Chasing away the ducks

[SillyDeer]

I went for a walk with toddler and pushchair. Grey rainy day so no one about.

We saw a duck and went to stop. Cyclist came along the tow path, I noticed my pram could have been in the way so went to move it but he said it was ok.

He cycled past and said "scaring away the ducks"

Was that aimed at us or him

2 things…
Don’t hug ducks.
It doesn’t matter what he meant.

😆🦆🦆🦆

Really? You're posting on MN about this? The only person who knows what he meant is the cyclist. More importantly: why on earth do you care? People say stuff all the time, it doesn't matter.

This is overthinking and anxiety or low self esteem. It felt a big thing to you but you’re wasting your energy focussing on it.

What the duck ?

😂 quite!

Sounds like the sort of Dad joke my father would have made if I was feeding the ducks as a kid.

I suppose the tone with which he said it would have given you a clue. Since none of us were able to hear the tone I don't suppose any of us can accurately tell you.

It doesn't sound like either of you were actively trying to scare the ducks away so I don't know why it would matter. If the ducks ran away that was their choice; they do have free agency.

Maybe you have low self esteem and increase it by telling people how they have low self esteem themselves

Are you new to the Internet?

Oh dear

Does it really matter why he said it? He wasn't having a go at you.

He didn't specify who was scaring the ducks away

From your description it doesn’t sound like you’ve done anything wrong. Even if he was accusing you of chasing the ducks or allowing your child to chase the ducks, you know you weren’t. I really don’t think he was, I think he was referring to himself. But either way, you’ve done nothing wrong. You sound like a massive worrier. He’s a stranger who is absolutely nothing to you. You need to learn not to care if he mistakenly thought you were doing something wrong, you know you weren’t. And my interpretation of the situation is that he wasn’t suggesting you were doing something wrong at all. Try to forget about it.

Well you know you weren't, so it must have been him then.

Good grief!