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AIBU?

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Original poster

Is school run on a scooter really that embarrassing ?

278 replies

Confuseeeeed25 · 03/11/2020 21:21

Talking about what I wanted for Xmas and my upcoming birthday ( big 30 😭😭😭)
I asked for a scooter with very odd reactions from my DP and DS 🤣
I wanted it because mY DC ride their scooters to school and so thought I would join them !
They think it’s embarrassing for me and DC 🤣
Are they right ?

OP posts:
tiredsandtimer · 04/11/2020 12:32

I say go for it, absolutely nothing wrong with having fun as an adult.

And the whole "it's embarrassing your family" is rubbish.

See it as a way of teaching your children to not care about others pearl clutching opinions and have fun if they want to.
I don't have a scooter but I'm shocked grown adults are calling others twats for merely riding a scooter.

What a lovely bunch on this thread!

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 04/11/2020 12:33

So you allow your family to dictate what you wear? - if I'm out with them to a certain extent yes. I don't do full on goth like I might do if I'm not with them.

Whether you speak in public? - again, to a certain extent. I might want to walk around Morrison's singing along to whatever they're playing but don't.

I did admit that flirting was an extreme example, maybe I should have said "skipping round Sainsbury's singing the Star Spangled Banner".

What if working outside the home 'brought shame' on your family? Or dating the person of your choice? - is also an extreme example and inherently wrong in some societies, just as my extreme example is inherently wrong in ours.

edwinbear · 04/11/2020 12:39

I used to use one for the school run. It was a lot less embarrassing than me doing the mum run behind them, laden with bags and screaming like a fish wife to "STOP" every time they approached a road they needed to cross.

It also put a smile on my face every day and built my thighs up nicely.

LolaSmiles · 04/11/2020 12:41

tiredsandtimer
How is it pearl clutching to consider listening to your children's feelings?

MinnieJackson · 04/11/2020 12:42

I saw a woman riding her kids scooter back from the school run, she looked so happy!

moonbells · 04/11/2020 12:43

Go for it.

I'd love one. If it wasn't for the pandemic I would have one by now, as then I could ditch the car and take the tube to the nearest stop to work and scoot the remaining couple of km or so in. It's very hilly so I'd be able to whizz the downhill/flat bits on the road and walk the rest. I reckon it would change a 30-minute fast walk into 15 minutes at worst, save me ridiculous staff parking charges and give me regular exercise. Couldn't use a bike because of Tube restrictions, but a folding scooter, perfect!

Ah well, maybe next year...

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 04/11/2020 12:47

There is one guy in our town who used to do this. He looked like a twat.

nosswith · 04/11/2020 12:48

I think we do not give enough time, space, consideration and planning for some lesser used ways to get around. Much better to be using a scooter than a Chelsea Tractor. I wished that Segways had been legal in this country too.

CottonSock · 04/11/2020 12:49

How is an adult taking a form of exercise embarrassing or twatish. Good grief I'm surprised at what I've read here.

Allington · 04/11/2020 12:50

What if working outside the home 'brought shame' on your family? Or dating the person of your choice? - is also an extreme example and inherently wrong in some societies, just as my extreme example is inherently wrong in ours.

I think enough people have said that they have seen parents do this, or would do it themselves, to be clear that it is not 'inherently wrong' in our society.

CheetasOnFajitas · 04/11/2020 12:54

@Derelictwreck don’t be so disingenuous. You made a sarcastic comment that obviously you had not surveyed the whole of London before you stated “everyone makes fun of them”. In other words you admitted that you used the expression “everyone”, knowing that it was not true, because you wanted to make a forceful point that would convince OP to abandon her idea for fear that the majority of people would be laughing at her. You are being defensive because you it came so naturally to you to talk in that way that you didn’t even realise what you were doing.

It is not bullying for multiple people to think something is daft. Otherwise great swathes of posters on any mumsnet thread asking for opinions would be bullies.

Can you really not see the difference between a collection of individuals each expressing their opinion, and one person saying “everyone thinks this”?

We need a zero tolerance approach to bullying on small things so that people are able to recognise it and stand up to bullies when it comes to bigger things like coercive control. It starts with “everyone thinks you have the wrong trainers”, “everyone knows it’s uncool to be good at maths” and the bullies continue through life invoking imaginary public opinion to back up their own personal agendas.

