To think a lot of parents of very young children become quite selfish

[allthewaythere]

I am expecting to be flamed but here goes.

Yesterday I was walking on a really narrow street and a couple were walking with a very young baby who’s only just started to take a few hesitant steps, maybe 11 months, so he had dad on one side and mum on the other.

Because the street was so narrow it meant everyone behind them either had to walk at toddler pace or step into the road to get by.

I’ve seen this in a lot of my friends with really young children. Is this a thing and does it pass?

No it doesn't @eaglejulesk.

We all have right to walk around enjoying our lives, parent or not. If you think someone hasn't noticed you and you need to get past, you say excuse me, they move. Problem solved.

What you don't do is go around expecting complete strangers with their backs to you to be able to anticipate your every move through nothing more than silence and skulking.

my2bundles Wed 01-Jan-20 19:07:31
Tomuch so my kids have to put themselves in danger by stepping into a road now 😠😠 since when has ensuring tbe safety of my kids been petty?

Well obviously if for any reason its not safe to step into the road then you alert those in front who are not moving at your desired pace, for whatever reason, with three words "Excuse me please" Is that so difficult?

Tomuch if you are going to quote someone at least quote what they actually typed, don't change the wording to sound like something completely different.

My god is that question has been answered so many times already. Maybe go back and read the posts.

@mytwobundles - perhaps if you werent so busy making your toddlers scurry about inside all the time you would may have experienced the utter joy of the countless elderly people who used to stop and chat with my three in the street when they were tiny. They lit up each other's faces. Some of my most treasured memories and cut right through the generation gap. Not once did my dcs trip anyone up. It's just not a thing.

Maybe it was you that was being selfish by being impatient and not appreciating what a special memory this would be for the family.

Does anyone actually think this? Remember that time the baby walked along the street? First steps, sure but walking along a random street?

It’s a lovely and magical time for a young family when their child starts to walk and maybe they thought that most people would think how lovely to see a baby walking some of its first steps with its mummy and daddy.

People see babies walking all the time. The parents think it's magical, most others will not.

Well considering my kids are now teems and preteens, have a healthy respect for everyone and actively help the elderly in our area I think I've done something right.

my2bundles Wed 01-Jan-20 19:13:30
Tomuch if you are going to quote someone at least quote what they actually typed, don't change the wording to sound like something completely different
But its not a quote is it - do you see ant quotation marks? No, you don't. And it's not completely different is it - because you knew what I was referring to.
Quotation marks look like this. "xxx"
Keep up

Totally out of context but... as a keen swimmer x 3 per week. People chatting, treading water in the middle of the pool aaaagh ... really frustrating, freestyle swimmer, eyes to the bottom of the pool collision and I’m usually glared at !!!

The easiest thing to do would be to say ‘excuse me, can I just nip past you there please’. Or if you’re not in a rush, have a stroll behind them. Or any one of many solutions that don’t involve seething resentment because a couple of parents are out walking with their young child. It’s not selfish - everyone is supposed to give and take.

I work in a charity shop, and seem to spend half my time picking up the toys that children have pulled from the shelves and then abandoned on the floor (causing a tripping hazard) while their parents are at the other end of the shop. We have to bin/recycle so many toys because of lost/broken parts which lose the shop money.

I've started very, very gently telling the children not to touch the more expensive things we have on display - keyboards/guitars etc. when their parents don't.

Actually no what you said wasn't remotely close to the meaning of my post.

Babies can be easily picked up, if left on a busy street they are not seen causing a huge trip hazard, mostly to the elderly who won't see them. That's the difference.

Point 1 it was a toddler not a baby. Point 2 the toddler was walking with the parents it had not been left there. But I would agree bundling up a baby and leaving it in the middle of the street would be utterly daft, for lots and lots of reasons.

And slow swimmers in the fast lane (or going the wrong way around).

DS is a good swimmer and when he was younger (and trained 4 times a week) there was a coven of elderly swimmers (always the men) at the earl swim sessions who would complain about ‘a child in the pool’ (a child who could out-swim then as he trained and they doggy paddled without getting their hair wet).

I agree. When very small kids are let loose in public spaces and suddenly it’s as if we’re all baby sitting. I love small kids but hard eating dinner when a kid with a full nappy Kees coming over to play!!

@rufflecrow - hear hear.

To be fair re swimming it's all comparative. Fairly frequently I've been the fastest person in the pool and have ended up in the fast lane as everyone else is so slow. Then someone who is actually fast turns up and you have the choice of annoying them in the fast lane or getting glared at in the middle lane for swimming too fast.

I do remember the first couple of times I walked outside with my daughter, in her little shoes that we got for her to be able to do that. She was wearing a gorgeous little cream coat and was loving walking outside by herself. She was fifteen months old. If anyone had been behind us, all they’d have had to say was excuse me.

The child in the OP was a 11 month baby not yet walking confidently. It was not a toddler. Babies can be easily picked up.the one in tje OP was left yes the parents whete there but it was left on the street not picked up. In a busy area this is a trip hazzard because its below eyeliine

The easiest thing to do would be to say ‘excuse me, can I just nip past you there please’

But this is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE once there’s a crowd, don’t you know? That’s why nobody can ever manage to get down a busy street or through a crowded train station, and we all walk in furious seething silence at the pace of the slowest person.

Honestly I wouldn’t have let mine walk along narrow streets if it meant blocking the whole pavement. But it’s insane to complain about being forced! FORCED! to walk in the road around oblivious people you haven’t even alerted to your presence. “They didn’t even know I was there!” So did you let them know you were there? “No.”

The toddler (who was walking) had a parent each side. That is not a trip hazard, don't be so ridiculous.

Actually it was an 11 months old taking its first tentative steps, not a confident toddler. And yes when parents refuse pick up a baby in a crowded area or can be a trip hazard. But don't worry in a minute a 5 year old on a scooter who also wasn't taught to respect others and wasn't picked up because because it would get upset will scoot along with no regard to anyone to bump into tne baby anyway. Karma.

Yes how dare people walk slowly in the street! There should be minimum speed limits imposed, and those who can't manage them either be carried or take a taxi. Otherwise, we have situations like this, where the OP was inconvenienced for a moment. Just appalling.

Do we know how exactly the OP knew the age of the baby, in months?