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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

WIBU? - Child waking the street

411 replies

Iltavilli · 21/05/2019 17:24

We live on a cul de sac with a ginnel (alley for non-northerners) at the bottom, so it is often used as a cut through for people walking children to the local schools about half a mile away. Leaving the house this morning around 8am (huge lie in as I normally leave at 6am), a girl of around 7 or 8 was being walked to school by her mum.

The girl was banging what looked like two plastic sticks together, quite loudly, and was shouting “get up, get up, it’s time for school and work” all the way along the street. She was about 100 metres ahead of her mum, but mum was laughing along and not trying to stop her. I said to the girl that some people, like nurses, work at night and need to sleep in the morning so they can take care of people the next night. The girl burst into tears, and as mum got to where we were (outside my house) shouted at me for making her daughter cry.

Given the weather is so warm, and people have windows open to sleep, was I wrong to ask the girl to stop - but also to explain why she should stop?

OP posts:
somecakefather · 22/05/2019 22:11

So, given that most posters here agree with the OP are we all unrealistic too?

I think you've all fallen for a highly exaggerated post. I can't understand why 2 plastic sticks and a little girl singing has caused such outrage. I think it's really funny. I know no-one in real-life who would be bothered by this😂😂😂😂.

somecakefather · 22/05/2019 22:13

The girl was banging what looked like two plastic sticks together, quite loudly, and was shouting “get up, get up, it’s time for school and work”

That's it^. The pearl clutching is hilarious. Get a bloody life.

NoSauce · 22/05/2019 22:19

A little girl singing? But she wasn’t singing according to the OP, she was shouting.

WaxOnFeckOff · 22/05/2019 22:56

I think it's really funny. I know no-one in real-life who would be bothered by this😂😂😂😂.

Fuck me what a sheltered life you must live then. Know who else thought it was funny? the child's mother...

Know who likes these kids? no-one.

NunoGoncalves · 22/05/2019 23:27

This thread certainly shows which parents don't give a shit whether their children behave badly enough to annoy others. It explains a lot

I don't think it does really. I think telling off the girl was OTT because I don't think the situation warranted it. Doesn't mean I would let my own child do it. Just that I wouldn't be bothered by someone else's child doing it.

Rache49 · 23/05/2019 04:14

We were told off by other people if we were being noisy or rude in public. Did us,no harm. Folk are,too scared,to do this hence unruly behaviour.

Decormad38 · 23/05/2019 05:20

The kid was shouting wake up and the mother was laughing. YANBU. The op did the job the mother should have done but unfortunately she was also in child mode.

KatherineJaneway · 23/05/2019 07:01

There are less deluded ineffectual parents than I thought.

Unfortunately, from some answers on this thread, there are more than I thought.

lboogy · 23/05/2019 07:08

The fact that the child was telling/shouting/ singing to tell everyone to get up for school and work, makes it obvious that she knew she was making a racket in order to achieve the wakefulness of the residents.

Quite right that the op told her off since her mum is a bell end and can't be bothered to teach her child consideration of others

chocolatemademefat · 23/05/2019 07:13

Good for you. Another example of a parent who doesn’t give a shit. I drop children off at school in the morning and some kids are allowed to roar all the way to school and no one tells them to shut up. Lack of manners pisses me off.

NotACleverName · 23/05/2019 07:20

The way some previous posters have carried on, anyone would think the OP called the child a little bastard then drop-kicked her into the path of an oncoming bus.

YWNBU, OP.

clairemcnam · 23/05/2019 07:56

chocolatemademefat I find the parents who do that are the kind who talk about how some people want kids to be seen and not heard. As if there is absolutely no middle ground at all.

cranstonmanor · 23/05/2019 07:59

I wonder if the same people who think that this behaviour is fine, would want to be operated on by a sleep deprived surgeon.

FrancisCrawford · 23/05/2019 08:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

maddening · 23/05/2019 08:27

It is not acceptable at any time of the day to walk around banging sticks and shouting ffs

NoSauce · 23/05/2019 08:28

The OP says the girl was shouting not slinging!

NoSauce · 23/05/2019 08:28

Singing even Grin

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 23/05/2019 10:54

I wonder if the same people who think that this behaviour is fine, would want to be operated on by a sleep deprived surgeon

it was 8am!!! Do you think the "surgeon" calls in sick if the bin lorries wake him/her in the morning. Get a grip.

formerbabe · 23/05/2019 11:07

I wonder if the same people who think that this behaviour is fine, would want to be operated on by a sleep deprived surgeon

This is nuts.

We really cannot conduct our lives creeping round the streets in daytime in silence because some people work nights.

If we did then ordinary sounds we can expect in daytime hours which facilitate our lives would have to stop and life would grind to a halt. Think...

Bin lorries
Building work
Cars
Car horns
People talking
People calling out after each other
Children playing
Music
Lawn mowing
Drilling

somecakefather · 23/05/2019 13:02

The OP says the girl was shouting not singing!

I don't believe for one minute the girl was shouting at the top of her lungs. Not buying it.

WaxOnFeckOff · 23/05/2019 16:03

We really cannot conduct our lives creeping round the streets in daytime in silence because some people work nights.

If we did then ordinary sounds we can expect in daytime hours which facilitate our lives would have to stop and life would grind to a halt.

As has been stated before, there is an expectation that people may get woken by ordinary every day noise, that happens. That noise may even be children running about and laughing etc on the way to school.

This situation is different as the child was making a noise deliberately calculated to wake people up. Whether it was louder or less loud than other noises that may occur as a result of things such as bins being emptied etc is to some extent irrelevant. The child (and adult) needed to be told that making noise deliberately like that is antisocial and unacceptable and it's not up to her to decide when people get up.

It's the deliberate banging and shouting that is the problem rather the noise in and of itself though the resultant waking up might be the same. People accept that there is general living business to be done.

NoSauce · 23/05/2019 16:06

I don't believe for one minute the girl was shouting at the top of her lungs. Not buying it

Well, she may not have been shouting at the top of lungs but she was shouting and not singing. Children of that age can be loud when expressing themselves, the mother is probably used to her loud daughter!

FrancisCrawford · 23/05/2019 16:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Nesssie · 23/05/2019 16:12

somecakefather please come stand outside my house at 7.40am every morning and you will hear my neighbours children shouting. My partner is a doctor who does random shifts and it is most unpleasant.

Its bad parenting not to bring your child up aware of other people.

somecakefather · 23/05/2019 17:09

somecakefather please come stand outside my house at 7.40am every morning and you will hear my neighbours children shouting. My partner is a doctor who does random shifts and it is most unpleasant

My DP also works shifts, mostly nights. He uses ear-plugs. He would never expect people to tip-toe about on his behalf. People mow their lawns, have building work done. We have neighbours dogs who bark constantly, bin lorries. If kids are off school- friends in the garden playing. Life doesn't stop for shift workers.

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