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AIBU?

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Original poster

I’m camping next to a woman who is parenting very loudly and incessantly ....

85 replies

BigSandyBalls2015 · 30/08/2019 16:07

... driving me fecking nuts.

She arrived this morning with a young girl (8/9ish). Girl wanted to go to swings which are almost next door to tent, mum had a loud 15 minute safety chat before she was allowed to go. 2 min later the mum called the girl back and declared she was extremely disappointed in the DDs “lack of judgement regarding safety” and therefore wasn’t allowed back for 30 minutes. Cue another loud chat. I hadn’t seen her do anything outrageous.

The girl was then blowing bubbles from a wand thing, cue mum going over and telling her she was doing it all wrong, just watch and learn. The kid wasn’t allowed more than a few metres in front of tent and she was called back for being marginally out of “the boundary that had been previously discussed and agreed” 😳.

Girl asked mum to play football with her ... mum did for about 30 seconds before it all started again “use your left foot, do you not remember the discussion we had about it being your weakest foot at football practice ... slow down and think about where you are going to pass as that looked completely wrong”

It’s just exhausting and I feel so sorry for the girl. Where’s the fun and enjoyment ... what’s the point of going camping together if it’s going to be that strict!

OP posts:
Panamb2 · 30/08/2019 22:23

Lily you sound pretty awful yourself tbh. I hope that life gets better for you regardless of your neighbors.
Op I feel a lot for the young girl , really hope she meets some other children soon that she can have fun with. Maybe her mother is struggling a bit. Either way it sounds shite all round. Sounds very intense for her on her own. At least siblings can take the pressure off a bit for both of them but sounds like there is none or none there anyway. Hope the holiday gets better for them and you. Brew

Alabasterangel6 · 30/08/2019 22:31

I hope I’m about as laid back as you can get but bubbles and tents are a no-go!!

Last weekend we camped. The campers next to us were a family of 3 DC (guessing 7, 3 and 1). DH was ineffectual and disinterested. Every time the DM tried to go for a wee/wash the baby went beserk. I could hear her DH doing nothing to help whatsoever and she’d curtail her attempt to leave and come back, repeatedly. I felt bad and felt like the DH needed to pull his weight. Until.....

5am ever day the entire bloody family seemed oblivious that 5mg of polyurethane isn’t going to stop me hearing their life. 5am 5AM!!!!.....

‘OH OSCAR WOSCAR DOO DAR HAVE WE HAD A STINKY POO POO BABSY?’ (Repeat...and repeat....at full fucking volume)....

Only topped off to stop Oscars endless squaling by playing fireman-fucking-Sam on someone’s
iPad.

5am!!!!!!!!!!!!

We came home a day early.

MrsJakeLovell · 30/08/2019 22:34

we've just been camping in France near a tent with a family of 3 children. They were there for about 10 days before we heard the name of child that wasn't the youngest...

I was going to ask them to bookmark the Stately Homes threads as poor Abel was going to need it in ten years...they had perfectly set up the scapegoat, golden child and peace maker.

Onefortheroadandoneweneverrode · 30/08/2019 22:37

Can’t stop laughing at this !! You have totally cheered me up 😂🤣performance parenting at best . The rest of us are trying to keep our heads above water . It’s all bull shit. I’m a primary teacher in Ireland and we just call it ‘ the want ‘ 🤣🤣 see it all day every day and they never train us for this horse shit

Durgasarrow · 30/08/2019 23:03

This is why the grape was fermented.

Original poster
BigSandyBalls2015 · 30/08/2019 23:05

I hit the wine, she continued with her constant life lesson about every single fucking thing the poor girl did.

I’m now worried that I went from discreetly looking over with sunglasses on, reading a book, to drinking wine and just sitting back and taking it all in .....

The kids I was with weren’t interested in going over ... can’t blame them really.

She was zipped up in her tent by 7.30. Other kids on their bikes, playing on a tyre over a stream .... so sad really.

OP posts:
Original poster
BigSandyBalls2015 · 30/08/2019 23:09

So is this a fairly new thing? As I said earlier mine are late teens and I don’t remember this kind of shit going on, a few arseholes bit never on this level.

But from responses on here this seems a new parenting thing!

OP posts:
LisaSimpsonsbff · 30/08/2019 23:19

So is this a fairly new thing? As I said earlier mine are late teens and I don’t remember this kind of shit going on, a few arseholes bit never on this level.

I knew a girl at school (20 years ago) whose mum was like this in public, and it would appear even worse in private, because said girl got caught by someone else writing down her friends' end of year exam marks in a notebook, which she said was because her mum had demanded them. I remember the dejected embarrassment on this girl's face when her mum did a whole performance much like the one you saw at 5am in front of the coach taking us on the German exchange.

