Jumping the queue possibly because you're a teacher?

[triedandtestedteacher]

So today I had to take my dd6 with me to the shops. We both donned masks to go. There were two shops next to each other. One with a queue of about 6 people and one with about 2. We joined the longer queue and got to third in the queue with about 3 people behind us when this woman came up and just hopped in front of me. At first I wondered whether she was queuing for the adjacent shop but she was standing very close to the last woman in front ( everyone else was at least 2 metres apart) and looking round furtively because she knew she'd jumped in. My dd who is very ...well 6 started pulling at me and going on and on about how she's pushed in and asking why etc. So I say to the woman 'excuse me? Are you queuing for x shop or x shop' to which she replied that she was queuing for the shop that I was queuing for. I told her that there was a queue and she'd jumped in. Next news her rather large husband appeared and informed me I was pathetic and to go in ahead if I was so bothered. I then said that there was actually at least 3 people she'd jumped in front of. The woman then started ranting at me that I was setting a bad example to my dd to be so rude? I replied that no I was showing her that sometimes you have to call people out when they're being rude and inconsiderate. Unfortunately a shopper two people back shouted 'do we really need this? Isn't there more important things? Anyway you've got a kid with you, shouldn't be out'. The women who had pushed in then repeated how rude and pathetic I was and followed it up with 'I'm a teacher'. Now I'm not sure what she thought the relevance of that was. That she should get priority queuing or that she had a right to tell me how to behave in front of my dd because she was a teacher? I didn't get to ask her because she was then allowed into the shop leaving me to fume outside at the audacity of the woman. I'm a teacher myself but wouldn't attempt to use it to win a disagreement. AIBU? Would you have said anything?

Just come back from the shops at Tesco a orderly well spaced queue and then to Waitrose, don't ask I don't know why the comestible procurment excutive here has odd dietry reasons

Another queue all in around one and a half hours spent queueing the British ability to queue will surely be the saving of the country!.

@Zaphodsotherhead exactly why does common courtesy go out the window ?

If we all start excusing bad behaviour because we should all be worrying about other things, then the bad behaviour will just get worse, surely.

Exactly.

So she's allowed out with her husband but you're not with your child. Sounds like you were surrounded by dicks.

@I8toys yes there's a lot of not very nice people in this supposedly posh area. I miss my northern home town considerably

Didn’t Sainsburys email also say only one person in a couple should come shopping?

Teachers definitively should not be queue jumping, I think she knew this perfectly well. Did you ask her WHY she had ? I hate queue jumpers, I would have called her out on it.

I went to the NHS half hour at Sainsbury's just before dawn cracked the other morning, I could barely keep my eyes open but got in the queue like everyone else, when we got around to the front of the shop there were three people standing to one side with their trollies looking around trying to catch someone's eye (like when you're hoping someone lets you out at a junction) I still have no idea why, someone in front of me let one of them in so I just kept facing forward and followed the person in front. Why wouldn't you just get in the queue? Is there something I've missed?

@Cherrysoup claimed she hadn't and there was nobody else there when she appeared. Total lies

Well Done you UP for calling her out

I would've wanted to but would've stood there being terribly British, quietly seething and then fumed for the rest of the day about her audacity and my annoyance at myself for not saying anything.

I very much doubt she is a teacher.

These are such stressful times, it's so disheartening that arseholes like this seem to think these temporary rules we've been asked to abide by for OUR OWN GOOD don't apply to them. :(

@triedandtestedteacher

YANBU, she was a CF all right. A few key workers (not many, but a few,) are really taking advantage at the moment, and taking the piss. A few of them are grating on my nerves...

One such person I know right now - ex colleague of my friend - is in her mid 20s, and became a carer recently. She has been doing it SIX MONTHS, and posted on facebook today...

'I am disgusted that some people I know are getting to sit on their lazy fat arses with 80% pay, and in some cases, FULL PAY, while I, and people like me: the carers and nurturers looking after the vulnerable, are working our arses off, doing 10 hour shifts, slogging our guts out, and keeping the country together! WE should not have to pay tax for the next 5 years, and WE should get a 25% payrise for what we do, and these lazy fuckers sitting at home, doing fuck-all, (whilst getting paid,) should be downgraded to £5 a hour pay for 5 years, and should hang their heads in shame!'

