People are being incredibly selfish

[SummersMumma]

Today my neighbour who is shielding asked me (who is isolating) to post some letters for her. Myself and my 6 year old daughter collected the letters to make the 1 min walk to the post box and back. My daughter took her dolls pram with her. She is about 3ft tall max. I say this just in case someone suggests there was logic behind this.
On our way back from the post box. An adult DOG walker forced my HUMAN child to walk in the road to accommodate themself and their dog on the pavement and maintain a 2M distance from us. I did try to speak to her but given that she was on her phone with her ear phones in she either didn't hear or ignored me.
This is the first time we have stepped outside our door in over 14 days and after that selfish behaviour I think I am happy to stay in.
People should be ashamed.

It's strange times, and there is selfishness from all sides at times. I was walking my dog yesterday in a pretty quiet lane, just minding our own business, when I saw a family with two small children walking towards us. I put my dog on a short lead and stood aside for them to pass on the other side of the road. Their children ( probably age 4 or 5-ish) were running free and the smaller one had a large stick they were waving about as they ran towards us. I asked them to stay clear, but they didn't listen and actually whacked my dog on the face. Not hard, but it made my dog bark, not surprisingly. You should have heard the mouthful I got from the parents - how my dog was vicious and frightening their child. AND they'd seen it hit my dog. Unbelievable.

I think the stress is getting to most of us in some way. Probably not worth making a real issue of, though, in most cases.

Loads of tales of worried old ladies who should be at home remonstrating with parents of walking children. If you can stay at home

It is rude but people have behaved this way for a long time. No point getting upset about it.

People are selfish. Situations like this just highlight it.

I'm disappointed that you clarified that you have a HUMAN child and not a DOG or CAT because until you'd mentioned it I was picturing a two legged KITTEN pushing its little pram and it was a rather charming image.

I have often been pushed off the pavement by couples holding hands, families walking three or four across, pairs of mothers with prams or pushchairs who will NOT walk in single file. It is not new. Doesn't mean it is not bad manners though

your own fault, OP. The dog walker was on her phone with earphones ? Why did you not just stop where you were and let her - and her dog - get out of the way ?

I'm getting incleasingly frustrated at the people walking their toddlers and children in prams along country paths (taking up the whole path) at a snails pace, and even when I politely say excuse me, they barley move and look at me as though I have 2 heads. Yeah I don't fancy walking in the river just to get by, or walking behind you for the next hour while your 2 year old stops and looks at stones.
People have always been rude op, but Im not sure what the relevance is of the dog in the situation.

This is the first time we have stepped outside our door in over 14 days and after that selfish behaviour I think I am happy to stay in.

I agree that the other person behaved selfishly, but I think you’re being a bit over dramatic. It’s one minor incident - use that as a reason to stay indoors at all times if you will, but it’s a bit silly of you considering the vast majority are probably perfectly polite and considerate. This one dog walker, who is the first person you have walked past in 2 weeks hardly represents HUMAN kind.

There's a similar thread here at the moment with all sorts of wanky behaviour:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3872821-some-guy-just-charged-at-me

Don’t you think you might be over reacting slightly?

Why do you think you have more right to walk on the pavement than someone else just because you had a child with you and they had a dog?

One of you were going to have to use the road, what makes them selfish and not you? Isn’t it a bit selfish to expect someone else to have the very slightly less convenient thing to do instead of just doing it yourself?

Why was your child on the outside? You should have been walking next to the kerb tbh. Your child couldn't have been forced into the road then 🤷

Meh, I’ve been forced to walk in the road by cyclists on the pavement a few times over the past couple of weeks. It’s annoying but there isn’t a far lot I can do about it.

Tbh roads are so quiet right now that people have taken to walking in the middle of them as a regular thing. so maybe the dog walker couldn't see the issue?

if you are isolating, you shouldn't be leaving the house anyway.

If you are isolating you shouldn't be out. Or has isolating come to mean something else?...other than staying home with no contact.?

It’s perhaps bad manners but is it really a big deal?

You let a dog walker ‘force’ your young child in to the road? Why? I would of told my young child to stay on the path, dog walker would of moved 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also please don’t let a small child walk nearest the road, you the adult should walk on that side. A child should always be on the inside

I didnt let my small child into the road on her own nor was she walking closest to it - neither of these points were in my post.... the lady with the dog - who could indeed see us, waved us into it and had we not moved she would have literally continued her path and walked into us. Not observing social distancing at all.
Seemingly general consensus is that it is I that am wrong so I will ask someone else to run my neighbours errands until this is all over and sanity resumes.
Keep safe all ❤

I agree and disagree, and I'm probably going to get flamed for this.

I agree that a lot of people are selfish centre-pavement walkers who seem to think everyone else should dive out the way so they can walk straight down the middle of it. It is more annoying now than ever, they make it virtually impossible to observe social distancing correctly without jumping into the traffic.

However at the moment I dont really think anyone should be letting their very very small children walk anywhere outside. I just went for a lap of the local park with DP and DD in a sling. The number of families with toddlers running amok was ridiculous. They all seem to think social distancing doesnt apply to little kids or just cant be bothered to control them properly. Toddlers are unpredictable, they dont understand the concept of social distancing so they should either be in a sling/pram or not taken out.

She is 6 years old and we walked to the end of our road to post a letter for our neighbour.
I couldn't leave her indoors alone.
I think it will be easier for us to just stay in completely now as I can see most people think I was the one to just the situation incorrectly.
Tbh I am very confused myself at this time so will follow advice and just not leave the house for anything at all until all clear.

The trouble is, OP, a lot of the people who post on here are both dog owners and lunatics who think their dog is more important than another human being. So you’re going to get a biased feedback saying the dog walker was in the right for not looking where she was going and you are unreasonable to expect that a child should be given priority of the pavement.

Please don’t let this one off incident stop you from getting outside for a short walk with your daughter. She needs fresh air, sunlight and exercise too. If you have a similar incident just move to the inside, stop still and start coughing.

NailsNeedDoing
"Why do you think you have more right to walk on the pavement than someone else just because you had a child with you and they had a dog?"

Because any decent person wouldn't put a child at risk by making tham walk on a road.

The majority of dog walkers put themselves on the outside when passing. All roads are quieter at the moment, so it especially shouldn't be an issue at this time.

I despair at the way people are brought up these days.

OP, dont martyr yourself. Keep taking your walks outside with your daughter, and if someone tries to force you into the road, just dont do it. Oh, and make sure you keep yourself between your kid and the traffic.

Wondering what the dog had to do with it. Presumably in order to keep 2m apart one of you would have had to walk in the road whether the dog was there or not. Yes, if it had been me I'd have walked in the road and let you and your child continue on the pavement (whether I had my dog with me or not). This was a thoughtless/slightly inconsiderate one-off action by one person (who happened to have a dog). To stop going out would be a total overreaction.

Seemingly general consensus is that it is I that am wrong so I will ask someone else to run my neighbours errands until this is all over and sanity resumes.

Because of one impolite person you’ve encountered?? Yes, one dog walker didn’t move out the way for you - that’s what’s ‘insane’ about the world right now... because rude pavement hogging didn’t exist before Coronavirus you might as well stay cooped up at home forever then if you live in such great fear of bad walking etiquette, it’s not a by product of Covid 19 and won’t disappear when it’s settled.