WateryTart
When I Rule The World repeat offenders will have their scooters impounded. I once had a smallish child stop a trike-type-thing by crashing into the back of my legs. On a really wide path, oceans of space all around. Turn around, no adult anywhere in sight. Wait. Still no adult. Child gawping at me. Move back a bit & bend down so not looming but making eye contact (can't crouch due to stage of recovery from knee reconstruction). Ask, v gently, if small boy will apologise, as while I know he didn't mean to, hitting me like that hurt me. Small boy says sorry, I say it's ok & to enjoy the rest of his day, FINALLY see parent heading over, small boy & I say goodbye (I get a "nice lady", so pretty sure he's not traumatised by the experience) & I walk on. Don't get very far before boy's father flings himself in front of me and starts screaming in my face about me intimidating his child. How dare I talk to his son! It was an accident! I pointed out that was why I'd asked him to apologise, as that is what one does when one accidentally injures someone else, but he just kept screaming it was an accident & his son was 4 & shouldn't have to apologise! Right up in my face, towering over me - he must have been almost a foot taller than me, and given my size, possibly 3 times my weight - and accusing me of intimidating his child. Apparently irony wasn't his thing. Small boy began to wail about his father's ravings & he stormed off announcing "you've made him cry now too! Pleased with yourself are you?!" (As previously noted, my entire life is ridiculous.)
Livia
I once gave out roundly to a PA-parenter. Well, as much as I could with the limited voice I had at the time (which was part of the issue). She sort of... puddled. It was hugely satisfying. Bwahahaha!
guinea36
Blargh. It's hideous isn't it. I'm sometimes tempted to blast classical music back at them & see how they like it... how grim in hospital though: wards I've been on staff have always been firm with people about using headphones - though there was the one time Baroness Munchausen was blasting the 7/7 Memorial Service & it descended into a row I thought might get physical. I got treated to the hilarious insult of "they treat you like a princess because you went to Cambridge - that's the only reason the dietitian sees you! I am the sick one! I need to see her! But she ignores me because you went to Cambridge!" That's an alumni benefit they've been keeping very quiet. There was I thinking it was because of the NJ tube & complex dietary needs & refeeding issues thanks to my grumpy GI tract. As indeed were the gastro team. But no... (Girl in the bed opposite me was A Princess because she was blond. Oh & both of us got Special Treatment because we were Irish. Again, who knew...?). She was possibly the pinnacle of entitled actually - anything anyone else on in the bay had, she wanted. I had to start having paracetamol alongside my normal pain meds because she'd been told everyone had to have it before they were allowed stronger painkillers. If I got IV paracetamol, she'd have to have hers IV. Bed next to me had to have an x-ray on the ward, nothing would serve but that she must have the same - greatly to her fury, however, while she could get written up for the x-ray, she couldn't get them to do it on the ward. She came in with no dietary requirements but developed all sorts of things during her stay. She tried to manipulate her blood sugars when her metaclopromide was stopped as unnecessary & she felt they weren't being checked often enough. She started claiming she couldn't swallow (her food was going from her tray because it was "dissolving in her mouth") because she wanted a feeding tube like mine. She was told she mustn't use the various braces/supports she'd bought herself as she didn't need them & they were damaging her joints, but they kept finding them on her (even though they were put out of her reach & she insisted she was totally helpless & not only unable to move from bed but had to be washed by staff & helped to use the bedpan etc). If staff were dealing with another patient in the bay she'd ring for them. She actually rang so much that staff were slow to answer our bay - if it was urgent for someone else I'd go & find a nurse/HCA because invariably "I thought it was Baroness Munchausen". They took her bell away a couple of times because she was misusing it so badly. She clearly did have issues - wanting to be ill & trying to make yourself look ill are problems. But bed-blocking & demanding care you don't need & preventing other patients from receiving the care they do - all while being an utter cow to people - mean my sympathy expired before my stay did...
SnugglePalace & LouKout
Those people are The Worst. I hate seeing people getting all shouty at admin people/receptionists/secretaries in hospitals & other healthcare settings because, um, they can't do magic, basically. Do they think you're withholding appointments for kicks? Or keeping them for friends or a shadowy network of Powerful People. It is rubbish being ill. It can be scary & it can be frustrating to have to wait for Answers &/or Help. Or, in the case of A Certain Gastro Department, for them to learn to cope with the concept of booking follow-up appointments. But shouting at people isn't ok. (SnugglePalace, how do you resist the temptation to book the Superobnoxious & then bump them at the last minute for one of the little old ladies who has become Urgent?)