Absolutely bloody unbelievable. I had to sit on my hands to stop myself telling her what I thought of her. Utterly disgusting attitude. And she is a bloomin' CARER?!

I'm a teacher. I'm rota'd in once every 2 weeks to look after key workers kids so that they can man the front line. I spended the rest of my teaching through a laptop. If I want, I can go to the shops on any of the other 13 days I am not at work, at any time of day to get my shopping. The shops are now well stocked and orderly. Why on earth would a teacher need to jump a queue? Why would any human being push in without at least having the courtesy to say 'may I...?' She was a massive CF. No one is more important than anyone else in this. The virus has showed us that. The reason the NHS staff are being made a priority is because they are keeping people alive and working all hours. The rest of us are doing the best we can and need to look after each other. Imo, that includes not jumping in front of a mother and her small child in a queue.

Children are allowed out and are allowed into shops and for the most part are being very good about waiting in queues which is NOT normal and then for this CF to behave like that is just wrong. I would also have said something before side stepping them and going in first if I could.

@Icantrememebrtheartist my dd literally has a very well tuned sense of justice and would not let me leave it. I was egged on lol
You ladies have made me feel better. The bugger if it all is I was so annoyed and shaking afterwards I couldn't remember half the things I went out (and queued) for.

Yes, I would have said something.

I think a lot of people are being overly rude at the minute. I’m trying to be kind and think people are scared, etc.

I was queuing for the tills today, maintaining a good space behind the woman in front of me. The woman behind me told me I could move closer up. I politely told her I was keeping a distance I felt comfortable at. She persisted telling me about the lines on the floor (there was nobody behind her so she wasn’t worried about being crowded from that direction). I pointed out there was a woman hovering just round the corner that I could see and wasn’t wanting to get to close to. Woman then started shouting at me that there was no need to be shitty.

She probably meant to say ‘I’m an entitled dickhead’.

Well done for challenging her and yes she was wrong and being a teacher has no priority. I'm a key worker as legally defined within the civil contingency act 2004 but do i go strutting about queue jumping, ? no,not a bit of it. I work all manner of shifts and i fit in a shop as and when i can. I take all possible precautions, have my list and dash in and dash out rapido. There are far too many people taking the piss. Not just in queues but seeking to bleed the country and Government dry with all manner of tales of hardship.

@RB68 that's so true. Children are having to encounter a whole new world that's confusing and scary. They've had their routines disrupted, can't see their friends, people are walking around in masks like some scary sci-fi film, parents are stressed. Don't need people like her and her husband making it worse

Yanbu. She was a cheeky twatfacemctwatface. And the lady behind you? She is an idiot.

We’re all human, we’re all suffering in our own way as a result of this issue, we all need to visit shops. It pisses me off that anyone physically capable of waiting in a queue would cut in front of others just because of what they do for a living. You don’t know what those other customers are personally going through. You can’t assume you are more deserving or special than anyone else waiting.

And if you have a genuine, compelling reason to need to cut in, you ask politely and be gracious about it, I’m not a cunt and wouldn’t be spiteful about it. Right now we need mutual respect all round, not worship of certain professions. It’s becoming cultish already and I’m completely done with it.

@helgahelga that will have peed plenty of people off not just you

Awful woman op. Poor you

She was very rude. If she thought she should have priority, then she should have asked politely. How did she know that you weren't also a priority?

YANBU. I politely but firmly directed a couple to the back of the supermarket queue when they attempted to push in behind me today. The woman they tried to push in front of looked like she wouldn’t say boo to a goose, but I am rather more bolshie...

I went to the Sainsbury’s NHS slot early this morning I CBA to go to the back of the long queue as it was just about to open and I thought I’d just wait for it to clear, most of the people in the queue were being turned back as didn’t have NHS ID so I was glad I’d stood and waited.
One woman with an NHS lanyard tried to cut me up but I gave her ‘the look’ and she backed down.

She sounds like a right ass. If she is a teacher I pity the children she teaches.

There’s been lots of talk of keyworkers being allowed to jump the queue. I’m totally cool with that of course. If they ask the staff if they can go in or ask the people if they can to in front. That is fine.. the way the said woman acted was not fine.

As for the children. Most sensible human would understand it’s not totally possible for everyone to not taking their dc to the shops.