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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Extremely scary moment when driver blocked my car on a country lane.

449 replies

ginplease8383 · 14/08/2017 17:07

I was out driving on the Blackdown hills today with my 1 year old and 3 year old DD trying to find Wellington monument. I know its pretty easy to find being pretty large but I am a bit of an idiot with driving and thought i knew the way (being relatively local) and it turned out I didn't.

Anyway, I went into a country lane and did a U turn to correct myself as I didn't want to U turn on one of the larger roads and as I was coming out onto the more main road another car (a 4X4 with 2 men in it aged mid 50s) also was doing a u turn (or so i thought initially). The driver blocked my exit out of the junction (They could see me drive up to it) as I attempted to turn left and I assumed he was stopping to turn into my lane so I attempted to veer left and drive around him and he blocked me again. I did it again and he did it again.

I didn't want to stop and wind down my window it being the middle of the countryside and that I had 2 young children in the back but he trapped me. In the end i had to and he wound down his window and he said 'I was just going to ask you how to get to xx', I was upset and panicking by then and screamed at him 'How dare you block my path!! Get out of the way!'. My heart was racing and I called dh straight away and gave him a description of the car just in case and set off hime (I didn't go to Wellington monument in the end).

AIBU? I can kind of understand if there was an accident and they needed a first aider but surely i made it perfectly clear i didnt want to stop- I was shitting myself to be honest.

OP posts:
pippitysqueakity · 14/08/2017 23:13

gilly so what would you tell your daughters to do in that situation? Genuinely curious. I know I would tell mine to do exactly as OP.
Or my sons should it arise.

TheWartyOne · 14/08/2017 23:17

Blimey YANBU this would have intimidated me too. I think I would have panicked even more if I had my kids with me.

Original poster
ginplease8383 · 14/08/2017 23:23

Thanks guys. Please double check where your automatic lock is on your car if you have one, I have one and i didn't know where it was.

OP posts:
GotToGetMyFingerOut · 14/08/2017 23:24

I'm disgusted at the replies on here. How dare anyone call the op hysterical when you don't even know what the guys intentions truly were.

Op yanbu, please do not let the arseholes make you doubt yourself or your justified reaction.

Aeroflotgirl · 14/08/2017 23:25

Gilly probably would have advised her to get out of her car and ask how she can be of assistance, whilst her 2 young children are at the back.

NoqontroI · 14/08/2017 23:29

Ermmm ywnbu op. How were you supposed to know their intentions until they had forced you to stop and wind down the window. That behaviour would have freaked me out too. They sound like total twats.

Letstryagainshallwe · 14/08/2017 23:52

Wow this would have scared me!! Yanbu at all.

AnneElliott · 15/08/2017 00:04

Glad you reported it op. Always worth going with your instincts in these situations. And so what if the men were offended? There are some strange people on MN!

Arealhumanbeing · 15/08/2017 02:37

Everything Pallisers said.

YANBU. Of course you're not. Maybe they did mean you harm and then changed their minds when they realised you weren't going to fall all over the place seeing how you could help them.

It isn't normal to continue to try to block someone's path on the road.

'I just wanted to ask you directions' = I'm angry that you wouldn't cooperate and I want you to second guess yourself and feel stupid.

Tune out the brainless comments on here. Hope you're ok.

Papafran · 15/08/2017 06:53

it wouldn't have bothered me tbh, and I do find you hysterical OP, but each to their own

Are you a bit thick gillybeanz? Did you not read that there have been other reports to the police of two men in a similar car trying to block in women in the same area? Do you honestly think they were just lost both times and looking for directions?

As for we are equal, well we both have the same human rights etc. But we are not and never will be equal in strength. Even a slightly built man could overpower most women. Two of them would be no match for the OP (or for you for that matter, but it'easy to pretend this would never happen to you when you're typing shit from the comfort of your sofa).

Original poster
ginplease8383 · 15/08/2017 07:07

Gillybeanz- I am glad are so confident you would feel so relaxed and comfortable in a situation like this. I suspect the reality would be somewhat different. You might want to familiarise yourself with what this word actually means before you go throwing it about. There was no 'wildly uncontrolled emotion', I simply shouted at the man to get out of my way really. It was a scream (not a blood curling scream i might add) as i feared for my safety.

Honestly, I think some people on here really do like to take the opportunity to have a dig at people they don't know.

OP posts:
DarkerWeb · 15/08/2017 07:25

I think you need to talk to a professional about your 'anxiety'.

Pengggwn · 15/08/2017 07:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Polter · 15/08/2017 07:28

A dash cam is a really good idea, friend who lives up here started using one after an incident a while back (not like this one).

kittybiscuits · 15/08/2017 07:28

Is it goady fucker day on the internet again?

Polter · 15/08/2017 07:29

... up there...

picklemepopcorn · 15/08/2017 07:29

What a bunch of trolls on here, accusing a rational woman of hysteria and anxiety and over reacting for judging a threatening situation to be threatening.

There's no way anyone genuinely thinks OP over reacted. Just sexists enjoying being goady.

In my area, a woman was brutally attacked after stopping to call an ambulance for a man who appeared to have collapsed in the road.

DarkerWeb · 15/08/2017 07:30

Yes, but Penggggggwn, I'm not denying she felt unsafe, I'm suggesting that she shouldn't have and that her reaction was irrational.

kittybiscuits · 15/08/2017 07:31

It's high time Mumsnet dealt with this problem.

WindyWednesday · 15/08/2017 07:31

I found the Facebook post from the other person this happened to in the same area. That and your account are so similar, although the location is different by a few miles.

Well Done OP. You reacted well and didn't panic. Freezing to the spot could have had a different outcome.

I hope the police are on the lookout for this vehicle now, they sound very sinister. Clearly they were not asking for directions.

AdelicaArundel · 15/08/2017 07:33

Gin, that sums it up really. There are too many people on here at the moment (and probably won't leave) who like to use their keyboards to have a dig at others.

HurryUpAndWait · 15/08/2017 07:35

@PicklemePopcorn

What does your story have to do with the OP?

It saddens me that the term misogynist or sexist is rolled out simply for not agreeing with another woman?

I genuinely think the OP over reacted.

@Kittybiscuits

Do you mean a problem of it not being a safe space where there may be differing opinions? Time to get a thicker skin, I think.

I like AIBU for it not being an echo-chamber (on the whole). If you just want people to tell you that you were right, ask your like-minded friends.

WindyWednesday · 15/08/2017 07:38

Hurryup what would you have done in the same circumstances?

kittybiscuits · 15/08/2017 07:43

No there's no problem with differing opinions. But Mumsnet should get rid of the goady fuckers - around half a dozen of them with a range of user names, who try to derail a lot of threads by being goady fuckers.

Papafran · 15/08/2017 07:45

I genuinely think the OP over reacted

Despite the fact that there has been another police report from a woman, driving on her own, same area, similar vehicle and similar behaviour? How would you have reacted if your car was repeatedly blocked on an isolated country road by two men? Just happily got out of the car would you? Are you really so dim that you think they were genuinely lost and needed directions?