Ways middle aged men have told us off this week

[Siblingsadness]

I've got 2 today and it's not even midday yet
I swim every day at 6am . There's normally about 6 of us, today I had the pool all to myself. I swam in one of the lanes as i am working on staying straight during certain strokes. After about 20 minutes a man got in the pool. I've seen him before, he always goes in the unlaned bit and does physio walking up and down.
Today he came over to the lane and said I shouldn't be in there as its the fast lane and I wasn't fast. I thought he was joking so I laughed. He then said he wasn't joking and I needed to move. Of course I told him not to be ridiculous, no one else was in here and if someone fast wanted it, I'd move. He called me a silly batch.
Then just now in tescos, I was in the pasta aisle and a man picked up a jar of pasta sauce and said "is this any good" I said I wasn't sure sorry, I normally just get the passata and put onion and garlic in it. He sort of mocked me and said "ooh good cook are you" I said yes, I'm OK and I enjoy it too. He then said "well at least I can parallel park you silly cow"
Now I know I just encountered 2 nutters (maybe a third is on the way) but I'm a bit cheeky and a cow before lunch today despite just going for a swim and buying cheaper pasta ingredients. 🤣🤣

I had more nasty interactions from busybody women than with men.
Thinking about it, it's always women who thought they had a right to tell me off.

I even had comments on my buggy when I was pushing my baby - there are some nutters and rude people out there.

Why making it specifically about "middle aged men"?

I was pulling out of a parking space in a car park in a way which clearly showed which way I was going out of the space - backing up to the left with the intention of going out to the right. A man drove in from the right and made it difficult for me to go forward. I had to reverse and go forward a couple of times to get to the left of him. He was smiling broadly while forcing me to manoeuvre in the tiny area he had left for me. I gave him the middle finger as I left. Tosser.

I had a Morrisons car park one recently. The car parked next to me had its rear door open next to my passenger side and the man and woman were unloading their trolley into their boot. There was no discernible reason for the door to be open. They weren’t putting anything on to the back seat or getting into it. The door was just open. My young son had to walk round the car to get into the passenger seat, which was fine of course. I loaded my shopping quickly then got ready to reverse out of my space only I didn’t want to hit their open door as it was right up against my car. I waited a minute or so to see if they’d notice I was ready to leave/shut the door but they didn’t so I called out through my back open window , ‘ excuse me, would you mind shutting your rear door as I’d hate to scratch it on my way out’. The bloke loomed over towards my car and shouted ‘fuck you, you fucking bitch’, whilst slamming the door shut.

It was so shocking and so unexpected but as I pulled out I leaned over and caught his wife’s eye and said ‘I’m sorry for you’. But I was shaking the whole way home and my son was very upset too

Recently I encountered a bin wagon blocking the road, parked cars either side making it tight so I reversed back a little and pulled in to wait for it to finish. I was watching and had assessed that it was planning to reverse down a side street next. All fine it could still get past me if it wasn't going into the side street but there were waiting vehicles behind it that had to come through too.
A man who was gardening in his front garden downed tools, walked up his path through the gate and down the road to tip tap on my passenger window. I had to turn my music off and lower the window for him to tell me that I hadn't stopped in a sensible place and that I should reverse back further and stop on the opposite side as I hadn't given the wagon enough room (I had). I gave him my assessment of the situation that then immediately played out (smug joy) and he at least looked a little sheepish and muttered 'oh you were right' but I wish I'd made the point of asking if he'd have done the same if I was a man.

Omg this reminds me of the time I was crossing at a green pedestrian crossing, car was turning into my path so I stopped and the guy wound his window down and started screaming that women are so stupid. Some stupid twats out there

How odd. Do you go on every thread and tell people not to bother commenting as we don’t know whether the OP is telling the truth? It would make this site pretty quiet if we had to stick to topics that could be independently verified.

There are some bizarre people on this thread

The first one was a dick, but you didn't need to say anything to the second other than "Sorry, I've never tried it." @Siblingsadness His comment about parking was ridiculous but I thought you sounded a bit insecure and oneupping talking about the passata. I do the same but wouldn't need to mention this to someone buying a jar of sauce.

If you were asking about dried herbs and another woman said to you "Oh, I don't know dear, I grow all mine and only use fresh herbs" what would you think?

A bloke with a van around the corner from me likes to complain when he sees me about where I (completely legitimately) park my one very small car.

He never, of course, does the same to my neighbour, a large Italian man with two giant Range Rovers.

They know quite well they wouldn’t do the same to a man.

I’ve had a few men enjoy “telling me off” for perceived issues (coughing too much on a train, not thanking him enough for waiting for me to put my child in a car seat before barging past, and so on). I’ve gone to realise that they especially like to do it when you have a small child with you. It’s like they especially enjoy (as they see it) putting a woman in her place in front of her child/children.

One man “told me off” on a train after I had spent the whole journey preventing my (travel sick) toddler from throwing up in front of him. I thought he was going to say something nice to me, but actually he made a nasty comment in a furious voice about how dare I be on a train whilst being “riddled with germs” (I had a bad asthma day so was coughing every so often). I was speechless, but really wished at that point that I had just let toddler DD chuck up all over the three laptops he had out on the train table taking up all the space.

He left behind a load of food packages and litter for the train staff to clear up, too.

