to hate every single parent and child crowding up South Kensington during half term?!

[misspantomime]

I work in the area and every single evening during every single school holiday it takes me 30 minutes more to get home because a) I cannot walk down the streets as they are too crowded and (b) I cannot get into South Ken station due to crowding and also due to parents letting their kids walk down the road either on scooters or at 0.00000000005 MPH and also not knowing how to use the ticket barriers properly.

I am a Londoner and we are notoriously intolerant of people who can't use the underground properly but even so I never truly knew rage until I started working round here. There are queues all the way down the road. For the fricking science museum.

I work right behind John Lewis in Oxford Street. Love working there so much but understand at half terms/holiday time, especially Christmas it can be a nightmare just to walk down pavements to do get to and from work. So I use the back streets and walk a bit further to the next tube station. Actually I havereally enjoy it looking at new businesses setting up/coffee shops/restaurants to visit.

HAHA try the west country where one idiot a week will drive a caravan they're not used to driving, crash it and cause the whole of Somerset Devon and Cornwall to be at a standstill every school holiday.
We tried walking through harrods in the summer holiday though and that was hideous so yanbtotallyu just a bit. I was claustrophobic as I shuffled in the crowds and just had to get out (claustrophobia isn't something I usually struggle with).

We go to museums on the weekend in half term, because most other people appear to use them for the week.

However the Science museum and NHM are my idea of hell and we have built up a lovely list of smaller much more accessible museums where we can see things/not get lost/read the information about exhibits.

I was going to share, but I don't want them to get busy :-)

Try central Edinburgh during the Festival, pushing a buggy ... Lesson swiftly learnt

I used to live just off Oxford street. Arrrrrgggghhhhhh, nightmare! And as if the crowds weren't bad, there was a convent close by, compete with very early prayer bells.

I now work in tourist central and still get asked for directions to tourist sites that don't actually bloody well exist. It was a film, people! Julia Roberts ain't going to be trotting up the road with Hugh Grant.

Just thought I would mention my experience of Paris with 4 kids, aged 12, 7, 3 and 1, me pregnant.

Was fine. My french is ok-ish and I planned planned planned ahead. But yes we did struggle to work out which exit we needed with the buggy, we did get lost a couple of times, we did end up on the wrong side of the metro and you know what? Parisian commuters were great and despite their reputation for being rude, were helpful and patient. We hadnt planned to be travelling at commuter time (see getting lost and being on the wrong platform) but they couldnt have been kinder or more helpful. One day I asked a traffic warden in the suburb nearest to where we were staying whether I needed to pay to park as I couldnt work out the restrictions, she said that as long as I was no longer than 10 minutes she would let me off!

Compare that the to rude "fuck you" attitude we got in London with one disabled 12 year old, I would take Paris any day of the week.

Londoners, read this..... www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2311615-To-think-that-when-youve-got-a-trail-of-people-in-your-past-who-youve-fallen-out-with-chances-are-your-the-one-with-the-issue?

Ok so not the same issue, but I would be wondering, is it you with your selfish expectations and not us who dare to clog up your city?

We are very split down the middle here but I have to say OP I totally get it as I used to work at the science museum and my god during the school holidays it was hell.

I have to say the worst kind of tourists for being inconsiderate jerks are those who are English but not from London. When DP and I went to New York last year we made sure we planned our route properly beforehand and stayed out of the way so as not to interfere with people going about their daily lives. Sorry but that is the correct way to behave and I'm afraid if you disagree with that then it's you being the arse.
In any case OP clearly states she doesn't want to keep tourists out of London, she just gets frustrated with the fact that many have no idea to behave. I don't think there's anything shocking in that. Do you have any idea how irritating it is you miss your train because some moron is standing on the wrong side of the escalator, oblivious, or stopping dead on the stairs in front of a huge crowd of people in order to take a picture? These are things that tourists do routinely. As I have said before, not understanding is no excuse as the English speakers are as bad as if not worse than the foreign ones!!
I work near Oxford circus now so feel your pain OP. I think it's even worse here. The amount of kids and parents walking down Oxford st is mad - why on earth would you want to take your child there?!?!

One of my major bugbears is people not looking after their children safely on tube platforms. Scooting on platforms (arrrghhh), jumping on trains as doors are shutting, not holding on and looking surprised when the train moves. It's not hard to avoid the rush hour, packed trains are horrible for children and adults, why not just go a bit later/earlier.

I used to live near Lambeth Palace and work at the NPG. I Used to get stopped all the time to take pictures of people. I eventually altered my route to work so I wasn't walking over Westminster bridge. I finished work at 4.30 and for much of the year Leicester Square tube was closed - before I moved to Lambeth I lived in N London and found this really, really annoying. But not surprising. How is everyone else supposed to get around?

My housemate regularly used to get stopped to take photos when running, in full 'I'm a runner' gear. Based on where we lived, I'm not sure she should have had to alter her route, as running along the river is the best way to go.

I've returned from a few days in Paris this week, Bogeyface and found everyone to be nothing other than helpful and polite.

I think I must be the only parent in London who has NEVER taken my children to Science museum or natural History museum.
They are 18 and 16

I am a member of V and A and a couple of galleries....adore the Imperial war museum...but the scrum that is the SM and NHM was not for me.

