I’ll probably regret coming back to comment (although I have RTFT), but I’m open-mouthed at some of the nastiness on here, from people trying to put others in their place and determined to deliberately make them feel uncomfortable, just 'because I can and it isn't against the law so you can't stop me'. Credit to those who didn't think about it and have now adapted their behaviour, but all of those basically saying "Yeah, you show her who's boss"....
There’s also a lot of unveiled snobbery against these ‘caravan folk’ who (maybe) can’t afford to have a holiday in bricks and mortar accommodation, but would quite like to enjoy the holiday that does work for them and their budget – it reminds me of an Enid Blyton story, where everybody talks in hushed towns about ‘those circus people’ as shorthand for low-income, good-for-nothing ‘scum’.
As for my analogy about large men following you down the street being supposedly nothing like people coming close to your caravan; maybe hanging around in groups, maybe at night, maybe talking loudly – you do realise that the Bank of England doesn’t choose to store its gold reserves in static caravans, don’t you? My point is that, in both scenarios, you don’t know people’s intentions. If a group of men up to no good wanted to gain access to a woman, do you really think they’d be thwarted by a thin little caravan door/wall? The vast majority of people walking past will have none of these intentions whatsoever – just like the men innocently walking down the pavement on their way home or to the pub - but the issue is that you do not know somebody’s intentions when they purposely encroach on your privacy.
It’s nothing at all like the annoying CF parkers who claim a very in-demand space on the public road outside their house as exclusively theirs and shout at others who park there. I’m the first to find and declare these people outrageous. This scenario is like deliberately parking outside number 15, when there are always plenty of empty spaces along the road, and then walking back to your home at 136 – just to one-up the elderly (maybe a bit grumpy) person who lives there. Maybe it’s all their own ‘fault’ for being elderly and much less able to walk the length of the street as easily as you can?
We've said that we'll get ourselves a couple of windbreaks to mark off our own plot for next time we're off in the caravan
Personally I’d get DH to mark out what you think is your territory just the way dogs do. No one would want to come near you and you’d never have to worry about the windbreaks blowing away.
Charming and, again, snobbishly dismissive. It’s not what I think is my territory – as a PP said, it’s part of the 10m x 10m (or whatever size) pitch that we’ve paid for. Our main concerns are about children running/cycling/scooting through, close by to the caravan and car, and scratching one of them, knocking our clothes airer into the mud, disconnecting our water and, by far the most importantly, tripping over a trailing electrical cable and braining themselves on the hard ground. Apart from obviously not wanting a child to be hurt, you just know that the parent would be one of the aggressive, entitled sorts on this thread coming over angrily and blaming us for their child not being taught basic manners. For the avoidance of any doubt, if we book a caravan pitch with hook-up, we very much expressly DO have the full entitlement to trail a cable between the electric mains stake and our caravan, on the full pitch that we have rented for the night/week.
Fair enough then, if you personally wouldn't feel even a little bit on edge if people were standing right outside your window and talking - maybe in the middle of the night.
The OP walked past the caravan in the daytime. She did not stand around and have a conversation in the middle of the night.
No, she didn’t – but some people DO do that. Do you think they’re from the group that respect other people’s personal space as a matter of course or those who don’t care? If people set a precedent that they can freely walk up close past strangers’ caravans, they’re highly unlikely to suddenly think again when it’s dark.
I equally got screamed at at a car boot sale once for walking between stalls . It was bloody frightening
Over the top reaction but yes again you were rude and totally in the wrong. The stall holders bag, keys, money tin etc would be behind their stall and you should have stuck to the path
Yes, they probably shouldn’t have screamed (although it might have been deliberate to alert others around that you were there - like with a burglar alarm), but car boot sales are a scorching hotbed of thieves and chancers, alongside all of the normal, decent buyers and sellers.
As well as the above points, most of the people will have their car boots open (or at least the car unlocked) throughout. If somebody goes behind your table to near where your car is, there’s a very good chance that they’re up to no good. I’m in no way saying that your motives are anything but innocent, but for a very high proportion of people who do that, it will indeed be the case that they’re looking for what they can steal.
There’s a perverted way of thinking that a sizeable minority of CBS visitors hold, that anything in a stallholder’s boot/car is up for grabs (even if it’s your child seat, Asda shopping you bought on the way, camping chairs, whatever) – and if you don’t ‘bother’ to watch them like a hawk and stop them from helping themselves or tell them what price you want (unlikely if the item is clearly not for sale), you ‘deserve’ to have them just take it and run off – you’re ‘asking’ for it..
Seems petty, not that I stay in caravans
One of the most revealing comments on the whole thread, for a number of reasons.