TheKeatingFive · 04/11/2020 13:02

I think we do not give enough time, space, consideration and planning for some lesser used ways to get around. Much better to be using a scooter than a Chelsea Tractor.

Excellent point.

Some of the thinking on here is depressingly from the dark ages. Massive cars clogging our roads everywhere, but we’ll make fun of adult scooters? Do these people have two brain cells to rub together?

Lockheart · 04/11/2020 13:11

Adults on scooters? Fine.

Adults on scooters on pavements? Not fine unless you're going at a walking pace, which defeats the object really.

Children on scooters on pavements are annoying enough, adults are outright dangerous.

SurreyHillsGirl · 04/11/2020 13:39

Yes of course you will look ridiculous and anyone who says otherwise clearly has one and is in denial! You will look like a right plank, but who cares if it gets you from A to B. Just put a bag over your head (tip: cut some eye holes)

Gaoth · 04/11/2020 13:55

@SurreyHillsGirl

Yes of course you will look ridiculous and anyone who says otherwise clearly has one and is in denial! You will look like a right plank, but who cares if it gets you from A to B. Just put a bag over your head (tip: cut some eye holes)
Maybe we just live in less uptight places? There are a couple of tandems, adult and child scooters, lots of bikes with child trailers etc on our school run (inner city school on a busy street, so nowhere to park or even to pull in) and one dad who, until it started to get colder, jogged every day to get his son wearing only small running shorts, with a tshirt in his hand that he only put on when he was cooling down.
LolaSmiles · 04/11/2020 13:58

Some of the thinking on here is depressingly from the dark ages. Massive cars clogging our roads everywhere, but we’ll make fun of adult scooters? Do these people have two brain cells to rub together?
They're not mutually exclusive you know.

I dislike the endless Chelsea tractors as much as the next person. I also don't have an issue with adults on scooters (assuming they're not on the pavement). I just don't see why a parent would choose this hill to die on with their children. If their children have expressed that doing something at the school gates is going to make them embarrassed and it's not an inconvenience to avoid embarrassing them, then why would a parent feel the need to dig their heels in and insist it's their right to do the embarrassing thing. It makes the parent sound quite childish as it's seen saying 'but I really really want one... I really like them... I want to ride one because it's not fun if you (children) get to scoot and not me'.

TheKeatingFive · 04/11/2020 14:07

If their children have expressed that doing something at the school gates is going to make them embarrassed and it's not an inconvenience to avoid embarrassing them, then why would a parent feel the need to dig their heels in

Have you come across teens? Mere existing embarrasses them.

I was mortified by some of the clothes my mother wore when I was that age (she likes colour).

Should she have worn grey and sludge to appease me? I don’t think so. Instead, she taught me that being one’s own person is a surer route to happiness. The lesson sunk in eventually.

DC3Dakota · 04/11/2020 14:13

Presuming you're not talking about a mobility scooter?

Cosyjimjamsforautumn · 04/11/2020 14:15

Mere breathing is embarassing for some kids.
Personally I'd love one (not sure why it's perceived as embarassing where a bicycle isnt?) AND it would encourage me to take more exercise as well as I'd scoot down to the shops.
But then I'm probably a bit older and no longer give a fuck what other people think

flaviaritt · 04/11/2020 15:23

A scooter is embarrassing because it is basically a child’s toy. It’s like seeing a grown adult on a trike. By all means, people should do what they like, but I can see why the kids are embarrassed.

TheKeatingFive · 04/11/2020 15:39

A scooter is embarrassing because it is basically a child’s toy.

And we can’t learn anything from or repurpose children’s toys? How narrow minded are we?

flaviaritt · 04/11/2020 15:43

And we can’t learn anything from or repurpose children’s toys? How narrow minded are we?

I’m not at all narrow minded. As I said, people can do as they like. But this is why her kids are embarrassed, for those who weren’t sure why.

flaviaritt · 04/11/2020 15:43

Actually, I take that back. I probably am averagely minded.

Lardlizard · 04/11/2020 16:04

swiftyscooters.com/blogs/journal/kick-scooters-and-the-law-are-kick-scooters-pavement-legal-in-the-uk Scooterlaw

Is certainly a grey area

It’s should be though because as the article says it’s seriously out of date 200 year old law !

Lardlizard · 04/11/2020 16:04

But there’s nothing embarrassing about it
Anything that adds a bit of fun
Why not