AIBU to think I was not rude?

[supercalifragilicious]

School run this morning, I was walking back home after dropping DC at school. I am recovering from a cold and still not 100%, with a slight headache. I was walking past a group of boys who gave particularly loud screams and shrieks, so I held my ears because loud noises make my headache worse. I did try to hold my ears in a most unnoticeable way, lowering my head and just gently holding my fingertips at my ears, while holding my elbows to my body so they don't stick out! In other words, I wasn't trying to show off how annoyed I am, just rather minding my own business and trying to get past this group of boys quickly.

A woman then approached me (presumably one of the mums?) and said to me: "Your behaviour is really rude, they're just children you know!", and then stormed off before I could manage a reply. Obviously I wasn't going to shout anything after her but it did leave me annoyed being told off for nothing. I actually think it is her who was being rude, not me.

What do you think?

I don’t think it deserved a comment, but it is pretty rude to walk past a group of people with your hands over your ears. And it obviously was not discretely as somebody noticed.

What's wrong with being annoyed by the noise anyway? Surely we're allowed to be annoyed. I'm not sure why covering your own ears is seen as rude, Its not like you ran around going "lalala im not listening"

Of course you weren’t rude. The children were making extreme noise in public. They were badly behaved.

YANBU. I am absolutely sick of the entitlement that people have. No, when I walk down the street I have NO OBLIGATION WHATSOEVER to validate that your dog is cute / your busking is not annoying the hell out of me / your loud conversation about all the horrid foreigners round here doesn't make you look stupid and nasty. Delete as applicable.

If my face says that you disgust or annoy me then sorry, it's not my job to validate you.

And yeah, that's all before we get to issues surrounding feeling under the weather or sensitive to certain loud noises.

Aprilx · Today 11:55

I don’t think it deserved a comment, but it is pretty rude to walk past a group of people with your hands over your ears. And it obviously was not discretely as somebody noticed.

Yeah, 100%. It's obviously OPs job to go up to them and tell them all how they are all well dressed, good looking and have lovely sounding voices that say really clever and witty things. Anything less than that and these kids might get depressed... and as for suggesting that you don;t want to hear them by covering your ears - OP might as well have shouted "kill yourselves" in the kids faces for how rude she was.

It is not rude to cover your ears. What on earth are you on about? Who taught you this nonsense?

It IS rude to be screeching so loudly that it hurts random people's ears - but OP acknowledges that the noise-makers where just kids, hence her not ticking them off, calling them rude, or in any way asking for the rudeness she received from the other woman.

This!
If people (of any age) are entitled to make a noise then others are entitled to protect themselves. The OP didn't try to stop these kids from their noise making. If they or their minders don't like it then they should shut the fuck up.

You acted a bit crackers but she should have just let you have it.

If you were mid conversation with me and suddenly put your hands over your ears, then maybe, yes, a bit rude.
Blocking out noise from a random group of people - not at all rude.
And the woman who commented - surely even the people on this thread who think ear covering is rude would not actually go as far as commenting?!?

The mother was an idiot. Imagine being so precious about your kids that you'd kick off at someone about this! You'd have been rude if you'd yelled at them to shut up. Reacting to the noise isn't rude. If my kids were being noisy and someone covered their ears I'd think 'oops, hadn't noticed how loud they were, best get them to tone it down'.

It's only rude to cover your ears if someone is trying to talk to you. Why should someone have to pretend they don't find a certain noise uncomfortably loud? Even if you think OP was being a bit precious - that's allowed isn't it? It's not rude, she didn't shout at the kids to shut up, or tell their parents to control them.

I think you were just on the wrong side of rude, as an adult (even one in pain) you should have the resilience) to cope with a short burst of noise from schoolchildren (unless there is a hidden disability that makes you susceptible to noise). Putting your hands over your ears was a definite passive aggressive move. Maybe next time you have a bad head try earbuds and music or white noise on low.

The other woman's behaviour like yours, was odd. But, like you perhaps she was having an off day.

It's rude to cover your ears in the sort of I'm ignoring you speaking to me way, but covering your ears from a loud noise isnt the same. My DS has sensory processing disorder, I have sensory issues around noise, it literally hurts. Why should people need to be discrete in doing so. Unless OP was glaring angrily I can't see why it should be rude to reduce the noise level a little as needed by covering your ears.

I mean I have migraines and if they are mild, and I walk past people who shriek (generally children) I sort of flinch and close my eyes, but keep walking. I don't think I've ever put fingers in my ears. The noise comes as a shock, and I give a shock/pained reaction.

I wouldn't worry about it, it happened, move on with your day.

If you already think this, why ask others opinions?
Personally I don't think it was rude but a bit odd.

I agree

It's not rude to cover your ears from people, adults or kids, shrieking. She sounds aggressive and rude.

Im surprised she bothered. Probably something else is going on in her life and you just got randomly caught in a bit of steam let off

I'd forget about it

You weren't rude, or weird or dramatic OP. Not from your OP anyway. Such extraordinary entitlement on this thread. Kids screeching can be awful and whilst there's a time and a place for completely carefree shouty loud play, but this wasn't it.

I think you're far too invested in what random people think. You're asking one group of random people about what another random person said. Shrug it off and continue with your day.

But there isn't really any duty to be polite to random noisy groups, is there? I don't mean that anyone should be overtly rude, but I can't see how protecting yourself from noise is rude. You could after all argue that it was the boys who were being rude; anyone walking by may have their own reason for finding that level of noise painful or distressing.

Thanks all!
I agree with those of you who don't think it was rude to have covered my ears in this situation. In another scenario, if say I went to a concert, sat in the front row and covered my ears, that would have been rude. But not walking past noisy kids on a street (who, to be fair, haven't even noticed me walking past them!)

I also acknowledge that it may have looked slightly odd, but was not offensive and to walk up to me and to tell me off like that was totally unjustified.

You what now?

Where are PP getting this weird notion that using your own hands to cover your own ears is in any way rude?!
You also seem to not understand what passive-aggressive means.
Reducing a noise that is paining you by blocking your ears is effective, not pass-agg.

Imagining that instead of attempting to reduce pain, someone should put up with it, because ... well, MisguidedSheep doesn't enlighten us - is so odd I wonder if there's some kind of sado-masochism element to this PP's thinking.

Yeah you were rude