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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this kid deserves to be squashed

91 replies

Nataleejah · 20/11/2015 11:40

Yesterday i witnessed a scene in the street. A boy about 14 was cycling in circles around a bus, making stupid faces at the driver, while his friends on the pavement were having a laugh.
Who would be to blame if this little shit would have gotten run over?

OP posts:
KurriKurri · 20/11/2015 12:39

There were some kids (maybe 11/12 yrs) playing chicken down our road once; my XH nearly hit one of them when he came home from work. he got out of the car to give them a bit of a lecture, and one of them's Mum came out of her house effing and blinding at XH for daring to tell off her kid. She could see what they were doing and deemed jumping out in front of cars an OK game - what can you do ???

RB68 · 20/11/2015 12:46

They think they are invincible. I think if they are old enough to behave like this they are old enough for a couple of hrs in a cell watching videos of real victims of buses been picked off the road by ambulance and fire crew and the trauma they go through seeing young people destroyed like this and where the young person was being stupid the trauma the driver or train driver goes through

IKnowIAmButWhatAreYou · 20/11/2015 12:57

I don't get all the angst about calling kids "little shits" that I see on MN.

The phrase is used because many of them are - especially ones that aren't yours....

And yes OP, he does sound like a little shit trying to cause trouble.....

nightsky010 · 20/11/2015 13:00

I agree with RB68.

And they are being little shits!

KeepOnMoving1 · 20/11/2015 13:04

Well he did behave like a little shit. Treating idiots like this as precious snowflakes is what encourages this behaviour because there is someone willing to excuse it.

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 20/11/2015 13:06

God teenagers are terrifying around roads. This one was obviously being deliberately stupid. Whilst I wouldn't wish him physical harm, I don't think I'd have been too upset if his bike had been crushed.

The unintentional idiocy worries me too. I live near a massive secondary school and drive a nearby road most days at finish time. I reckon I do an emergency stop at least twice and month when kids randomly step out, bmxs bounce off the pavement without warning, etc (and a more gentle stop at least a couple of times a week). Luckily I am used to them and very on guard for it happened, but it wasn't that surprising that last year there were a number of collisions.

DolorestheNewt · 20/11/2015 13:08

squish squish squish
Snort

MrsDeVere · 20/11/2015 13:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pipbin · 20/11/2015 13:12

Some children are little shits.
I think to not say so does them a disservice. I imagine that it might be that some of the little shits belong to people who don't believe that children can be little shits.

MyLifeisaboxofwormgears · 20/11/2015 13:13

A young lad did this to our car once - was being egged on by his mates to cycle round our car while thumping on the windows - probably thought a middle aged couple would not do anything.
he was a bit shocked when we both got out and cornered him with DH casually pulling out his warrant card...

They really do think they won't get challenged - his mates melted away like summer snow.

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 20/11/2015 13:19

MrsDeVere - the idea of one of my kids stepping out into the road when they are older is terrifying. Leaving aside those deliberately playing chicken, I honestly don't know how we get it through to the unaware ones the risks they are running.

I am also terrified that some day I will have to face a parent whose child I have knocked down outside that school too. I'd be going slowly so hopefully we'd be talking broken leg and not worse, but I can see situations where I'd have no hope of stopping. One particular near miss about six months ago left me shaking, and I'm not sure the girl even twigged that she had stepped straight out about 6ft in front of my care without even turning her head.

WhatALoadOfOldBollocks · 20/11/2015 13:23

I'd hope he accidentally got too close to the bus and whacked his head on the wing mirror. Enough of a bump to hurt and take the wind out his cocky sails but not enough to do permanent damage. The trouble is these types of kids know the person they're taunting can't do anything so they hold all the power in situations like thisAngry. Unfortunately it seems not enough of them taunt someone who will react first, think of the consequences later; some of them need to learn the hard way that some strangers bite back! Yes, I know that sounds nasty, but realising that consequsnces have actions is a useful life lesson IMHO.

bachsingingmum · 20/11/2015 13:28

When I was a learner driver a lad playing chicken ran out from an alley in front of me. There was no way I could have stopped. It was dark and wet. His leg was badly broken. Very fortunately there was a police car a couple of vehicles behind me, so there was never any question that it was my fault, and they took over and got the ambulance etc. His friend said that this was the second time that had happened. Daft 'apeth! (Is that allowed on MN?) Frankly "little shit" is far more apt. It could have put me off driving for life. I was only 17 and it was very upsetting. I didn't do it to him - he did it to me. On that performance I'd be surprised if he made adulthood.

