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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Your just going to make this longer and longer AIBU

76 replies

RoastedParnsip · 12/12/2021 10:55

Was walking to the shop this morning, kept myself to myself. wasn't taking up the entire path or anything. Had my scarf up over my face and wasn't coughing or anything.
Walked passed a middle aged man who suddenly shouted at me "your going to make this longer and longer, you need to give me space two meters!"
I looked at him and asked him what he meant as I was distanced from him. For him to tell me it's my fault young people like me are spreading covid and going to put us all in lockdown! HmmShock
For starters I'm in my 30s so I'm not young. I don't go to the pubs, I don't go clubbing or really socialise with anyone bar my kids and partner. I'm also jabbed.
Was I unreasonable telling him to fuck off and go lock himself in his house if he was that concerned?
I'm sick to death of all this covid bullshit now, It's like people are using it as an excuse to be rude now.

OP posts:
balboacoffee · 12/12/2021 11:51

I would of told him to fuck off as well!

Cantfindausernamethatsnottaken · 12/12/2021 11:54

YANBU.

Mummy923 · 12/12/2021 11:59

I took my nana shopping recently. We were in a queue and a woman in front literally shouted at her for not being 2m (she really was though) My nana, me and the woman had masks on too. My nana is very sensitive and the woman made her scared. My reaction was similar to yours only I added in a “you stupid cow” not my finest moment but I’ll have nobody shouting at my 80 year old nana.

dayouttobangor · 12/12/2021 12:03

In the open air unreasonable, had it been in a shop or other enclosed space not.

5foot5 · 12/12/2021 12:15

@2pinkginsplease

Yip I’ve been screamed at from an older man who was walking pass me. We were on a canal path so obviously not very wide and he screamed. “Keep your distance that’s not 7ft”. He startled me at first but then I laughed. The veins in his neck were bulging he was so mad!

Not sure where he gets 7ft from but not sure where he wanted me to move to!

Well 7 feet is the closest in whole numbers of feet to 2 metres so perhaps it has been expressed like that for some of the determinedly "oh I can't do metric" brigade (though FGS I am 59 and we did metric all through my years of school so they must either be ancient or thick)

Anyway, as you say bit difficult to give that much space on a towpath. Actually in the height of the first lockdown when we were doing lots of local walks from the house we deliberately avoided canal towpaths for this reason. Shame because there are some lovely canal walks near us but we thought it best not to.

However, anyone shouting at someone in the street is clearly unhinged. If I was in OPs situation I would like to think I would just ignore and not swear but who knows how they will react in the moment

Tal45 · 12/12/2021 12:24

I really think you should have included that you were actually 30 and that shouting at women in the street is not fucking acceptable behaviour.

tttigress · 12/12/2021 12:27

Personally I blame the media, they seem intent on publishing only negative news about COVID.

While I appreciate you are annoyed with this man, you should also think he probably now has some mental problems caused by Covid lockdowns/the media, that will be with him for the rest of his life.

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 12/12/2021 12:35

But social distancing hasn't been reintroduced in England ...

HyacynthBucket · 12/12/2021 12:39

YABU because although he was aggressive about the social distancing, he was in the right about people not giving the full 2metres (6'6"). He was quite likely really concerned for his own health, maybe not coping with all the extra anxiety. I have felt like this too when on paths with people passing who just do not bother about distancing. It can feel very threatening. When you say you were distanced form him, that would be your assessment of what is safe, and must have been less than 2m or he wouldn't have said it. I think that was what he was referring to, rather than pubs and clubs as you thought.
You were U to not be more sensitive to others' needs, especially as he was elderly and therefore more vulnerable to infection, and very U to say f off to him. Why should he stay at home just because others outside cannot be arsed to follow basic safety rules that affect us all.

TisTheSeasonToBeVegan · 12/12/2021 12:39

I would have just ignored him, thinking he had some problems to speak to me like that so swearing at him wouldn’t have helped. If he was just rude then it would still be better to not give him any attention.

