This is something I witnessed a few years ago but has sat uneasy with me since. I don’t know what to think. It certainly struck me as odd. What would you lift from it?
(This is an Irish wake by the way, as believe they are quite different to everywhere else, perhaps to give a better insight of the set up)
I was at a very tragic wake of a young child, a lot of very obvious grieving and to-ing and for-ing between rooms etc. Groups of people chatting quietly away in rooms. A young sibling (about 4) of the child was running about, naturally not really understanding what was going on. The young girl slipped and fell in front of me, hitting her head. Before I had a chance to react a man scooped her up and sat her on his knee, comforting her.
I didn’t know this man, so assumed he was an uncle from the other side of her family. Didn’t think twice about it until another woman I never met before, stood beside this man, glaring at him angrily. He immediately lifted the girl off his knee and explained that he only picked her up because she had fell and hurt herself.
The bone of contention definitely seemed to be over the young girl sitting on his knee. It later transpired that these people are neighbours. There were 2 other people chatting in the room so they didn't hear what happened.
YABU - nothing unusual in that
YANBU - yes that's definitely strange