Ds2 hit a dog with a stone (accident)

[TheLost]

I’ve attempted a diagram as it’s hard to explain. At the beach yesterday after school. Ds1 was quite upset about some school stuff so I was sat at the top of the beach chatting to him. Ds2 went to practice skimming stones. It was pretty high tide so he wasn’t far away, probably about 20m.

It’s a really long beach but for some reason a woman started throwing a stick for her dog along the shoreline and directly in front of where ds2 was skimming stones. The first time she very nearly hit ds2 with the stick so I called him and told him to move further down the beach out of the way which he did. Woman then decided to move further down the beach too, threw the stick again directly in front of ds2 who was at that moment skimming a stone which hit her dog.

Dog yelps and runs back to owner and owner starts marching over to ds2 to tell him off. I get there first, ask if dog is ok (he seems to be) and ask her why she followed Ds along the beach when he was clearly trying to get out of her way. She claims she was walking along the beach in the direction ds2 moved so it made sense that she carried on that way. I say ‘well no harm done, thankfully the beaches are still quite quiet at the moment so plenty of room to skim stones, throw sticks etc as long as you’re aware of others’. So telling ds2 to be aware of others but not telling him off as I didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.

Woman then launches into a rant about how dogs are only allowed on the beaches for a few more weeks which is disgraceful when I let my child attack innocent animals, it’s no wonder society is the way it is when parents are too frightened to tell their kids off when they’re in the wrong etc. etc. I just said again “well, no harm done. We’d best get going” and left her to it as she’d cornered another dog walker to complain to about my feral child.

Should I have told him off? I’m perfectly happy for him to skim stones on a quiet beach with no swimmers or others around him. My mum said I should have at least apologised to the woman for upsetting her but in my opinion she upset herself. There was no need at all to throw a stick directly in front of ds2, there was a whole free beach.

Parent and dog owner here.

You were absolutely right and were also far more polite than I would have been.

YANBU, she shouldn’t have been throwing sticks for her dog right by your son anyway. What if he was scared of dogs?

rainandclouds I wonder if it was the same woman!

Thanks for the reassurance. Tbh I would normally apologise as I can’t help myself saying ‘sorry’ most of the time. It was the fact she had deliberately decided to throw the stick right next to ds2, even if she hadn’t hit him with the stick there was a good chance the dog would’ve bowled him over or soaked him as he was splashing so much.

She was being stupid and could see there was a danger her dog and she put her dog right in the way. Her fault.

YABU

Yabu ..... to do your diagram on the back of a thank you NHS poster hope you consulted the artiste before you decimated it

Dog Walker should have had the brains to realise what she was walking into and gone behind your ds, not in front of him.
I mean seriously, she's a dick for clearly not taking any notice of what's going on around her. I know the sort - Completely oblivious and blames everyone else for their own short comings.

@Zancah

Love your Poirot skills
Maybe it was just a draft poster hahaha

No, it’s her job to keep her dog safe and away from things that might cause him harm. Like a child minding their own business skimming stones.

I wouldn’t have apologised as you’ve done nothing wrong. Especially as she followed him down the beach! YANBU.

Another parent and dog owner, she was a loon.

@HarryElephante

YABU

Are you the dog owner? Because I cannot see how OP was possibly being UR.

"fuck off" probably would have done it. She's batshit!

it was an accideent!

fwiw i would have told mine to go up the beach a bit....then told the woman to F off it was an accident, keep your dog on a lead!

*i love dogs, i own dogs, but this woman is clearly batshit

I dunno why you’d put your dog anywhere near a kid with a rock.

YANBU - and I love my dog.

zancah 😬😬 in my defence before the kids went off for the first lockdown they were both given about 50 of the bastards. One was coloured in and in the window for a bit but the rest have been used for purposes that aren’t quite as wholesome but are definitely important. Like a diagram for Mumsnet.

