AIBU to have pointed this out (when asked)?

[onegiftedgal]

DS goes to a football academy and a slightly newer parent had lost her DS training top pitchside.

I happened to notice that there was one hanging on the fence and helpfully (or so I thought) informed her.
I'd picked it up to check the initials and she'd called out ' he's an STD...STD' I tried to surpress my laughter but the other parents (because she had called out the initials so loudly), couldn't stop laughing.
She asked me why, so I told her what the initials also stood for and she just stood there shouting at me calling me an evil bitch!!
I felt really humiliated and it wasn't my fault.
Would you really logo up your child's kit with STD? Why put in the middle initial?

There seems to be some absolution of responsibility going on. One of the responsibilities of parents is choosing a suitable name. There are some pretty simple rules. You don’t call your kid Adolf and you don’t give them names OR initials that are open to being made fun of. Giving them a ridiculous name or initials and then throwing your hands up in the air claiming no responsibility as everyone else is the problem is a bit of a parenting fail.

It's hilarious. She is a total moron. Anyone that is that foolish not to check their own child's initials. She is a fool, and everytime she is alughed at she knows she did something that will cause her child pain and ridicule for the rest of his life.

Disquieted - I used to work with an Emma, surname Royds. No idea why she didn't change it on marriage, other than people would maybe forget her?

To call you an evil bitch for sniggering about STD - is OTT. However,it's never nice to laugh about someone, and was probably a case when everyone should have done their tittering inside their heads.

she is alughed at she knows she did something that will cause her child pain and ridicule for the rest of his life

Well clearly (if this even happened) the mother had no idea what the initials meant, given that she wrote them on his stuff, called them out and had to ask why people were laughing.
Maybe just not laugh at children would be a better idea? So awful that there are people defending the laughing parents. The child was presumably there!

Not read every comment, but...

The fact of the matter is that the initials are amusing. A bit of a giggle isn't the crime of the century.

However, as a parent, and in such a potentially toxic environment as we know football is, drawing attention to something another child will be ripped to shreds for is distinctly unpleasant. Children these days have a tough enough time as it is, without parents getting involved.

The reaction however, was certainly over the top, and feelings could have been made clear much more effectively I suspect with a few quiet words.

Fanny schmellar
Now thats unfortunate!

The mother asked OP why everyone was laughing so OP told her. Maybe laughing was immature, but in that case so were all the other parents. The mother should have gone off on everyone or no one, but swearing at the OP in front of her kids and giving her the entire blame wasn't really fair.

What an unusual story

There seems to be some absolution of responsibility going on.

On all sides, don’t you think?

The child’s parents have given him unfortunate initials. His mother did not react well and behaved badly.

But it is entirely in the gift of adults to decide whether to be arseholes or not in response to those initials. In this case, they all chose to be arseholes. For the OP to be wide eyed and claim it wasn’t her fault is nonsense. She behaved like arsehole with poor self-control.

And to complain of being ‘humiliated’ is such rank hypocrisy, given her behaviour.

Mountainsoutofmolehills Fri 18-Jan-19 10:01:32
She is a fool, and everytime she is alughed at she knows she did something that will cause her child pain and ridicule for the rest of his life.

Wow. Harsh. Living up to your name there I see.

STDs have been known as STIs now for along time. I actually think it's quite possible for someone to not know what either of them stands for. My school sex education back in the day (I'm 45) was severely lacking ANY info on STIs. I think it's possible.

I think inwardly laughing is of course fine, but the way you describe it everyone was laughing at this women in a school yard bullying type set up. It's pretty horrible. But I think you're embellishing your story anyway with the "he's an STD" like others are saying. No one would say that.

Conseulabananahammock Fri 18-Jan-19 10:12:42
Fanny schmellar
Now thats unfortunate!

Lol - tea splatters on my keyboard

I know someone who's name is along the lines of John Johnson. I thought they were joking to start with.. nope, deadly serious!

You were childish and unkind. A grown woman should be able to control her laughter and know when is/isn't appropriate. Have a laugh when you get home but to embarrass the woman and child in front of everyone is mean.

Emma Freud doesn't sound anything like haemorrhoid Bit opf a stretch. And typical of an IME peculiarly British tendency to snigger like schoolboys at 'rude' or 'funny' names and stretch them within an inch of their lives to get something sniggerworthy out. Other countries seem more, um, grown up about this kind of thing.

A whole group of parents laughing over a child's initials in a way I would have come down like a ton of bricks on if my year 8 had done it, because they mean the same as an obsolete abbreviation for something (oh, how hilarious ) unpleasant and sexually related? How bloody embarrassing, and not for this child and his mother.

My friends initials are W.E.E. None of his family realised the implications until they gave him a monogrammed bag. All his classmates laughed at him. Don't understand how people don't look at what the initials spell, when naming a child?!

My parents didn't call me Victoria as my initial would have been VD. Today no-one would even know what that meant

My millennial offspring would not think that STD meant anything as for anyone younger it has always been STI.

That said this is about as believable as Rapunzel.

I felt really humiliated and it wasn't my fault.

I wonder how she felt when you and a gaggle of similarly unpleasant people fell about laughing at her son's initials?

She totally did NOT shout my son is an STD this story reeks of bullshit to me.

But if it did happen, you were very immature and rude, she was rude too.

You are all so wonderfully mature.

The woman is shouting "he's and STD".

Would you all just keep a serious face and say nothing? Not even an inner smile?

The woman asked the OP told her. Should she lie?

I'm very much afraid my inner 12 year old would have sniggered but I make no claims to be mature and serious.

I'm very much afraid my inner 12 year old would have sniggered but I make no claims to be mature and serious

So it's OK to laugh at a child? If the child's peers laughed at him in school they'd be punished as bullies, but yes, adults laughing at a child is just fine, they can't help it.

icannotremember This! Precisely this.

And I bet if a kid or a teenager had done the same as you there would be cries of bullying.

No it's not ok to laugh at child.

But when someone is doing something stupid and is making a tit of themselves and has already made their child's life difficult it would be hard not to snigger.

I'm not putting this forward as a sensible adult reaction, but have you never laughed inappropriately?

YWNBU - you stifled your laugh and answered her question, unless you did so in a mean way, you did nothing wrong, and even if you were rude about it, her reaction was excessive. She’s the one who’s embarrassed herself, not you.

As to the other parents, I don’t even think they necessarily did anything wrong, if you weren’t a part of the conversation and suddenly heard someone, seemingly apropos of nothing, calling out “He’s an STD” I defy most of you not to wonder what the hell was going on and laugh a bit. To their knowledge, they aren’t laughing at the child, they’re laughing at someone calling out “He’s an STD” - not unreasonable.

Honestly, it’s unfortunate for her/ her son, but really she has no-one to blame but herself.

she just stood there shouting at me calling me an evil bitch!!

What a lovely environment for your DC.

but have you never laughed inappropriately?

Laughed audibly and visibly at a child? Funnily enough no.