Help me to stop chickening out of a confrontation

[LankylegsFromOz]

Delurking for my first ever post...

I need to confront someone tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit anxious.

My son is 11 and has aspergers and we have an almost 2 year old lab. We have a support worker that comes over twice a week. His first was a woman mid 20s, and his 2nd that started last Wednesday is the same.

I admit from the get-go my son talks alot. He goes to a mainstream school but obviously he has asd. Still he is a good kid and respectful to elders. Our dog is a typical juvenile male lab.

One of the things my son and his support worker likes to do is go to the dog park. Both son and dog loves other dogs and they have a great time. There is this man (around 60 yo) at the park and he thinks he owns it. At home we call him Mr Know-it-all. Over the last year he has been doing what I can only describe as low level bullying towards my son and dog. Never when me or DH there, only with the support worker. Snide comments about how much my son talks, obviously dislikes our dog, yells at him etc. He knows son is ASD, as my son is very open to everyone about it.

When son and new support worker went on Wednesday we warned her about him. Son hasn't been to the park for a few weeks as we were between support workers. This time he was the worst ever, calling dog 'a dick of a dog' just generally being unpleasant. He sidled up to support worker asking 'so what us your name.. are you the new support worker.. so I suppose you'll be here alot' (sniffing disapproval).

She was so uncomfortable she doesn't want to go back and I'm not going to force her, but..

Who the fuck does he think he is? Why should they go to a new dog park because if this bully picking on an autistic 11 year old boy? Nobody else in the park has a problem with them, just him.

So tomorrow, I'm taking the dog to the dog park to give this dickhead a piece of my mind. But I'm abit nervous and I need you guys to help me to not chicken out...

Well done, OP! And your son sounds great.

@Orchidsindoors

Do you not think this man might have some sort of mental health issues? I think I would tailor whatever I was going to say to suit, rather than go in all guns blazing.

Bit late...

And there are plenty of arrogant arseholes in the world. Why assume he's not one of them?

"And there are plenty of arrogant arseholes in the world. Why assume he's not one of them?"
Just all seemed a bit odd to me. A man approaching a boy and support workers every time they go to the park and harassing them. Unless it's the boy who has approached him, the oP says hes very chatty.

@Riseof

Well done OP, hopefully you won’t have anymore trouble from him now.

BUT and I’m sorry to say this as I know you’ll probably roll your eyes etc, PLEASE train your dog. Being a lab makes no difference whatsoever. Labs are working breeds who actually have a lot more capability than most to be well behaved. I imagine he’s big and that can cause problems if he’s charging up to other dogs etc in a small park.

I’m not for 1 second condoning this man’s actions, but just the way you are so flippant about your dog being ‘boisterous’ like it’s just this inevitable thing and you’re a passive ornament in his life that can’t do anything about it. He needn’t be boisterous, I have always had labs and none of them would ever be described as a ‘dick of a dog’ by anyone because I wouldn’t give them that chance. Any dog can be a dick if it’s allowed to be.

You are right, we will be looking into additional training for DDog. He is actually quite placid after the initial excitement though. And I'm told by DH and support worker that DDog is only doing what other dogs do in the park.

We are actually looking for more training to stop thieving from benches, he likes to grab things and run away with them so we can chase him. Drives me banannas!