Or do young lads try to walk right into you deliberately?

[MrJohnsonAteMyCustard]

It's something I've noticed quite a lot recently, always with young lads/teenagers. It's as if they are deliberately walking into you with no intention of moving. I've come to expect it now so make sure I give them a very wide berth, because I've noticed that if I don't get out of the way they will most certainly at the very least brush past you.

For a long time I thought it was 1) Coincidence 2) Me needing a reasonable amount of personal space. But no, it happened today, in quick succession and the two lads obviously knew each other. Is this a new 'thing'??? Is it a game??

If anyone can enlighten me on this, that would be great as I'm wondering if it's just me they seem to want to antagonise

I have had this once - now I will be plowing into the fuckers for the fun of it if they do it to me again.

himoverthere surely "cricket" is just sexual assault?

I've noticed this a lot. I've always respectfully made way for people, habit inbred to make way for older people.
Obviously slow on the uptake but it dawned on me only embarrassingly recently that at over 50, on the respect for age principle more people should be making way for me than the other way round.
Since then I've channeled my inner rebel and not made way. It's a bit like playing chicken but they do usually give way. If they don't, I agree with PP, stopping dead also works.

The teen variant is definitely not exclusive to boys. Aggressive girls are much more terrifying than boys in my opinion and the chance of them punching you (if you're a woman) is FAR higher.

This likely also depends on where you live.

Manslamming, mansplaining, manspreading, manflu, etc, etc.

I personally despise these sexist labels. Maybe not as much as the people who use them seem to despise men.

Maybe just put them under one label: Manblaming

This has happened to me with men and women. I stop. Stand square. Like a car. If a car is driving aggressively towards you and wants you to move over in your own lane slow down to give them enough time to move over on their side instead of crowding you over for no reason.

Then if they bump into you you're less likely to be off balance as well.

GRanted if you're carrying a child or anything fragile then swerve and mutter under your breathe. It's all you can do really.

More and more I think of walking like driving and feel like we should have lanes. WHY don't people check their blind spot when walking? instead they cut me up constantly usually dragging a suitcase so I trip over it. fml.

Mrsemcgregor Well, yes it is that is why it is made to look accidental, fairly tough to score an 'explainable' 6 though.

I strongly suspect that people who slam teenagers all the time don't actually know any.

Unfortunately I do. I'm related to one who probably partakes in this stupidity. It's depressing.

I slow down and look down or away and just pretend I don't see them coming. Nine times out of ten, they give up and move. I do find that teenage girls seem to give way more readily than boys.

BalloonSlayer - I may not know any personally, and I'm not putting teenagers in general down. I recognise it's probably a minority that do this. However, there's no doubt that this goes on. And in my experience, it's ALWAYS been teenagers.

There's similar happening around here, where groups of teens seem to have an issue with cars on the roads. They just cross when they want to and swagger across the road, the driver has to brake or else you'd hit them.I don't know why they do this or what it achieves.If I saw one of mine doing this I'd go apeshit.

I haven't noticed anything like that I would say was deliberate. I've seen groups of teenage boys who are too engrossed in laughing at whatever on their phones to properly pay attention to where they're going. Twattish for sure but not deliberately rude.
But then again we can pick apart the behaviour of any group and decide they're rude.

I'm very good at looking through people like they don't exist. It was useful when younger and getting street hassle from men. I will deffo employ the same strategy if confronted with this new twattery. I am no pixie and suspect that many teenagers would come off worst if they walked into me.
I spend a lot of time in a large university town full of young things and I can't say I've noticed this trend, though.

I have two teenage boys and they can be incredibly dozy and unaware, it's not rudeness. It's like they haven't got control over their growing bodies iykwim.

I strongly suspect that people who slam teenagers all the time don't actually know any.

May be true on some aspects of teenage life but not really this issue.

Totally agree with everything FatCatFaces said about it being more a female thing

Bloody Hell ! This happens to me all the time these days - thought it was because now I have grey hair I've become invisible...
But I have to say that the only section of society that don't do it to me (or haven't yet) are the teenage lads !
In fact, the opposite.... I walk through a cemetery gate which is really narrow and next to a boy's school... and every single time I've come up against the boys coming out at lunch time they have all stood aside for me... one saying "make way for the lady"....makes my day that does.

I tend to slow to a near stop in the road and look at them with a quizzical head tilt.

How scary if this is really done on purpose! I've never noticed such a thing. Though I would be more worried about teen girls, for some reason I've found the boys tend to be more well mannered towards women/girls or have one among them who is to keep them in check.

There's similar happening around here, where groups of teens seem to have an issue with cars on the roads. They just cross when they want to and swagger across the road, the driver has to brake or else you'd hit them.I don't know why they do this or what it achieves.If I saw one of mine doing this I'd go apeshit.

Here too, and while they're crossing, slowly, they stare at the driver.

Girls do it too though. Then there's women walking in a group who just don't expect to have to change your their line of walking.

My wife laughs at me because people are always walking into me. I'm 6 ft 2 so hardly invisible!

I've never experienced anyone deliberately doing it though, but then I'm not sure you would cue me up as a target!

Wasn't this the experiment where she just walked at everybody and fewer men moved out of her way, so she called it manslamming even though both sexes didn't move out of her way?

90% of people seem to walk around looking down at their smart phones these days, adults as much, if not more than children.

Yep, I've seen this (in Lewisham/Bromley). 6 abreast walking down the street. I keep walking straight to them, I make eye contact and loudly say in the friendliest voice I can "excuse me lads" and they part like the Red Sea with Moses in charge. Occasionally I get that sucking through the teeth thing in response.

Worse than manslammers are the people in groups who refuse to walk single file on narrow pavements, forcing you into the road. It's as if someone alone is less than a group. Infuriates me. When it comes to bargers I give as good as I get. One benefit of being tall with big arms and broad shoulders.