StrawberryTeaLeaf · 20/11/2015 13:30

I great many children die each year as the result of reckless behaviour.
It could happen to one of your kids.

As a result of dicking about in traffic? (Or breaking into building sites, or playing on railway lines, or whatever else.) No it couldn't.

Not all teenagers are semi-criminal.

Germgirl · 20/11/2015 13:31

I was driving down a residential street the other day at about 20mph when a group of teenage boys appeared at the side of the road. They ran in front of me, which was fine, but then one of them decided it'd be absolutely hilarious to stop in the middle of the road and do some press-ups.
I continued trundling towards them and he hurriedly leapt up, swearing at me & spitting at the car.
I'd have cheerfully ran the little shit over.
not really but I'd have cheerfully scared him to death
How was he being anything other than a little shit? It wasn't funny, despite the whoops of his friends. It was idiotically dangerous & he's lucky I was talking full notice of what was going on & had stopped accelerating.

Shakey15000 · 20/11/2015 13:49

DH is a bus driver and a current trend seems to be kids of apparent teenage years, stepping out as the bus approaches and sauntering across the road, deliberately slowly. Like a "Hehe, you can't run me over, you know you have to stop, I know you have to stop and there's not a thing you can do about it"

"Little" shits indeed.

Trickydecision · 20/11/2015 13:54

They've finally learnt that I won't stop and won't appear to slow down either (not that I'm moving fast anyway).

How exactly did you teach them Patrician? How close did you get before they moved? How many got squished?

HesterShaw · 20/11/2015 14:03

Obviously I don't think a kids should have been run over by a bus.

However you see more and more kids engaging in this sort of behaviour. I used to drive to work past a secondary school and some of them used to push their mates out in front of cars for a laugh. And in the harbour in our town, some of them jump in front of boats going in and out of the harbour and laugh at the poor skipper who gets the fright of his life and then yells at them...presumably for another laugh?

A few reasons I think. They don't think that anything bad will happen to them because they have been so cosseted and risk avoidant - adults' fault here. They see people surviving awful injuries and accidents in video games and films...again, it's adults which have produced this stuff and aimed it at them. And thirdly, they have become so accustomed to a litigation culture where the "causer" of an accident is the one blamed and sued, and the one who gets hurt gets the money and the sympathy, that it has had some weird and twisted effect on them.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 20/11/2015 14:07

The poor driver. The devastation he and indeed his poor family if the worse had happened.

LibrariesGaveUsP0wer · 20/11/2015 14:07

Hester - it's not even new though. Nearly 20 years ago a boy from my town died jumping into the local harbour 'for a laugh'. I don't disagree with your views on things making it worse, but it's also true it has happened for a long time.

ouryve · 20/11/2015 14:09

There's been 2 serious accidents involving a cycle and a bus in our area, in the past week.

It's hardly something to wish on someone, is it, no matter how annoying.

HesterShaw · 20/11/2015 14:10

Oh they jump in and out all the time. Tombstoning is nothing new, and no one has a problem with it.

It's the deliberate and insolent jumping while giving the finger in front of vessels who have to swerve to avoid them which is new.

HesterShaw · 20/11/2015 14:10

After all nothing bad ever happened to anyone who came into close contact with a propeller Hmm

dancerchancer · 20/11/2015 14:19

There's a kid over the road who does even worse. It's a fairly busy road and he waits till he sees a bus coming,then he literally sits down in the road so the bus has to stop. He sat for three minutes once and the driver was helpless to do anything. Hes about six year old. Shock

HesterShaw · 20/11/2015 14:20

A good case for the police going round his house and scaring him to death.

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