AIBU not to want to hold hands with a strange man in the park?

[Twiceover]

I was in the park yesterday with DCs. They were off playing and I was sitting on a bench in the sun mumsnetting.

An elderly man sits down next to me and starts chatting. I don't particularly want to talk to him - I was enjoying the relative peace and quiet - but I think I may as well be polite. We chat for a while, small talk about his family, where we live, what football team he supports etc. All perfectly pleasant.

DC come over - they want to leave. 'Lovely to meet you'd, I say to the man. 'Lovely to meet you too, I'm Dennis' And he puts out his hand to shake. 'Twiceover', I say and shake his hand. I go to take my hand back. He holds onto it. Awks. He continues to talk to me, now holding my hand. And I...do nothing. Except squirm in embarassment and try and end the conversation as soon as I can so I can escape.

All in all a complete non-incident. Nothing happened. I wasn't upset, just mildly embarrassed and irritated.

And yet now I think why didn't I say something? I wasnt happy with him continuing to hold my hand. I'm generally pretty assertive and direct. I could easily have politely said 'please let go of my hand ' or even quite abruptly 'give me back my hand!' I didn't want to be rude or upset him so I just sat there nodding and smiling politely while he held my hand. But why did my need to be polite and not embarrass him trump my own need not to have my boundaries crossed? Why was I so worried about upsetting someone who was invading my personal space?

So WIBU not to say anything or was it so inconsequential it would have been odd to call him out on it?

I wouldn't have said anything and I'm assertive.
it wouldn't have bothered me though, but if it had I'd have joked about not being able to get far without my hand, or these kids will want this hand to cook their tea etc.....

I think because you described it as mildly embarrassing/uncomfortable you found no reason to be assertive.

Interesting range of views thanks. It really wasn't a big deal in the scheme of things. I don't think he was lonely - he could have held his wife's hand if he needed human touch or the grandson that he was with in the park.

I did move to take my hand away and he tightened his grip slightly- I think it was that that made me uncomfortable.

I thought I'd become a lot more assertive in the last 20 years but this clearly shows I haven't - I did feel like my teenage self - too conscious of not causing offence to say if I wasn't happy.

Were there other benches free?