Does this happen to other people?

[Furrytoebean]

Standing at the bus stop waiting for my bus and an older man turns to me, taps me on the arm and pointedly says 'there's a 52 coming if you want it' and starts to flag it down.
I just smile and say I don't want the 52 thanks for pointing it out.

Now this happens all the time, that older men tell me that the bus is coming when I'm just happily standing at the stop and have eyes.
I'm not on my phone or anything I'm just standing there like they are.

I know they're just trying to be nice but I find it really odd.
Is it a regional thing? Does it happen to other people? Or do I just have a face that looks like I don't know how to hail a bus?

Hmmm is it the same or different to the older men who materialise when you start to reverse park in the high street, standing near the back of your car wildly gesticulating? Just in case 20 odd years of daily driving hasn’t prepared me adequately for this moment? Never had a woman try to ‘help’ in this way.

Now I smile, and keep the car perfectly still, until they get a sense of their own ridiculous dancing. Some get very cross, that I’m not appreciative enough. But all of them stop and walk on, eventually. It can take a while.

I once had a young woman stand up from a footpath cafe seat, go over and put her hand on one of these blokes arms. Her expression said ‘Mate, you just need to stop this, no one’s asked for your expert help’. I did wave and thank her!

I don’t think most of these blokes are badly intentioned, but it’s time they woke up to this whole ‘guiding women’ thing. The proportion of women who like being steered about has certainly been out-weighed by the women who don’t. It’s time to get with that program.

This place just gets more batshit by the day

You sound utterly miserable, OP. He only told you the bus was coming, he didn't ask you to go down on him, why on earth start a post over something so innocuous

Ha yes! It's the bus equivalent of this.

You sound utterly miserable, OP.

I'm really not miserable in the slightest.

I'm actually really cheery and chatty.

is it the same or different to the older men who materialise when you start to reverse park in the high street, standing near the back of your car wildly gesticulating? Just in case 20 odd years of daily driving hasn’t prepared me adequately for this moment? Never had a woman try to ‘help’ in this way

This has never happened to me in 30 years of driving and I reverse park every day in public places. How many materialising men are we talking about?

This has never happened to me in 30 years of driving and I reverse park every day in public places. How many materialising men are we talking about?

Never had this. However whenever we have a shopping delivery every Male driver without fail asks " are you sure" when I hold out my hands/arms and go to take more than three small bags of shopping.

Seriously I can be trusted to carry a bit more.hell gimme the entire box.

It happens to me quite a bit too. I also have a chatty face.

I was in a city once visiting my sister and an elderly woman actually explained to me how to cross the road, how to use the pedestrian lights etc. She obviously heard my accent talking to my children and knew I wasn't a big city dweller.
I didn't like to tell her that I had previously lived in that city for over 10 years and was au fait with road crossing procedures