To be shocked and embarrassed by my friends behaviour today

[bagpuss90]

Bumped into a friend today at the local Tesco’s . She was in a check out queue , I stopped to chat . There was a woman with a screaming baby in a sling and a screaming toddler in a trolley . The poor woman looked totally stressed out , she started to put her shopping on the check out conveyer belt (I’m not sure she realised my friend was in the queue) my friend snapped at her , told her she’d jumped the queue. The woman asked if my friend minded if she went first as she’d got two screaming children. My friend told her no and added she might have considered it if she hadn’t pushed in front . She then told the woman’s screaming toddler to shut up ! I might add my friend doesn't have kids and it would seem not much empathy either .

Agree. The telling the child to shut up is out of order, but pushing in front of a queue before she asked if okay - I’d not be overly happy about it.

I heard when the tooth fairy forgets to turn up it's actually because a childless woman killed the tooth fairy and they have to find a replacement

So you just stood there and said nothing, OP. I would have told my “friend” to let the woman with screaming kids go first and to not be so rude.

This 👆

I wouldn’t have hesitated - I absolutely would have stepped back and let her get on with it while trying to distract the little one for her! Frazzled, distracted, embarrassed and your friend had to add mega-shame into the mix.

I’d have a word with her about it, personally.

As in a white stick indicating he is visually impaired? Anyone with an ounce of empathy would have shown him where the end of the queue was. I don’t blame him for flouncing out.

Yikes. I would have been appalled if a friend of mine had told a toddler to shut up! Yes other people’s kids are annoying, I have two and can still get irritated with other people’s kids. It’s human nature to a certain degree. It’s next level to tell a child to shut up!

I understand the initial frustration of someone pushing in. But there is a way of telling someone that is not angry or confrontational (particularly if it was a genuine mistake). I’m not sure the mother should have asked to then jump the queue….but again, your friends reaction was wildly over the top.

Beat me to it 😂

Not endorsing the C word (no need for women to add to the misogyny) but feel for the poor Mum.

Not one but two kids, one kicking off which is super stressful (and couldn't be totally understood unless you have kids yourself).

Also your friend piling on with her closed minded selfish behaviour.

You were probably too shocked OP to say anything but how about having a chat when things are calmer along the lines of "aw that poor women at the till the other day!". She may feel sorry or be indignant that she was right.

Either way you'll know whether to progress the friendship and you'll have done your (belated) bit to make her think if there's a similar situation next time.

Best wishes 🙈😿🤔🙂

I thought she'd already unloaded her stuff on the conveyor belt (or had started to do so) until OP's intervened

She has no class or manners, I wouldn’t associate with her anymore and certainly wouldn’t refer to her as a friend.

🤣

I had a similar situation once, little ones were 2 and 3 at be time, managed to wrestle them back into the trolley to started popping the shopping in the empty conveyor belt. There was a lady further up nearer the till point getting her shopping scanned. My kids were being grizzly so I was trying to pacify them with fruit etc. Almost all the shopping was on the belt when the lady turned round and laid into me about how rude I was and how entitled I was to just think she had finished putting her shopping on to be scanned. I immediately apologised and said that she had stopped putting things on so I had assumed she was finished (a lot of plants etc in her trolley)
she made me take all my stuff off and back into the trolley. I apologised again and explained that I was distracted by my children to which she replied - perhaps leave them at home next time. So I snapped back and told her that I had been nothing but polite to her but she was just rude and clearly miserable to make such a big deal about something so small. She gave me evil stares for the rest of the shopping packing then left… or so I thought. I loaded my shopping into the car, went to m and s for lunch with the kids and drove the 10 minutes back to my home. She had been following me, as I parked my car and started taking the kids out she parked across the road and stared at me. I took my phone out and took some pictures. She shouted out the window what was I doing?! My next door neighbour was an ex cop and was pottering in his front garden so came over to see what the shouting was about. I said “oh hi detective Ian’ her face fell and she sped off. She looked like the most mild mannered person you can imagine, older with a lovely sophisticated style. Her anger just didn’t match up. I was shaken at the time because she knew where I lived but never saw her again.

A dark soul? She's not Putin 🤣

She yells at small children to shut up. That is a deeply dark soul

Entitled people will blatantly skip a queue! (And get aggrieved when you call them out on it)

I'd drop a friend of mine who I saw behave like that.

🤣🤣🤣

The hyperbole...

For sure!

Can I just point out that I have no problem with childless women - Jesus . I think perhaps some people have a chip in their shoulder. I only mentioned it because she’d no doubt never been in that situation- that’s all. Nothing deep

This thread is so going to get pulled for troll hunting 🤭

Pretty sure I can call bingo this week!

Calling childless women bashing troll hunting is a bit harsh.... 😇😇

The woman should not have pushed in! That’s not how queues work.
but your friend was mean!

The whole thing is just a mess. Up to you what you do with your friend. No, she is not kind but if you are lonely and need a friend, keep her