Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Altercation at the pool

92 replies

mamangelo · 24/08/2018 21:01

First time poster. Really need some views on an experience at the gym today as going back and forth in my mind as to whether I was wrong or not.

I took my two small boys (aged two and three, almost four) swimming today. We had a lovely time, they were both well behaved and not to noisy. I was negotiating them out of the pool to the changing room when my youngest boy knocked a sign by one of the swimming lanes (one stating it was the slow lane) it toppled over and I couldn’t catch it before it fell into the water. I apologised to the lifeguard who was very smiley and all ‘no problems’ about it. A nice man in the pool lane lent down and picked up the sign. At this point a lady swimming towards us exclaimed her glasses were on the sign and were broken. The nice man dunked down and picked up her glasses and declared all was well with them. She took them from him and began looking in earnest for a fault. The man in the pool said something along the lines of ‘come on!’ and I started walking away with my children (bearing in mind their ages i wanted to herd them away from the swimming pool) I could also tell this lady was just that type. You know, spoiling for a fight. Anyway the long and the short is she declared the glasses to be ‘loose’ and although I pointed out she could tighten them very easily herself with a small screwdriver she declared she didn’t have one. I walked away. I just felt she wanted money out of me/ an argument and I was not A. In a position to discuss it given I had my two children in a swimming pool and needed to solely focus on them and B. I don’t want to engage with negative/ poisonous people like that.

So what do people think. Was i being unreasonable to walk away?

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 24/08/2018 21:03

You don't leave your glasses on top of a sign for a start. I wouldn't worry about it.

House4 · 24/08/2018 21:03

No you did the right thing. She shouldn't have left them there! Anyone could have knocked them or trod ok them! Don't think anymore of it

formerbabe · 24/08/2018 21:05

Silly place to put your glasses really! I'd have walked away too op.

SmilingButClueless · 24/08/2018 21:05

Stupid place to leave your glasses - almost asking for them to be knocked by someone. I wouldn’t have engaged with her either.

Armadillostoes · 24/08/2018 21:07

YANBU-that was an absurd place to leave her glasses and entirely her own fault. If she had sight issues which meant that she needed them to get from the Changing Room to the pool, I'm sure that she could have asked the Lifeguard to put them somewhere suitable.

Booboostwo · 24/08/2018 21:07

She was wrong to leave her glasses on a sign by the pool and I say this as a blind as a bat glass wearer, and she was doubly wrong to complain about nothing.

Passmethecrisps · 24/08/2018 21:08

She was being ridiculous about it. I cannot imagine how glasses being knocked into a pool would loosen. They loosen over time and a screwdriver is an excellent investment for her

AspieHere · 24/08/2018 21:09

I would NEVER leave my glasses by the side of the pool, you would just be asking for trouble. Idiot woman.

DailyMailDontStealMyThread · 24/08/2018 21:09

Nothing to worry about.

Timeforabiscuit · 24/08/2018 21:09

As a glasses wearing person who is blind as a bat without them - she was a bloody fool leaving them there!

missyB1 · 24/08/2018 21:11

So she had left her glasses by the side of the pool? Totally at her own risk, and therefore her own fault if anything happened to them.
I’m blind as a bat and like swimming but don’t leave my glasses lying around!

Orchidflower1 · 24/08/2018 21:11

What a silly place to put her glasses - nothing to worry about from your POV, walking away was the sensible thing !

sparklepops123 · 24/08/2018 21:11

Who leaves their glasses on top of a sign ? She's ridiculous

Sirzy · 24/08/2018 21:11

I leave my glasses in the changing rooms when swimming. If you can’t get to the pool without them then you need to find somewhere safe and in a case to leave them.

Even if the arm is loose a quick trip to the opticians will sort that if you can’t do it yourself

ShadyLady53 · 24/08/2018 21:13

Stupid woman. She sounds like a CF that was trying to get a new pair of specs out of you. She shouldn’t have put them on a sign ffs.

BikeRunSki · 24/08/2018 21:13

Daft place to leave her glasses! What if one of the staff had wanted to move the sign? Or knocked it with a broom? Or someone else had knocked them off?

I leave mine in their box, in a wash bag, on a hook with my towel. Or in my locker if there are no hooks.( I wear prescription goggles to swim, they are much cheaper than I thought they’d be).

sproutsandparsnips · 24/08/2018 21:14

What a silly thing to do! Really I do despair. People seem to be extremely litigious and, frankly, arsey! Don't worry a jot OP.

LastOneDancing · 24/08/2018 21:18

It's a sign. Not a glasses holder.
Signs get knocked over. They're made to be light & portable.

She was an arse.

marants · 24/08/2018 21:18

How could she see there was anything wrong without wearing them?

You don’t leave glasses in a precarious place without being liable yourself for them falling off. In a wet place. Near a pool. 😆

I think she wanted them broken, probably does it every couple of years to get free glasses!

CSIblonde · 24/08/2018 21:21

Mad leaving glasses there in first place. Only common sense to put them somewhere out of the way from foot traffic at a public place. Forget it OP.

Lalliella · 24/08/2018 21:22

She can get then tightened up for free at an opticians’s. What a CF! A unanimous YANBU for you OP!

NotAgainYoda · 24/08/2018 21:22

You did the right thing. She's entitle to be annoyed that her glasses are broken but not to be annoyed at you or your children. It's a risk she took.

I have no time for ridiculousness like this and would have said so and walked away.

thenightsky · 24/08/2018 21:23

Daft woman. I bet they were not 'loose'. They only floated to the bottom of a pool FFS.

Aeroflotgirl · 24/08/2018 21:24

Silly woman, they shou,d have been in her locker, not perched on a sign. What a CF chancing her arm like tgat. Glad you walked off, perfect response!

MrsMoastyToasty · 24/08/2018 21:24

I'm as blind as a bat and I leave mine in my locker and then put on prescription goggles (about £25 from Specsavers). I'd never leave my everyday glasses poolside.