it enough for you to stroll up to her in the shop and tell her what you would have done, without canvassing pats on the back from internet strangers too?

alemci · 05/11/2014 18:12

ywnbu

escape · 05/11/2014 18:12

You know all those hundreds of humans and animals you'll share airspace with on a weekly basis OP ? I bet they're carrying allsorts
Best to never leave the house again.

delicialicious · 05/11/2014 18:13

I think you were out of order, OP. You made a lot of assumptions and then behaved like a fish wife!

CromerSutra · 05/11/2014 18:13

So what about her telling him off for being sick then? She sounds horrible. Poor kid. I work with parents and kids and just sometimes they are very uncaring and unpleasant.

BigRedBall · 05/11/2014 18:13

I'm still thinking about the boy which is why I've posted here.

worra why would he ask for something specifically from Primark and then cry and whimper in the shop? Hmm.

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread