Woman's weird behaviour at duck pond?

[QT3point14]

Aibu to find this woman weird?

Dh and I took the kids to our local park today. The park has a little pond with some ducks and swans and we walked down to the water as our kids wanted to see the birds.
At this pond, there was another family consisting of a Mum, Dad, and two young children. This family had brought some bread to feed the ducks. Their kids seemed to be loving it and were giggling away, the animals were loving it and our kids were loving watching it.

A random woman walks by with a toddler. She stops and passive aggressively tells her child using a very loud voice, so the other family can hear her that you shouldn't feed the ducks as it's not allowed. The other family ignored her and continued with what they were doing.

The random woman then took her child over to a rusty, dirty old sign and very loudly read it out to her child. The sign states not to feed the ducks as it can attract vermin. Again the family ignored her. She read the sign very loudly again! She then rants that they are feeding the ducks white bread and this is so super harmful. This behaviour went on for a good 5 minutes with the other family continuing to ignore her.

At this point I'm thinking wtf is she trying to achieve here? Either have the balls to approach the family and share your concerns or mind your own business. What on earth was she hoping to achieve by passive aggressively randting in the background? The park was pretty busy and loads of people were staring at this poor family that just wanted to enjoy some time together.

Is it just me or is this a bit bonkers?

People are complaining about feeding bread to ducks but it's the same harmful trash you feed to your children? Er ok.

It's a nuisance, it's not the best food, sure.

It's not going to damage their health in any significant way or (eyeroll) kill them. The ducks can cope for one afternoon.

Random viewpoint: sometimes I parent my autistic child like that in public and I'm not being passive aggressive at all - it's what she needs to understand the world.

If I tell my DC no we can't take bread to feed the ducks and they see another child feeding bread they will be incredibly distressed. I would read the sign out loud too, as my child can be very rules driven and responds well to - you can't do it because the sign says this.

Well I don't feed it to ducks OR to my children!

I used to work for a very well known bread manufacturer, there's no way I'm feeding it to my children, or the ducks.

She sounds like an attention seeking, ill informed moron.

They tried a "Ban the Bread" campaign some time ago and, guess what? Ducks were starving to death. Bread is absolutely fine and, while it's not as nutritious as other things they could be fed with, it certainly won't kill them. Starvation will though!

Poor family trying to enjoy some time together with a thick psychotic witch stood shouting at them.

I live near a large park with lakes and loads of ornamental ponds, there's a big Canada goose and swan population. Feeding them bread is a day out for the kids. Almost every goose has angel wing, horrible malformations of the wing caused by being fed carbohydrates when young. So these geese are walking along (because they can't fly) with large broken feathers sticking out at angles whilst toddlers run after them with slices of Warburton's. The park actually provides free bird/duck food but you have to walk about 20 minutes (10 there 10 back) to get it so people can't be bothered.

I had a similar incident today but would have been perceived as the odd woman. Was in a sports shop and a man and his partner were messing and throwing /catching the footballs. My 4 year old immediately wanted to get a football to kick and I told him (within earshot of the man and woman) that’s not how we behave in shops which possibly came across as passive aggressive. Maybe the child in the park wanted to also feed the ducks and the parent was explaining why she shouldn’t

Peak MN.

Reminds me of a time when a random woman approached a work colleague who was feeding bread to the ducks with his kids. She told him the same, that he shouldn’t feed bread to the ducks.

He turned round and said “I’m not feeding the ducks, I’m feeding the fish but the fucking ducks keep nicking it”!

😂

That's shocking!

Also lucky you having that amenity close by!

You are neither a member of the family the woman was referring to or one of the ducks so what has any of it got to do with you?

Really? Whenever I've seen ducks being fed bread they are all scrambling for 1 cubic cm if bread. It's not like they're getting through a whole loaf. Seems unlikely they'd ever eat enough to become deformed.

Is this really the cause of mostly likely cause(not trying to be bitchy)?

*deleted double post

I like to people watch (particularly those I find acting strangely) and discuss it with strangers on the Internet/ask their opinions. Does that answer your question?

Passive aggressive behaviour is cringe-worthy, irritating and tiresome. Such a wasteful expenditure of energy for nobody’s benefit other than for the sake of causing drama. If you want to make a point to someone just be direct or keep quiet. People who do it - Why should everyone else have to suffer because you wilfully refuse to address your issue like an adult? Yes, she was correct in her point but just talk to the family in question and if they obviously don’t care about it shut up and let it go. Don’t spoil the atmosphere for everyone else trying to enjoy themselves because you love the sound of your own voice. It makes me so irrationally angry to even think about it and I wasn’t even there. 😬

When I've taken them kale or similar in the past they haven't eaten it!

In their defence if a randomer threw some kale at me whilst I was having a bath I’d probably have to think twice about eating it too.

She could of explained it to the family that it causes harmony everyone realises.

And you are an expert are you - despite several people on this thread already posting links which say it is okay to feed bread to ducks you know more than them?

Incidentally - where do you think I got my information about it being fine as long as they have other sources of food? I got it from a WILDFOWL EXPERT, who commented in the local newspaper after the same question was raised in my home town.

Also, if I seen someone committing a REAL crime, I'd still stand back and do absolutely nothing because guess what? It's NONE OF MY BUSINESS!

Even if the woman was PA/misguided, I still prefer her attitude to yours.

It's not like they were physically hitting/hurting animals. Thr ducks seemed happy enough and not in any distress.

Of course they were happy - they're DUCKS. You could be lobbing heroin filled chocolate cake at them and they'd still probably be quite chipper - because they're DUCKS and don't understand.

As a habitual duck feeder there are no extra ducks milling around when I feed them. There are many ducks on the ponds, and this number increases vastly in winter - not due to them being fed bread, but because it is duck shooting season and they are safe in the park. If I throw bread to "my" duck the other ducks will come from the side of the pond they are on over to me - there are no more ducks in that space than there ever were, they live there permanently because there are large bodies of water and plenty of food (other than bread). Even if no-one fed the ducks they would still live there, it's their home.

Gulls also live in our park, just a handful as most of them are nesting down at the riverbed, but there are also shags, herons, and Australian magpies. I imagine most of them are there because of the ponds and large grassy areas, not because people feed the ducks. I am in my sixties and in my whole life of walking through the park I have seen one gull pick up a duckling, which it then dropped, so I don't believe the chances of seeing one eat a chick is great (yes, I know it happens but not quite to the extent you imagine - I've also seen ducklings and gulls in close proximity and neither taking any notice of the other). There are also ducks down on the river where the gulls are, where no-one is feeding bread.

She does have a point, feeding ducks bread isn’t great. Duck food and also veg peelings chucked un to ground is better.

She might have wanted to avoid confrontation but for them to hear and stop feeding ducks a harmful foodstuff. I thought everyone knew bread, especially white sliced is so bad for duck guts.

Well, performative parenting is the thing now, so you can't be shocked.

I see this kind of thing often. People who are basically right, but make a complete mess of passing on their message, and just end up antagonising people rather than changing their minds or behaviour. Maybe we should be teaching assertiveness and conflict resolution in schools. Seriously we might have a better society if people (myself included) were more confident and skilled in approaching strangers and discussing problems without aggression, or being the person who is approached, knowing how to listen, how to back down or put your own side without escalating the situation.