NCed incase minute chance the guy sees this and can get info on us.
And sorry if this is unnecessarily long.
DD is under one. We went to shops and had picnic lunch in city centre park on way back. Park was busy as it was sunny today, plus has lots of paths used to walk through/cross through to high street, and is near the Uni.
We sat in shade of tree on grass away from but within site of main path. Some sunbather around etc
Am just minding my own business feeding the baby (DD tried cress for first time and was less than impressed) and enjoying spending mum/baby time together.
A young man, maybe twenty (without my noticing) had crossed the grass to us and asks ‘what is dear daughters name?’
Looked like a student with hoody and rucksack but would also describe as looking smart.
I was completely thrown by being approached and asked this out of nowhere and said something ridiculous like I didn’t want to have a conversation with him. (I meant I didn’t want to tell him her name but didn’t know how to phrase it) He very calmly replies “can I ask why that is?”
Again, was a bit thrown by being asked to justify why I didn’t want to speak to a complete stranger in the park (my brain was saying ‘Sarah Everard’) so I just said I didn’t feel comfortable. He looked a bit put out but seemed to accept that and left.
Its hard to put my finger on it but the whole thing just really put my back up. There are lots of scenarios in which I would talk to strangers/men in the park and even tell them DDs name but…
Things that felt off were:
No preamble. If he had made some kind of small talk about baby etc before asking for personal info I would have found it more normal.
He wasn’t with anyone, a child/woman/friends.
He had to deliberately come out of his way (presumably) to get over to us.
No reason given for needing to know baby’s name (comes under small talk I guess)
He was standing and I was sitting.
There was a MN thread a few months back about something like ‘have you ever been in the presence of evil,’ I wouldn’t go that far but that is the kind of thing it was like, just felt dodgy even though the guy didn’t do anything and appeared ‘upstanding.’ Maybe he would have gone on to ask me if I accepted God in my life or similar, who knows,
So UABU: I was rude to random guy in park and should have told him DDs name. (I wasn’t rude in the way I spoke to him but some people might consider not being willing to chat with a stranger rude)
or UANBU better safe then sorry
Felt like I had to keep checking behind me on way home.