To be annoyed at this old lady

[5had03]

So I pulled into my street driving home from my parents house earlier today, two DC in the back of car.

As I was driving down the street at no more than 20mph (mainly because of car wrecking speed bumps) an old lady with a walking stick suddenly came from behind the back of a lorry straight into the road.

Well thank goodness I saw her quick enough and stopped the car almost instantly so I didn’t hit her. I put my hand up in courtesy but didn’t feel I did any wrong.

However, this lady then begins to wave her walking stick towards my direction and shouting ‘you young drivers now days do not know how to drive and need to slow down’

She was an old lady so I wasn’t going to shout back at her but during the day it’s annoyed me more and more. SHE walked into the road without checking, I was not speeding, at 29 I do not class myself as a young driver!

It's so lovely that so many people have elderly relative who have so much self awareness of their aging fragility. That certainly is not my experience, but I need to use driving as my bench mark as sadly the authorities will judge your ability to drive safely. My GM only stopped driving after yet another close call, this time involving dc, and scared herself. Being rubbish by MN standards we didn't try and convince her her social life was more important than others lives and to continue driving. GM tried to keep some face by us all agreeing that she had just decided of her own free will and it was nothing to do with her advancing age.
FIL was an excellent driver, it was disabilist to stop him driving that made him freeze randomly due to his age related disability. He hadn't actually hurt anybody, he had even managed to hide some of his crashes from MIL they were so minor, driving into the back of a moving lorry on the motorway, not a scratch! When the Mobility car people said they couldn't insure him anymore due to the multiple crashes it was just so unfair on him.
Then my Dad, sadly he was quite agitated with a very aggressive form was dementia for me to discuss it with him, he was very frustrated and would get quite upset, insisting he was a good driver and the Doctor was wrong to have taken his licence away. My Mum hadn't stopped him driving despite his constant hallucinations. Nether were quite 65.
Then MIL, but she's a special case, failed her test for decades, her ability to drive has always been the same regardless of age. I do hope she finally got her test because she told the examiner she needed to pass because of her sick DH and having to use taxis is for common people, she needs to get to church! She's so good at manipulating her family, bet she did a good job on the examiner. First car journey with her driving and she announced I can drive how I like now I've passed, how we laughed. We follow her in the car now the family are to big for one, not that I banned my DC her other GC enjoy the ride. We might see 3 generations of DP's family die at once but enjoy the show anyway, on the motorway, drifting half into the next lane then back again, we give her plenty of room. The hit and runs are fun, or pulling out in front of moving cars gives MIL a chance to pull her innocent face. It really doesn't matter that she struggles with right turns, it's so much easier to find a new route with sat navs, maybe with a roundabout to turn right true story. She's cracked parking, just drives directly into a space in the quiet corner of the carpark. She slows when other vehicles are driving on their side of the road towards her so as not to scare them with her amazing driving, not because she is bad at driving. But I digress, her age has nothing to do with her driving.
And my Mum, lost confidence and is starting to limit her driving, she's perfectly competent.
So yes OP, YABU, you should crawl at snails pace at all times in your car. Stop at any possible hazard and if anybody is there, stop, get the traffic cones out that you now carry in your boot and make a pathway across the road for a safe passage for anybody of any age to ensure you are not ageist. When you are assaulted by a Woman who it turns out was born in 1921 with one of the said cones for trying to help but inadvertently made her miss the bus do make sure you take it with good grace.

No OP, you were going faster than that. JohnSnow'sWife says so and she would know because she wasn't there.

I said makes me think @pictish. Not that I said so.

I agree @thecatfromjapan.

Also, must text my independent Grandma in her 80s and warn her she might want to think about being supervised in future...

All the over-50s wear them round here.

Oi!

50 isn't old.

50 is the new 30.

I wish I could see an old lady in rl actually waving her walking stick. It must be like a grumpy old man shaking his fist and going 'grr'. Only usually seen on Scooby Doo.

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scaredy that made little to no sense. I think that the only point I managed to pick out involved those who are not able to safely drive continuing to drive anyway - I think you would struggle to find a single MNer who would support that view.

There was a PP who supported her mother still being a pedestrian with limited visibility to cross roads, but that’s rather different (arguably still dangerous as could cause a crash but on the whole much less dangerous).

OP - it is annoying when you’re unfairly criticised but just let it go! I was sworn at the other day for beeping my horn at someone driving the wrong way round a roundabout. You just have to accept that people will not always judge you fairly, and maybe approach parked lorries with extra caution!

bialy my DM can wave her crutch at you if you like! Just call her an old biddy! 😂

MyKingdom I'm pretty sure scaredy was joking.