You will be glad to know that I am still Facebook friends with said girl and she a) lives at the other end of the country from where we grew up, and so presumably her mum and b) seems to be leading a happy life!

AnnonniMoose · 30/08/2019 23:25

There's a dad like that at my DDs martial arts classes. In the middle of a class, or even a grading, he'll interrupt the master to tell his son off: "Henry - kick higher! Henry - bend your knees! Henry - LISTEN to the master!" etc etc. And the best of all... "Henry! You need to show respect to the master and the other students!"

Meanwhile the master looks like he wants to punch wanker dad's lights out, and all of us parents roll our eyes and feel so sorry for the poor kid - he's only 8 Sad, and genuinely looks like he'd rather be doing anything at all rather than martial arts. I think wanker dad forces him to attend.

Mrsfrumble · 30/08/2019 23:25

We were camping last week and my kids went pretty feral. No cars allowed on site and loads of other children, so they’d formed a tribe of free-range under-10s on the second day and we hardly saw them when we were on the site during daylight hours. They were off riding bikes and playing “knights” with saucepans on their heads. It was wonderful! And surely the point of camping. Poor child in the OP...

As an aside, what the Jeff was the “no plastic!” mum doing in Wilko’s, of all places Grin

LisaSimpsonsbff · 30/08/2019 23:32

We seemed to have one of these in the making at DS's 'baby swim' class. You can't reasonably issue instructions to a 6 month old who doesn't know WTF is going on beyond the fact that there is water and you can splash it, so instead this woman sits on the side while her DH goes in with their DD and she endlessly lectures him on what he's doing wrong Confused. I have no idea why it wasn't her that went in with the pool with the baby, since she apparently knew how to do things perfectly and did not seem to trust him to keep the baby's head above water, ie she genuinely seemed to think that he was so useless that he would just casually drown their child without noticing

gilliansgardenbench · 30/08/2019 23:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FurrySlipperBoots · 31/08/2019 00:03

God, poor child! At least you'll never have to see that woman again after you go home - imagine having to live with it!

FurrySlipperBoots · 31/08/2019 00:12

www.dailymotion.com/video/x38oaxb

Blamangeme · 31/08/2019 01:16

Tf it's not only me! - I have neighbours where the mum is really overly loud with encouraging "woo woo!! Woo woo!!" all day long - it's irritating and draining. Her dcs aren't as loud! I think she's trying to make them that way though! I thought I was just being a bit intolerant and so haven't said anything to anyone (still haven't) and another neighbour said something which made me think I wasn't the only one who felt like this. It just seems a bit ott and false tbh.

ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap · 31/08/2019 08:55

Keto, Furry,

VERY fitting clips.
Thanks for posting.

ShinyMe · 31/08/2019 09:12

I did ballet all through my teens. My mum used to drop me off outside and leave me too it, but some of my classmates' mums used to not only come in to the changing rooms and help them change and do their hair (at 14!) but also sit in on lessons. Most of the mums watched fairly quietly, but one was just so awful. She used to watch her baby like a hawk and was constantly calling over "now then, what do we do with our toes during petits jetes?" or miming big smiles and twinkly eyes at her daughter all the time. Poor daughter seemed to quite enjoy it. (When I got a better exam result in grade 5, neither mother or daughter spoke to me for a term.)

mathanxiety · 31/08/2019 09:13

...

HappydaysArehere · 31/08/2019 10:05

She probably has some kind of nervous problem. She obviously cannot relax. I know someone like that who is a lovely, kind person but oh! So exhausting. It’s not worth complaining as that will just spoil your holiday.

Autumnintheair · 31/08/2019 10:07

How is the competive parenting? The mum sounds suffocating and extremely anxious and up tight!

violashift · 31/08/2019 12:29

It was a silt/mud tiny bank on the Tyne

Are you sure you were looking the right way?

There is an artificial beach at the quayside

Absolutely not this. We even talked about the beach further up. I saw her point to the mud.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 31/08/2019 12:36

It's only really a problem on cotton tents. Nylon tents usually have a polyurethane coating on the inside that is immune to bubbles.

Nope, detergent shouldn't be allowed near the vast majority of waterproof fabrics. That'd why you don't wash your waterproofs with it...

Vulpine · 31/08/2019 12:42

Ive been camping with kids and bubbles for years. Never knew about the bubbles and tents thing. Cant say any of my tents have been damaged.

SnugglySnerd · 31/08/2019 12:49

I never knew about bubbles and tents either!

Notthebradybunch · 31/08/2019 12:54

That poor kid will go off the charts when she hits around 14yo