Would you rather these children were sat at home in front of the XBox and had never heard of London or its museums?

If you get in there early the museums are fine. Its a big city, with too many people and very large tourist industry.

Its dawdling gaggles of euro teens with their backpacks. They only want to find put where sells beer, not see the sights.

And as for the tour guide who asks me at least twice week if I want to do a Big Bus tour... This is as I fly down the road to work (in 'work clothes'), with my case and coffee cup.

I'm not annoying when I'm a tourist, honest!

Don't get me started on Boris Bikes...

Worse place for rudeness was New York for me.

They didn't know who they were dealing with though (uncouth Glaswegian).

Mmm South Kensington.

South Kensington this, South Kensington that - it strikes me as a bit like name dropping - the need to emphasise one's association with the wonderful magnificent South Kensington! And in so doing emphasising one's own sense of importance I think.

Bloody tourists, spending their bloody money in our bloody economy on our bloody hotels and other bloody local businesses. They need to FOTTFSOF that's bloody what.

When I first became a Mum to Ds then 4.5 Imade the mistake of taking him to the Science Museum during his first half term - it was awful , so crowded and full of annoying parents eg those that just let their kids run havoc etc. luckily I now take him to the museums on a Sat/Sun afternoon as we can go to London for the day and it's brill but we not spend 2-3 hrs max.

Yesterday we must of annoyed lots of people as we caught a 8 o'clock train to London to then catch the 9 am to York which we were visiting for the day. He granted had a small bag big enough for his tablet and a drink. We certainly annoyed a grumpy man on theYork train who felt the need to tell us twice that we were in first class - luckily my DS told him politely that we knew as our tickets were for there and he was really looking forward to breakfast ! Grumpy man wasn't impressed even though me and DS sat quietly on train me with my book and he with his tablet and muttered that it should be a child free zone ...... I smiled as we left and said it was a shame he couldn't afford a carriage to himself , DS told me he felt sorry for him. Eng so grumpy when it as such a lovely day, and it was.

I don't mind tourists. I like them mainly and I can even get to practise my French and Italian on the poor buggers, and play tour guide. I can't afford holidays these days, so the world comes to me!!

Anyone piddling slowly in front if me, however, is a problem though. That includes dogwalkers with ten mutts, or phalanxes of bugaboo moms taking up the entire pavement.

Londoners have a heightened sense of 'ive got somewhere very very important to be right this minute' attitude. And it is annoying when visitors try to get onto a bus with cash. Don't they check travel guides before they arrive or even consult mumsnet? Cashless, its cashless, people!

You know, there are lots of things that upset me about modern life. But parents taking their children to the natural history museum in half-term is not one of them.

Some of the comments on this thread seem to strengthen my feeling that London is quickly becoming a separate country. Complaining that people visiting don't understand the customs and everyone should know the intricacies of how the transport system works.

Its not difficult to check things before you go!

When I used to travel I would always check before I arrived how you get about, where you shop etc... Basic stuff.

It gets annoying when end up sitting on a bus for ages at each stop with the driver arguing with tourists over fares! My usual work route is very touristy so yes, sometimes it is bloody annoying!

I suppose it depends where you live and how much it impacts on your day to day life.

Um, well, the transport thing does work both ways... If I'm going somewhere out of London nowadays I usually try to find out how their buses work beforehand so I at least know what ticket I need to ask for as I instinctively reach for my Oyster.

I work in Central London too and just ask people to please move if I'm in a rush. I walked past the South Bank last Saturday and from above it was just a solid sea of heads... I felt sympathy for the tourists really. I get to enjoy that area every morning on my walk to work and any evening I choose. They looked too packed in to really get to see anything.

Why does everyone assume that people didn't check before they go? That only Londoners are somehow superior and the only considerate people on the planet. I live in Brazil, here rushing is an alien concept. If someone gets in your way, you either politely wait for them to move on, or you politely ask them to excuse you or you tap them on the shoulder. You must give a very clear thank you if you have asked someone to step a side for YOU. Do people know this is not the same custom in England, are they likely to look it up? If you went to Rio, asked someone on the metro to excuse you and then walked away with a fleeting thank you, will you be considered inconsiderate and rude? Absolutely! Will the person care? Probably not, they will just correctly assune you are British. Will you know this? NO Will planning your route on the internet or checking forums give you intricate knowledge of customs? NO, well I suppose you do know now, if any of you are planning to go to the olympics.

Also my parents live in central London, they're old, they bought property in the 60s for next to nothing. Should they make sure they don't go about their lives in peak times? They are old, getting forgetful, they might hold up busses for a couple of seconds. If you let a held up bus get to you, it will.

actually the point was about two things

Firstly you can't LEARN about the local customs and etiquette from a little research on the internet or timeout. It's learned behaviour from living in a place, only way is to live and immerse yourself in another culture. I lived here for three years before I got it and that's the point I'm making, it goes two ways so it's unreasonable and ignorant for anyone to assume that tourists coming to London would know how they are supposed to behave in the face of commuters. It's just a lack of ability to see things from any other perspective.
Second point was about held up buses, not the elderly. I was pointing out that it's not just the tourists who do that. NOT the fact that they were elderly. Someone did mention not going into London during peak times, but people live in central London so commuters have no right to say when residents can and can't use the streets. It's about having a little more tolerance for others.