AIBU to think this mum was attention seeking?

[Sisinisawa]

I arrived early for the school run today so sat in the car waiting like everyone else.

Well, everyone except a mum, new to the school this year, who got out of her car, opened the boot, took out a hula hoop and started writhing around with it doing some form of exercise/dance. On the pavement.

I mean, WTAF?

Who does that?

What say you Mumsnet? Attention-seeking or mad as a box of frogs?

I appreciate you sharing the moment and reminding us all how boring we are being just sitting in our cars 😬 Maybe your thread will inspire more of this sort of thing.

Personally I was going to put money on her having teens she needed to embarrass spectacularly.

Do those people shouting 'mean girls' about OP and other posters never find anything remotely cringeworthy? My initial instinct would probably be to think 'attention seeking'. The same as if someone started doing back flips down the street past all the school run cars. Good for her for being 'different' or advertising her business, people can do what they want but there is a definite cringe factor.

Agree

seek the like everyone else is saying "I am normal - everything else is not". That's what made me cringe. That comment set the parameters for the thread. Some posters agreed with the way the OP classified people, some didn't.

So it's not about waiting in cars per se, it's about putting people in boxes and judging. Pretty much what AIBU is all about!

Personally I have no opinion about people waiting in cars, I don't know if "it makes sense" like you say. I guess it depends on the circumstances- I don't drive and our school is more easily reached on foot than by car so I couldn't really relate to the OP's experience that much.

HTH

Do those people shouting 'mean girls' about OP and other posters never find anything remotely cringeworthy? My initial instinct would probably be to think 'attention seeking'.

Yes I might, in my initial knee-jerk reaction. And then I'd have a word with myself because I'm not 12 any more.

I believe I might have been the first to say 'mean girls' on this thread - OP, I apologise if that was upsetting. I wasn't aiming it at you so much as other responses to your post. This is a parenting forum after all - since we're (hopefully) all busy teaching our kids to be kind and open minded, might as well try to be the same as adults?

What about if it was a man doing some exercises, would you react differently? I think there may be more pressure on women to fit in, not stand out at all in case other women don't like it, be seen to conform and therefore appear collaborative instead of individual, etc.

It's generally women who are denigrated for drawing attention to themselves, one way or another. It'll be denied but it's true.

Ah if she runs a hooping class then it all makes sense! People are talking about her after all and so maybe it was attention seeking but in a positive business development way.

This thread has reminded me I have a weighted decathlon hula hoop that’s been under my bed unused for 2 years.

If she wasn't hurting you - I don't see the problem. Maybe she was a mum who didn't have time to fit her hula hooping excercise in that day (I do it with weighted hula hoops - 1 hour daily)

Baked,

Wow: you've previously done decathlon athletics?
Am in awe!

Ahem...or did I misinterpret, and you meant "Decathlon" is a brand name of equipment?

Hehe Zuzu that made me laugh as I sit here balancing a bucket of cava on my (expansive) stomach yeah just out of the shop decathlon. I reckon I’d need an iron lung doing a one-athlon never mind anything else

The better question is why are you all sat in your cars like passive puddings? If you’ve got time to sit and —judge— watch someone then you’ve got time to park further away (or god forbid walk to school) and reduce school gate congestion and pollution.
I’d judge you all who have nothing better to do than sit around in cars far more.

Wow: you've previously done decathlon athletics?

Sorry but 😂 😂 😂 😂

Lovely, individual, unique, amazing, she sounds. Why not befriend her.

My thoughts exactly @ Italiangreyhound she sounds like she could be a real fun friend.

Baked, Cherry,

To clarify: I didn't think Hula Hooping itself was actually one of the 10 events (though interpretive Hoop routines would liven up TV athletics coverage no end)...just (mortifyingly) thought that Baked was a RL Decathlete, who had used a Hoop as part of her training regime.

Hehe zuzu I feel encouraged to drag it out from under the bed now!

I have sometimes sat in my car. If I've misjudged how long it will take to get somewhere, if I knew there'd be no spaces if I left any later, if I was coming from somewhere else that meant I arrived sooner than I needed. In my car I can read, listen to radio, be warm and comfortable, let a younger child finish its nap.... not getting out of your car to hula hoop does not make you a 'passive pudding'.

This isn't a thread about whether it's ok to judge - it's become a thread where you must either judge people who don't do stuff like hula hooping, or judge people who do.

On the 'if it was a man' q - there was a unicycling dad at my dds' primary and yeah, he came across as a bit attention seeking too. And there's a bloke at one of my classes at the gym who always stands skipping before the class proper starts, and doing high-knee running when everyone is getting their breath back, and I do find it a little ostentatious and look-how-fit-I-am.

It is fine not to want to hula hoop, it is fine to think it's a bit odd and attention seeking when someone does, it is fine to sit in your car for five minutes. If you then went in giggling behind your hand, or being unpleasant about that person to people who know them, that's not very nice.

Greenteandchives... you had me at waspy!

Since my waistline could be most accurately compared to a king Edward, I've just ordered myself a hula hoop... here's hoping I can actually learn how to do it now was I was utterly rubbish at it as kid

twitter.com/FascinatingVids/status/913888138988318720

Some genuinely nasty comments in this thread. Makes me realise what a small-minded, bitchy community mumsnet is. Any deviation from the norm is apparently ripe for mocking and insinuations of mental health issues.

I'd much rather be the hula hooping parent than the parent slyly looking at her, judging, assuming, sneering and talking about her behind her back to thousands of people, seemingly for attention.

I feel a bit sad at how MH issues seem to still be so stigmatised and the people who suffer from them so 'stereotyped'. It reminds me of learning of the Witch Trials of the 1600s.

"Look at her over there, she looks a bit different. She might have MH problems. Best avoid!"
"Look at her over there, she looks a bit different. She might be a Witch, Best avoid!"

Maybe she was experiencing a manic episode, folks do outlandish stuff when they are. Maybe she was being an enterprising businesswoman. Maybe she's both. You CAN be BOTH.

I hate the derisory tone in which people with MH issues are talked about, generally.

'

she sounds exactly like you described her OP.. an desperate attention seeking bore....

oh no, Gemini69 - she sounds so wonderfully fun, quirky, different, entrepreneurial and you know I would just so want to get to know her and by her firned

Ohh my what her poor kid must be thinking ... thats funny i don't know if she was attention seeking or just exercising but weird.

Aridane hahahaaa heck no.. ironically I do use a weighted Power Hoop... but in my front room not on my front lawn or anywhere public