DP got told off in the supermarket last night

[OnlyBaBaBiss]

DP went to the supermarket last night when he finished work, he took a couple of kids so I could bath the baby while he was gone so he took DD1(6) and DS2(2) with him

He said while he was there an old woman was laughing at something silly DS was doing (being a frog) and came over to say something to DP, he was expecting it to be something nice about DS so greeted her with a smile and got “he’s very sweet but honestly he’ll never learn to behave properly while you’re bringing him out at this time, take him home to bed!”

It wasn’t even 7pm!

DP said he was so surprised he just said “oh ok will do”
DD was so amused that Daddy got told off

AIBU to think that 7pm is not too late to have a 2 year old out ... on a Friday night ... in the summer! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Well, 'old' obviously. It adds nothing. Does it?
Does "woman" add anything? Should the OP have just written "person"?

I’m not getting involved in this. The D.C. wasn’t hopping anyway.

Oh yes, I had missed that update by the OP. Still. Ribbiting and sticking out your tongue is not suitable in a supermarket! Somebody might get annoyed, after all! Save that rowdiness for the park, please!

And apologies about the disabled comment but I feared that if I had written "pushing a trolley is easy" I'd have had people for whom it is difficult (which presumably is those with disabilities) up in arms.

There will be lots of people struggling with their trolley

I'm one of them. My adult child is disabled and I have to use the big basket that hooks onto the front of a wheelchair. You simply can't see around or over it for a foot or so. With all those competing wheels it's impossible to change course without reversing back and forth a few times. I often have to just stop until toddlers/children get out of the way or their parents notice they're causing me an obstruction. A supermarket aisle's not a makeshift playground. Some people do have difficulties when it's busy. It's easier for all when there aren't children running about or sometimes rolling around on the floor. Which they do.

Does "woman" add anything?

Yes. It tells you it was a woman talking to a man. It would be different if a man had said it to a man. The dynamics would be different.

The dynamics would also have been different if the woman was in her late teens/early 20s.

I'm fed up of this now. Slow clap to bert. I'm annoyed I bit on.
I'll ignore this person from now on.

The dynamics would also have been different if the woman was in her late teens/early 20s

Less markedly different. And that goes rarely remarked.

I see 'this old woman' written regularly. Never 'this young woman'

But different nonetheless. The OP was setting the scene, not being ageist.

The OP was setting the scene, not being ageist

Then we must agree to disagree.

It depends what you mean by "setting the scene". A later poster said that it alerted us that the woman might have been set in her ways. Which is quite a negative stereotype of older women.

It is telling, I think, that people are not prepared to comment on whether "a black woman" would be acceptable. Or whether "a tall woman" would pass without somebody asking the relevance.

Plus late "teens/early 20s" is a fairly specific age range. If age were actually relevant then its a valid descriptor.

"Old lady" on MN covers anything from 35 to centenarians. As such its utterly useless as a descriptor even when relevant to the topic.

Or whether "a tall woman" would pass without somebody asking the relevance

She wouldn't pass me without me asking her to reach me down a box of All-Bran. Why do they put them right up there, where short old ladies can't reach?

Hardly relevant on any other occasion.

In my experience it's very common for old women to give unsolicited and rude advice.

Best to ignore it.

Oh the irony of your user name @Elasticity.

I doubt anyone cares by this point but I’d just like to add anyway - DS wasn’t all over the aisle as some people have assumed, he hasn’t got the hang of doing that deep frog squat kind of hop and would’ve been flat on his face, he was merely walking by the side of DP ribbiting, eating flies, possibly doing the odd sort of bouncy step, but I’m told was mostly interested in eating flies

But yeah, I get that toddlers are annoying particularly if you haven’t got one of your own, I was more intrigued by the comment that he should be in bed and wondered if people agreed that it was too late to have a toddler out

Not that it matters now as the thread has gone the way of the pear 🍐

Elasticity

Could you please define what you consider "old"? "Old" here tells me next to nothing. Are we talking 35, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80? Higher?

My four year old is still bouncing at 9pm in the summer. It’s so light out they just don’t fall asleep.

some posters never know when to let go,
dog with bone

Oh be fair, C8, Elasticity was only "setting the scene".....

Anyone up for saying whether "black" would be OK in the anecdote to replace "old"?

She was interfering.

This could have been the first and only time your DCs had been up past 6pm EVER, for all she knew.

What gives people who've forgotten what it's like to have young kids the right to pass comment on a snapshot of someone's day??

And meanwhile, someone somewhere is smugly relaying the story of how they imparted invaluable parenting advice to a clearly clueless father who was wantonly allowing his young (am I allowed to say ‘young’?!) child to pretend to be a frog.

“He won’t be doing THAT again, Nigel!”

🐸 🤦‍♀️

Even though I liked mine in bed fairly early, I hate these people who think they can walk up to a parent and tell them off. Myob!

perhaps the lady was not smugly relaying to her dh, perhaps she spoke on the phone to her daughter about it, who knows. she might have been a retired nursery nurse imparting her wisdom, luckily the dh in question did not retaliate crossly and the dc found it amusing too.