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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not think iwbu to refuse to leave a PUBLIC park for this family??

128 replies

FireOnTheWater · 28/12/2014 15:52

Christmas Day teens opened their xbox/phones and disappeared to their rooms leaving DP and I bored alone downstairs. We decided to go for a quick drive to the mier, take Christmassy pics of swans etc before dinner.

We got there about 10am. Planned to stay for a couple of hours. It was quiet, romantic and more Christmassy to me than sat at home watching tv.

10 minutes after we got there a family pulled up next to our car. The driver (dad?) got out and walked over to us. Rest of family stayed in car. He was lovely at first, said hello, asked if we were having a nice christmas and then told us there was another nice spot to photograph the birds further up the road Confused. I said we were not intending to stay out long so we'd stay there but thanks all the same. Then he started saying about how his family had visited the mier on Christmas Day last year and they were the only ones there and his wife and kids were looking forward yo having the place to themselves again. I reminded him that it was a public park and we were not staying long anyway. Anyway to cut long story short, he then tried reasoning with DP, telling him I was being unreasonable and ruining his family's day out and that since they don't celebrate christmas it was "surely" not unreasonable to expect one day in the year that they could have the park to themselves!!! The most annoying bit about it was that DP started agreeing with him and made me out to be an awkward cow just for the sake of it.

As I say this was a few days ago now but I'm still so angry. Name change as mIL knows me screen name and this would be right up her street, me "straying" on Christmas Day ffs.

OP posts:
TheRealMaryMillington · 28/12/2014 16:06

You were not unreasonable and they were bonkers

Why did they not just go for a walk or whatever?

And I'd be well pissed off with your OH

FibonacciSeries · 28/12/2014 16:06

I was once one out of only three passengers on an international flight. It was lovely. I've ever since complained to the flight attendants about all these people ruining my enjoyment of a quiet aircraft (YWNBU)

ouryve · 28/12/2014 16:06

If he wants exclusive use of a place, he can hire somewhere, just for him and his family.

YWNBU.

MrsCosmopifairylight · 28/12/2014 16:06

I'd be arranging another trip with a coachload of people for next year.

If they knew of somewhere else that was 'nice' then they should have gone there. It's a public park, so YWNBU.

Maybe they were going to snaffle a swan for Boxing Day dinner. Were they vair vair posh? Was the husband an elderly bumbling gent that said anything inappropriate? Was the woman wearing a posh frock and a crown?

IsabellaofFrance · 28/12/2014 16:07

A mier is bigger than a pond but not quite a lake. They have one in the town my grandparents live in.

crocodiledundeelady · 28/12/2014 16:07

woah! Shock YANBU.

Original poster
FireOnTheWater · 28/12/2014 16:10

Hornsea, you all up for it next christmas morning? Feel free to bring big slobbery dogs and noisy children :-)

OP posts:
Lazymama2 · 28/12/2014 16:12

Mayabe they wanted to kill a swan and take it home to eat. Without witnesses. I know theyre protected but ive heard of it happening!!!!

gamerchick · 28/12/2014 16:12

That's a thought. We're they after a bird for their dinner?

MrsHathaway · 28/12/2014 16:12

Round here it's spelt mere and is a smallish lake in the hills, left behind by melting glaciers.

What weirdos. I'm not sure whether I'd have been intimidated into a sharp exit, or provoked into a lengthy stay with impromptu carols at full volume.

Have the teenagers emerged from technology at all?

ProfYaffle · 28/12/2014 16:14

southeastastra I think 'mier' may actually be a Mere.

CheeseBuster · 28/12/2014 16:15

I would be planning a nice gathering for next year.

SaltyandSweet · 28/12/2014 16:15

Your DH is an idiot. Even if he, weirdly, agreed with that guy, has he never heard of solidarity? The guy is a stranger for gods sake, he should not be siding with him against his wife. By all means, tell you that you were wrong later but don't gang up on you. That would seriously, seriously piss me off. The other family are just plain crazy.

catsofa · 28/12/2014 16:15

I think that family were naturists and had been planning a christmas skinny dip.

We should turn up just slightly later in the day for our MN 2015 meet up, so that they have time to get their kit off and get in the water before our slobbery dogs jump in to join them.

SistersOfPercy · 28/12/2014 16:16

Maybe they wanted to kill a swan and take it home to eat

Thats happened quite a bit where I live. The local park had several swans and ducks taken for food. Confused

LumpySpacedPrincess · 28/12/2014 16:16

That's awful! Your dh was a git though, how disrespectful. Is he normally such undermining idiot?

Spadequeen · 28/12/2014 16:18

So where is then, I quite fancy a nice walk next Christmas morning. Is it all right if I bring the neighbours, dogs and relatives with me?

Fuckmath · 28/12/2014 16:19

I agree they wanted to do something with no witnesses, probably take a bird away with them if they were picking them up.

YANBU and they were shocking!

ShadowSuperNova · 28/12/2014 16:20

YANBU, obviously.

I'd have been tempted to stay twice as long as originally planned. What with it being a public park that you're entitled to be in and all.

Your DH was being unreasonable to not back you up as well.

Carrierpenguin · 28/12/2014 16:21

Yanbu, they were up to no good and you were in the way of their bird killing.

thatstoast · 28/12/2014 16:22

Should've told them to fup off!

thenightsky · 28/12/2014 16:22

It sounds like they were planning something dodgy, like stealing a duck for dinner, given how they were picking them up!

ChickenMe · 28/12/2014 16:23

God that is bonkers of them. And brazen of them to say it out loud. They were definitely after a bit of bird-rustling.

louisejxxx · 28/12/2014 16:25

Sometimes I really wonder what goes through people's minds...I mean really? Trying to get you to leave the park so they can "have it to themselves"...I would honestly have laughed in the blokes' face!

Topseyt · 28/12/2014 16:27

You had every bit as much right to be there as they did. It is a public open space with public rights of way.

I would not have left. In fact, if I was there at all it would have been with my two dogs, who are a labrador and a rather dappy cocker spaniel. They would have sniffed him out, and I'd bet he wouldn't have been impressed by that.

I am guessing from your partner's reaction that he may be one who tries to avoid conflict, otherwise he would have asserted himself more.