WIBU to shout at children I didn't know

[waffilyversati1e]

Driving into town to drop my son off at a party and a group of 5/6 (clearly) unsupervised children who would have been maybe 8-10yrs old were by the roadside on a piece of planted green area outside of an office block kicking up the grass, ripping out plants and throwing them at cars. Something (soft) hit my car but because of the traffic I couldn't have stopped.

Dropped off ds and drove back through town. Kids were still at it. This time I slowed the car to a crawl, wound my window down and shouted (louder than I was aiming for) "Oi, I know your Dad and you are in deep shit. STOP IT" at which point they did stop it and ran back toward the housing behind the road.

I definitely do not know their Dads. I do feel a little bit bad for swearing at kids.

Nah I wouldn't worry about swearing, they would have eventually got a lot worse. I'd say the I know your dad thing had them a lot more worried then saying shit.

Hahahaha good way of stopping them, show no fear!

I'm sure they've heard much worse than 'shit' at school.

Little bleeders.

I didn't have a clue what to to say but I was pissed off and went with the thing which would have put the fear of god into me as a 10 yr old.

brilliant! It seemed to have done the trick.

YNBU. Perhaps if some one else does tell tgem. They might learn. However regarding them running away, shows they were scared of you telling their dads.
They sound like Saints compared to the kids around my way. If you said. Im telling your dad to them. Their reply would be. Tell me dad. He'll put your windows in. One lady knocked on someones door, about their little "angels behaviour, and she got greeted with, " And Fuckin what. He can do what he fuckin likes". That's the example the future generation are being set.
If someone had to go and see my mum about my behaviour out on the street. I'd have had an arse so red. I still wouldn't be able sit down, even now, and. Trust me. I was no Arch angel Gabriel. Far from it.

I'm a teacher-I sometimes forget to switch to off duty mode and fairly regularly tell off random children. Often they say "sorry miss".

Totally fine to tell off those children. It usually is more effective if you're deathly cool rather than sweary. Well done for not just walking on by.

That's fab, YANBU! I have a habit of coming over all nursery nurse at times and have told children in our local shop to behave themselves using the words 'No Thank You' as though they're all 2 years old!

I once automatically carried one child away from an another kid for hitting him. Neither child was mine or related to me. It was just automatic. Afterwards I said whoops sorry to their mums but they weren't bothered.,
Good tactic OP. Another good one is to point vaguely and say there's a CCTV there and the police are keeping an eye.

YANBU and if my kid grows up to do that I hope someone steps in and does the same.

PurpleDaisies I have the same problem. It's hard to switch it off. I grumbled to DH today as we drove past a pack of my students that they should be inside revising, and wanted to turn the car around and go tell them. He refused as 'it's Easter Monday, Love!'

They sound like Saints compared to the kids around my way. If you said. Im telling your dad to them. Their reply would be. Tell me dad. He'll put your windows in. One lady knocked on someones door, about their little "angels behaviour, and she got greeted with, " And Fuckin what. He can do what he fuckin likes". That's the example the future generation are being set.

Something similar happened to BIL. His car was keyed. A witness told him who did it and where they lived.

BIL knocked on the door and explained what had happened to the parent, as in "I'm telling you instead of the police so you can talk to your child, punish them and perhaps help pay towards rectifying the damage if you can afford to, rather than involve authorities and cause unnecessary trouble" - not exact words, but that was the intention he tried to explain.

The parent's reply was along the lines of "And so fucking what? Go to the fucking bobbies. We'll fucking burn your car, grass."

He went to the police. The parent was charged. The child was too young. No one burned his car.

Some poor kids have no fucking chance

YANBU OP.

I read that as 'shoot at children' and had to do a double take.

Nope. YWNBU OP. I'm glad you did what you did.

Good for you OP.

It's a pity more aren't as responsible as you.

responsible! I need to show my Mum your comment

YANBU. I've done it before, although I haven't had to yell yet -I do the icy cold polite but stern voice and a death stare. I would expect an adult to bollock my child if they were doing something like that and would support that bollocking.

I was having a conversation about this sort of thing with DH earlier. We were talking about all the things we'd done as children but not thought about the affect it had on others or any property. We were just stupid kids who succumbed to peer pressure. We do both remember getting a bollocking from a random stranger though!

Hopefully you've traumatised those kids in to at least thinking about their actions in the future too

Yanbu, not enough kids getting shouted at my strangers imo (I'm only half serious)

I shouted out the window at a grown man the other week , i couldn't stop so just stuck my hand to the horn and shouted "oi" (and other ragey words but he would only have heard "oi", himself and a boy around 11/12 were picking all the daffodils the council had planted, that sends me into a rage , dd (10) wanted me to turn around and give him a proper talking to, she was completely outraged

Don't get me started on Daffodil picking! I was really pissed off the other day after spotting a group of children carrying armfuls of them picked from the driveway to the village church. They had adults with them so no excuse for not knowing better. They are for everyone to enjoy, not for selfish fuckers to use as free house decorations . I don't go to church myself, but I know that they were lovingly planted and tended to by the parishioners. So rude!