To reserve the entire park benches?

[anyplate]

I took my children to the park today and packed up a picnic, it was a woodland area with apparatus and was a short drive away.
When we arrived we headed straight to the park and thought we’d eat our picnic but every single bench had a “polite notice”
bench is reserved for children’s birthday party
don’t be that person.

There was about five benches and no one around so I got a blanket out of the car and sat on it and we had our picnic.
We stayed at the park over an hour and in that time many cross looking people went to sit down and saw the note and didn’t but there was no children’s party in the hour or so we were there.
Were they not completely unreasonable reserving every single bench for an unknown amount of time so nobody else could use it just so they were free for when they wanted?
We could have sat there eaten our lunch and gone without it affecting any party.

This is entirely on you OP for being so bloody passive!

This. The notices could have related to any day after all, the party could have happened. Plus, if you want exclusive use of something you either have to pay or get there first.

I probably would’ve sat on the floor for my picnic, and if they weren’t there by th time I was leaving I would have taken all the signs and binned them.

yup then the rest of us whould know what time we could be most annoying 🤗

You could have binned the signs and said "What signs?" if they showed up.

They might have at least put the time on the sign. Even restaurants do that.

That was my thought too. 😅
They'll have done this "experiment" in any country you care to name overseas and now they're comparing what happens when you do the same in the UK..... particularly in England.
We'd rather die than break the rules or be socially embarrassed! 😂

I would also take a photo of the sign and ask sweetly on the local Facebook group whether reserving public benches is something we can do now. 🙂

Public benches aren't reservable, so it wasn't reserved - end of.

I would have removed all of the polite notices and stuck them in the bin.

I can’t get my head around people following orders of a stupid and entitled note left on a public park bench!

A couple of years ago DH and I were in Manchester city centre. I have nerve damage in my foot and lower leg, and at the time needed a walking stick to get about. (I've since fallen and broken my hip and been left with even more nerve damage, leaving me needing a walking frame now, but that's another story).

Anyway, my leg was getting tired so I needed to sit down to rest. If I were to carry on trying to walk I would end up stumbling and eventually fall flat on my face, which happened to me once on a pavement in Newcastle, resulting in my breaking my front teeth FML.

So we sat down on a bench for a rest. Shortly after sitting we noticed a couple of scraggy looking individuals with faces like slapped arses hanging around us like a fart in an astronaut's suit. Turns out we were sitting on "their" smoking bench. Needless to say, our arses stayed resolutely parked on the bench until I'd sufficiently rested, giving not one fuck. When we did get up, they nearly tripped over us to get onto their fag bench. 😅

And me. As well as removing all of the signs/notes.

I think if I wanted to sit down I would have removed the sign and sat down.

And potentially surreptitiously removed the others too.

Oh please do this and share the responses with us!

Oh, dear me no. I'm not eating off the ground if there are benches available. Takes me long enough to get off a picnic bench, never mind struggle up from the floor. They can reserve their benches by parking their backsides on them, same as the rest of us.

I would have removed every single notice on behalf of all the other park users and sat on the benches

Unbelievably cheeky, selfish and entitled!
It never would have occurred to me to do this when my now-grown kids had park parties.

I would have looked around for signs of children and removed the signs if there weren’t any. If confronted I’d have done a wide eyed “What signs?” (Unless children were so young there was a risk of them giving up the game - the little traitors!).

I’d be tempted to sit on one at the edge even if there was clearly a party going on. You still have as much right to a comfortable picnic as people in a large group. But I also quite like picnics on a blanket, so probably not.

Doing so an hour or more in advance is just really rude, though, and it’s they that are “That person” not the person who sits down on an empty public bench.

I get unreasonably irritated by 'Polite Notice', because it's either polite or it isn't, and saying it is makes no difference. The 'don't be THAT person' is not polite.

So I'd have sat there and if they'd turned up I'd have explained that since the 'polite notice' part was inaccurate, I'd assumed the rest wasn't true either.

Can you even reserve a public bench? Who have they made the reservation with?! They are massive CF. I would have just removed the notices.

Yeah, a lot of cities will have reservation systems for parks, it’s usually free or low cost.

But to be clear they don’t reserve random benches, usually it’s a pavilion with picnic benches and grills. Similar to the picture below.

Not sure why anyone would post a ‘don’t be that person’ about it. It’s a good system that allows you to plan 🤷‍♀️ Nothing stops you from using them when not reserved so if you want to live on the edge that there isn’t a reservation you can absolutely do so.

Similar grumble here.

What is it with the sheer entitlement of those that lie out asleep on several seats at airports or on ferries - particularly when there’s no other seats available!

I’ve been so sorely tempted because I’m a wicked bitch when I’m tired to kick the individual awake and tell them to sit up and give some space as we’re all exhausted/been up since 3:00am/already had a six hour journey/don’t feel great!

It’s a particular irritant of mine. So much so that my DH tries to steer me away from the characters that do this as he knows one day there will be a massive confrontation! 😂

Can't reserve public picnic tables, if its that important they should bring foldable camping ones and have kids on blankets. I love a park party as much as the next person but you don't commandeer the public resources for hours on end.

I’d have just sat on the bench. They weren’t there so tough luck. I bet they’re sunbed hoggers too 😂

I’m clearly a miserable old f’er now as I swear my cantankerous self would STILL be sat on those benches, I would be having my mail redirected the lot 🤣🤣
As pp have said, CF’s only exist because too many people have sold their spines and would rather be crumpled and bent over than risk an awkward encounter 🤷🏻‍♀️