Well he's been called worse and I'm not convinced that tall men should have to put up with it anymore than women should. The point is men do get the aggressive attitude so saying they wouldn't say it to a man is wrong. They might not say dozy cow but so what they don't always say that to women, there are a vast variety of insults, they might hate tall men rather than women or as well as. So what?

So its OP's fault that she got an earful of abusive rudeness from this man?

Well to redress the balance a bit I am a middle aged woman and told off two people this morning when I was out for a run.

One didn't give way to me as I was crossing a side road and then proceeded to turn in very slowly as I was waiting to cross behind them so I told the driver (a woman) to hurry up. No idea if she could hear or lip-read though! I get fed up when people won't give way as the Highway Code requires but then dawdle.

The other had parked on a pavement leaving me very little room to pass and then he started to move off as I got to him so I told him off too.

They both drove in a dangerous/inconsiderate way so I was allowed to tell them off. Your two cases seem very weird OP.

The lane speeds are RELATIVE and as you were the only one there, it’s relative to precisely no one!

Can’t get over that supermarket guy.

Wow op I was happy to see this post becuse I too experienced this last week at the grocery store. I left work on lunch to pick up a prescription and a single OTC cream. Taking longer than expected of course. I have on my full scrubs lab coat corporate logo and badge. As I’m checking out a man and his wife get in line right beside me. She is so close she is touching my arm and they are actually blocking the credit card machine which I had momentarily stepped one footstep away from to bag my purchase. I looked at them and the man said….you are welcome. For what I’m thinking? Then he said…what’s that fucking face about? Because I was clearly identified I didn’t say anything and as I walked away he loudly said what a fucking bitch. I was shocked. And all becuse he couldn’t wait his turn to check out. I did notice his appearance like a grizzly unshaven man who appeared older than he probably was. She never said a word or made eye contact. And I thought WTF he’s name calling me like that. I bet he wouldn’t have said that to a male doctor lavenderbrown.

Anecdotal but in terms of collecting for charity middle aged men are both the rudest and least generous. Women give more, as do the young. And they are pleasant.

This is based on my experience of collecting for Save the Children. Middle aged men can be very sour.

Hang on @muddyford. You said ‘to no one in particular’ about indicating but loud enough for someone in a running car to hear you? If you were a man and he was a woman isn’t that exactly what people on here are complaining about? Swearing may not be the response a woman might give, but I think you’re on thin ice.
My issue is men is that they don’t listen to women. I mean it’s like they haven’t actually spoken. Happens a lot in work meetings. They look at you they nod but whatever you have said has not penetrated and then a man says the same thing a few minutes later and suddenly it’s the best idea since sliced bread.

Actually yes, this seems to be a real thing, I’m finding the same.
6 neighbours have all pushed hard on my boundaries, taking liberties now I am alone - throwing their garden debris into my property, throwing branches over, coming onto my property when I’m not here - absolutely none of which would happen if DH was still here.

Same with noise, because we are alone, we aren't making noise and having loud or any conversations - neighbours overlook that we are actually here in our own spaces - and they are disturbing us (because they don’t “see us” being here) It merits a future thread perhaps…

I’d like to know where people live where this stuff from men doesn’t happen, so I can move there. I’m in Northwest England and it happens frequently. One example is when I was going to park in a car park where there was a big queue for cars leaving it that had backlogged off the exit road and into the bit where the parking bays are. Someone had their reversing lights on so I flashed him out, even though I could see that the parking space next to his car was free, so that he could join the exit queue rather than being stuck there by the cars behind me maybe not letting him out, then I parked. I started to walk towards the shops and guy who I had flashed out (elderly man) wound down his window and shouted aggressively at me”you should learn to drive properly if you need 2 spaces to park in”. I was really confused and asked him to explain as I had parked perfectly between the lines. Turned out he thought I had flashed him out because I wanted 2 spaces to myself, rather than to help him get off the car park quicker. His wife was turned right away from me hiding her face, almost climbing out of the passenger window with embarrassment.

Ah these threads bring all the incels to the yard... sadsacks... lol 😂

I was approaching a blind bend on Saturday, well below 30 as it's in a Village with no pavement. There was an Audi estate facing me on the opposite side of the road as I approached, the driver waved his arm, I came to a halt as I thought he may be lost or wanted to warn me of something. He proceeded to shout at me that I needed to get my eyes tested as I should have seen the he was about to reverse (around a blind bend) and stopped and waited while he had completed his manoeuvre and I was a danger to others. For once I was dignified and responded appropriately with a hearty laugh as I accelerated away.

I’m too old and too feral to put up with dickheads like this anymore. I’ve learnt over the years that these twats don’t like it when you answer back especially when you throw in a swear word too. I find looking them straight in the eye and saying ‘fuck off cunt’ rounds off the conversation nicely.

Stationary electric car so very quiet, but I take your point.

Yeah I had that when I was out with a group of mums on maternity leave - first time we'd met up in a café and not the health centre with babies, all feeling a bit brave. I was one of the youngest at 29. Guy came over and started berating us about feckless teenage single mothers, and where were the fathers? Erm, recently gone back to work after paternity leave? It was a weekday mid morning.

Nope not at all how the conversation went .
My comment was about how I just bung onion and garlic in passage. Not in the slightest showing off, actually self deprecating and to do with price. Didn't warrant his response at all.