When my son was 5 he was doing similar and for some reason 2 ladies went and sat directly between ds and the sea on their towels just as he threw another stone which cracked one of them on the head hard.
The uninjured lady demanded to know why i wouldn’t tell ds off even after he had said sorry they were furious but I explained to them he had apologised for hurting her by accident and really they should have chosen a safer place to sit

I’d have told her to fuck off with her dog. It should be on a lead around children anyway.
Entitled dickhead. A beach is big enough to avoid kids and walk a dog. I have the softest dog known to man who happens to be a big Rottweiler. I always put her on the lead if other people are about as she runs up and wants cuddles and not everyone wants a big rotty lolling on them. She was out of order. Shove the stick up her ass. Your done son did nothing wrong.

Honestly, we are considering changing where we walk our dogs because, since lockdown, there are loads of batshit dog owners who are hysterical.

We keep getting shouted - our well-trained and friendly pugs keep having to be put back on lead because these new owners don't seem to understand that they need to social other dogs.

It wasn't Appledore was it?
Only we had a similar incident with a woman throwing sticks (for her collie) very close to our children. When DH asked her to stop she yelled at us that she was fucking sick of tourists and we should fuck off back home. Charming.

serin not Appledore but only a few minutes down the coast. Possibly the same crazy stick lady!

Why do people do this? Walk near others when there are miles of deserted beach available?
It happens so often to me.
It’s annoying when another woman does it but I find it quite disturbing when a man walks up to me on an otherwise deserted beach.
Surely it’s common sense not to do this?

She created the problem so she is not owed an apology. I have three dogs and a fairly feral 10 year old ds, no way would I be apologising!

You checked on the dog which was absolutely appropriate, you did very well not to be very British (assuming you are British) and start apologising automatically. Yay you 💐

no. your dc did nothing wrong.

the dog owner sounds nasty and entitled.

I would of gone mad . She sounds nuts . You done the right thing op .

You are both unreasonable. She should have had greater control over her dog, preferably kept it on a lead. You should have had greater control over your child. You shouldn't allow him to throw stones, especially where there are other people nearby. Teach him that if he is doing something potentially dangerous (lobbing rocks about) he must stop if there is anyone or anything else nearby. If the woman was walking her dog, he should have just waited for them to pass.

FWIW I fucking hate dogs too, I couldn't give a flying fuck whether it got hit by a stone, but you need to use this as an opportunity to teach your child he needs to be aware of what is around him and how his actions can cause problems for others.

@TheLost

I’ve attempted a diagram as it’s hard to explain. At the beach yesterday after school. Ds1 was quite upset about some school stuff so I was sat at the top of the beach chatting to him. Ds2 went to practice skimming stones. It was pretty high tide so he wasn’t far away, probably about 20m.

It’s a really long beach but for some reason a woman started throwing a stick for her dog along the shoreline and directly in front of where ds2 was skimming stones. The first time she very nearly hit ds2 with the stick so I called him and told him to move further down the beach out of the way which he did. Woman then decided to move further down the beach too, threw the stick again directly in front of ds2 who was at that moment skimming a stone which hit her dog.

Dog yelps and runs back to owner and owner starts marching over to ds2 to tell him off. I get there first, ask if dog is ok (he seems to be) and ask her why she followed Ds along the beach when he was clearly trying to get out of her way. She claims she was walking along the beach in the direction ds2 moved so it made sense that she carried on that way. I say ‘well no harm done, thankfully the beaches are still quite quiet at the moment so plenty of room to skim stones, throw sticks etc as long as you’re aware of others’. So telling ds2 to be aware of others but not telling him off as I didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.

Woman then launches into a rant about how dogs are only allowed on the beaches for a few more weeks which is disgraceful when I let my child attack innocent animals, it’s no wonder society is the way it is when parents are too frightened to tell their kids off when they’re in the wrong etc. etc. I just said again “well, no harm done. We’d best get going” and left her to it as she’d cornered another dog walker to complain to about my feral child.

Should I have told him off? I’m perfectly happy for him to skim stones on a quiet beach with no swimmers or others around him. My mum said I should have at least apologised to the woman for upsetting her but in my opinion she upset herself. There was no need at all to throw a stick directly in front of ds2, there was a whole free beach.

She's a fucking idiot and the one in the wrong. Ignore it.