To think this mother was being ridiculous

[wellliesandleaves]

I was walking back to my car at my local shopping centre earlier this afternoon. A toddler suddenly ran behind a reversing car and a couple of us had to make frantic gestures at the driver to stop, which she did, just in the nick of time.
The mother of the toddler started having a go at the driver saying she had deliberately kept going even though she had seen the child. Driver protested that the child had come from nowhere and the mother said something like 'she let go of my hand, there was nothing I could do, you should have been driving more carefully'.

AIBU to think that the mum should have been keeping a tight grip on her child and was totally unfair to blame the driver? We did stick up for the driver but the mother wasn't a bit interested and just kept going on that people in car parks need to be more careful. I was a bit shocked at her attitude to be honest.

If he hadn't looked, or was reversing too fast I'd be on the mum's side. But

It's really hard to see small children and she should have been holding his hand. 'There was nothing I could do' doesn't really cut it.

I imagine she was scared and defensive. Or maybe she's always like that

Another mother who blames the everyone else but herself!

Sounds like one of those people who thinks it's everyone else's fault but hers. Of course she should have been holding onto the toddler's hand - stupid woman.
Good job you were there

I agree with Narp - probably in shock and easier to cope with if you can place the blame on someone else.

It is really down to parents to keep hold of their child in car parks. She probably knew that but it is easier to blame someone else than take responsibility herself. I had a child run behind my car as I was reversing. The mother was following and had let the child run out of the gate ahead of her. She was arsey with me too. Children are v hard to see and no one is expecting a child to suddenly dart behind their car.

She'd just had a major shock and near miss. It's not common for people to blame others when that happens but there are some that do. Unfortunately her inability to see that the danger can also be prevented by her will increase the chance of it happening again.

I'm a driver so am not blaming driver's but I had an incident today.
Walking across the supermarket car park with my 7yr old (& tall) ds holding my hand when suddenly a car started to reverse obviously without looking & quite fast.
I managed to pull my ds out of the way & move myself before the driver hit us but rather than an apology he started to shout at me.
Shaken up I admit that I had a go at him (not my finest moment) as he was in the wrong but he refused to apologise.

In the instance you're talking about the mother should of been keeping a firm grip on her toddler & sounds like she was shaken up but still no excuse to have ago at the driver.

I suppose panic just got the better of her. It's easy to be a little irrational when you're panic stricken. She will be fretting about this for a while, but now that the initial heart stopping moment has passed, she is probably feeling bad for blaming the driver.

Yes, I suppose she was just on the defensive, but I felt really sorry for the driver who had also had a shock but managed to remain civilised.

This wasnt in Scotland was it OP?

That mother sounds exactly like someone i know. She would have reacted like that not through fear and shock but through believing that she and her kids can do not wrong.

I guess the driver remained civilised because she wasn't the child's mum though.

The clue is in the location CAR park.
Silly mare and unfortunate for the child as it will only happen again unless the woman starts to take responsibility for her own shortcomings.

I guess the driver remained civilised because she wasn't the child's mum though.

It's more likely that the driver is just a more mature, measured person who doesn't feel the need to lay into the nearest person when something goes wrong or upsets them.

I've never felt the need to have a go at people when my children have ended up in that sort of situation.

My DD ripped her hand out of mine and ran behind a JCB reversing on a farmyard once because they had been told at school to find a bank to stand on if a farm vehicle was moving around near you. She took them too literally and ran behind the JBC to get to the bank.

The driver was shocked and upset when he realised he had nearly hit her, as was I. I apologised and explained. It never crossed my mind to blame him or have a go.

People don't think. I was reversing out of a space today and had two large people carriers parked either side of my mini so visibility wasn't great, I had both DCs looking carefully for me as I edged out. A woman with two toddlers walked straight behind my car about 2 feet away. It's not the first time people have done that either.

Loving the idea that from a brief description of incident in a car park - that if it Scotland - someone probably knows the mother !

No, not Scotland. Dublin.

Loving the idea that from a brief description of incident in a car park - that if it Scotland - someone probably knows the mother !

PMSL

I'm cynical but this is another incidence of modern society where people are never wrong

Why don't more people reverse into supermarket car parks? Is it because other drivers make it so hard--for instance, by driving frontwards into spaces you are trying to reverse into, ignoring your indicating and reversing lights? Or because of needing to load up the boot?

It is much safer to drive forward out of a space!

I hope she was just shocked, otherwise she's likely to be just as stupid next time with not holding her child's hand and that really doesn't bear thinking about.

It does not surprise me though, I know a father who is that feckless to not keep a hold of his toddler.

What Helensburgh said. I've had a toddler run across the back of my car too. But, with a car parked either side of me, and the toddler being way too short for me to see out of the back window, there was no way for me to see her.

That's a shame. I wouldn't want to be yelled at because I couldn't keep perfect grasp of my toddler but I sure wouldn't scold a driver for not seeing a small child in rear view mirror, either.

I was taught that car parks are just the same as Roads, it's cars domain, so it's the prederstian responsibility to be extra vigilant.

That said I can well belive the toddler did slip the mothers grip, and it was shock that made her spout off but she was being unreasonable.

This is why I 9x out of 10 reverse park.

Today I just pulled in, I looked around twice when reversing out and the car park wasn't particularly busy I reversed out slowly looking all around and bam suddenly there was a man behind me in the middle of the aisle. That's why I normally reverse in.

When I was learning to drive, the driver instructor told me that it's more likely to have an accident in a supermarket car park than on the roads. Sure enough the only time my car has been in an accident was when reversed into it when trying to reverse into a space. Luckily for me but not for her no claims I saw her do it.