SheWoreYellow · 12/12/2021 12:41

@2pinkginsplease

Yip I’ve been screamed at from an older man who was walking pass me. We were on a canal path so obviously not very wide and he screamed. “Keep your distance that’s not 7ft”. He startled me at first but then I laughed. The veins in his neck were bulging he was so mad!

Not sure where he gets 7ft from but not sure where he wanted me to move to!

Well 2m is nearer 7ft than 6ft, so that’s where he got it from. Smile
Kshhuxnxk · 12/12/2021 12:44

I do hope you lowered your scarf to tell him to FO!

Luredbyapomegranate · 12/12/2021 12:50

He sounds bonkers.

However, I’d avoid telling anyone to fuck off when you can. It just raises the aggression levels in the world in a way we don’t need - I’d stick to bonkers or similar.

Camii · 12/12/2021 12:52

He might think twice before he tells off someone else

RagzReturnsRebooted · 12/12/2021 12:54

I remember right back at the beginning, some guy in Tesco swearing at me for not being 2m away when I walked past him (he was staring at something on a shelf, I wanted to get past, I hadn't realised that wasn't acceptable). Really shook me up at the time and still bothers me now. I just glared at him, I didn't really know what to say.

hamsterchump · 12/12/2021 12:54

I would've told him to fuck off too, some people need to be told
If you're going to go mad in public shouting at people then you're not going to get a lovely, meek response and nor should you. He needs to get a grip and remember how to behave normally.

galacticpixels · 12/12/2021 12:55

These people are the worst. I was in a park one day when a woman ahead of me stopped, looked back at me, and yelled at me (with very colourful language!) to keep my distance. The thing is I was distanced from her until she stopped, at which point obviously caught up with her as I was still walking...

sst1234 · 12/12/2021 12:57

These people have lost the plot. They are shrieking, hysterical Covid obsessives. You just have to humour them. Treating them like adults is pointless.

alloalloallo · 12/12/2021 13:03

You were U to not be more sensitive to others' needs

No one was sensitive to my daughter’s needs when she was driven to a breakdown and agoraphobia by this kind of behaviour earlier this year.

Yet she can manage to walk down the street without shouting abuse at random passers by

It is not acceptable behaviour and I will not stand there like a lemon while someone is abusing my child. They will get told.

User135644 · 12/12/2021 13:06

Treat people as they treat you. He showed you no respect and was unreasonably rude.

GotToGoBye · 12/12/2021 13:07

Yanbu I’m finding a lot of people at or near the end of their tether on both sides of the covid behaviour spectrum.

Know of a woman threatening suicide if children are offered vaccines and restrictions increase.

Others refusing to socialise/ attend appointments, despite minimal risk.

A person attended an adult vaccination centre, trying to advise the clinically vulnerable patients attending not to get booster and caused a “commotion” ending in police being called.

Saw a woman very stressed at low numbers of people wearing masks and nearly in tears asking the cashier why they can’t do anything about it.

zebra · 12/12/2021 13:08

Yep he'd have got the same response from me too. Young people, at virtually no risk from covid, have turned their lives upside down for the last 2 years for the benefit of people like him, yet somehow they're the ones called selfish.

User135644 · 12/12/2021 13:11

@50ShadesOfCatholic

Thing is, lots of people are horribly on edge, not coping at all. I'm not suggesting their behaviour is acceptable but honestly, I would just steer clear. Stay out of their nightmare.
Would he have started on a man like that? Or was a young woman (in his eyes) an easy target?

If he goes around telling male strangers on the street to fuck off, he could get a lot worse in return. If he is just targeting women then he deserves to be told.

lljkk · 12/12/2021 13:15

Did you say Fuck Off or just fantasise about it?

He could have created 2m space from you if so vital.
He was U to have a go & you would be U to escalate such a stupid comment any further.

sst1234 · 12/12/2021 13:15

On a non-serious note OP, how did you resist the urge to go up to him and do a ‘Carol Beer’ cough and say ‘computer says no’.