DS aged 3.9 is stood on our gate …

[indurently]

He’s looking at cars, tractors and so on. We live on a country road. I’m pushing his sister on a swing.

And a couple just walked by and told me he shouldn’t be on the gate.

Racking my brains somewhat as to what we have done wrong!

What do you mean by on the gate? Is he literally standing on top of a gate?

They're idiots

Absolutely nothing, and don't waste any more energy thinking about this or worrying about what other people think. None of their business

He’s stood on it but not on top of it.

Is he stood on the hinge end? Big rural faux pas if not.

Hmm not sure what this means (being thick sorry!)

Maybe they let their child do that and they had an accident or something?

That's the only thing I can think of?

I wouldn't bother worrying about it.

I’m not exactly worried about it but a bit baffled I must say!

Haha I used to love it when randoms gave unsolicited orders like that! He ‘shouldn’t’? Um and they get to decide that how?

My go to reply was ‘Silence please, that’s not for you to comment on’

If you stand or climb over on the end furthest away from the hinges it causes the gate to drop.

Very bad countryside etiquette.

In general I banned my children from standing or climbing on gates, but I grew up around horses and was always taught it potentially damages the gate/pulls it off the hinges, so it was just never allowed.

But in this instance it’s obviously your property and your own garden gate and it’s your kid, so it’s up to you and they are extremely rude mentioning it!

You break the gate if you stand on it too far away from the hinges. It exerts much more force on the join to the wall/fence.

You’ve done nothing wrong, it’s your gate!

I don’t let my kids play on other people’s gates, but ours is fine, if they break it it’s ours to replace. Generally they’re stronger at the side next to the hinge.

You mean he's standing on one of the lower bars of your own gate?

They're bonkers.

The 'hinge end' is because of leverage - if you ever have to climb a gate do near the hinges as the force on them and the bar will be much lower than if you do it further along.

Sorry I cannot understand is stood. Is it is standing, or stood??? Is stood doesn't make any sense to me.

When standing on, or climbing over, a gate you should be on the side of the gate which is attached to the fencepost. This puts less strain on the hinges than if you stand on the side which opens.

As children, my friend had a great game of swinging on her garden gate - but her mum made us stop as it was ruining the hinges of the gate.

I see … but yes it is our own garden gate! How strange.

Well they don’t know that do they?

They don’t know it’s our own garden gate? Who else’s would it be!?

People are mad. They need to butt the fuck out

Edited to add: standing

I’m pretty sure they’d know whose gate it is if the op is in the garden pushing her child on their swing .

Have an image of him balancing precariously on the top rung like a tight-rope walker... if so, yeah you're being unreasonable. If he's actually on a lower rung and peeking over, of course that's ok and the walkers are weird.

Is he still standing on it, or would you say he stood on it?

Is it your gate?

Either way, if you must climb a gate, do it at the hinge end.

You’re truly not aware of regional differences in use of language? Take a wild shot in the dark and see if you can infer the meaning from the sentence.

Children have swung/stood on on gates for centuries.

Yes, it can damage the hinges and/or the gate so shouldn't be done on another person's property (same for many, many things) - but it's your own gate and so long as you're happy then 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️. Don't think about it - they're obviously busybodies.