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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Would You Have Moved?

44 replies

WizardLizard86 · 01/02/2026 14:33

This is obviously a trivial matter in the grand scheme of things and if anything it has given me a laugh this afternoon but part of me is not sure if there’s some sort of etiquette here I’m missing.

I was with my four year old, walking up the hill to the playground along the path (but the road is access only so there’s rarely a car and it’s wide enough for two people to pass each other ) when he complained of a stone in his welly, so we moved to the side to lean against a wall to sort it out. There was a woman coming down the path on that side but at least 10meters away.

I don’t know if you’ve ever played the Sims but sometimes they malfunction and keep trying to get round an object by sort of repeatedly walking into it. As I was fishing around in the welly for the aforementioned stone, this woman walked straight into me and sort of just stayed there. Obviously I was all ‘hello? What are you doing?’ And she said ‘excuse me but I was walking on this side so you need to move out of the way so I can carry on’

I refused and said she should just go round us but she point blank refused and there was a bit of verbal argybargy until I said ‘look, you have two options, pass us or wait until I’ve finished doing what I’m doing and then I will move ’ and she just waited and told me I was incredibly rude and needed to learn some manners. When I did move (having made sure I checked the other welly too and readjusted my son’s socks) she clapped and said ‘see! You are learning!’ So I told her she was extremely strange and you can’t expect to use a path without ever moving to the other side of it.

Was I in the wrong 😂 do you pick a side of the path and expect to march along it come hell or high water?

She was youngish with no obvious walking impairment just FYI.

OP posts:
Fodencat · 01/02/2026 14:35

She’s an aggressive nut case. Peak entitlement. What on earth is going on in this country.

Talltreesbythelake · 01/02/2026 14:36

Glad you told her! I hope she will eventually work out that other people exist and have a right to do things in public and that she is not the Queen of the universe. Top marks for the extra welly faffing, btw!

TimeForTeaAndG · 01/02/2026 14:36

This has made me chuckle. She sounds very odd, shame you didn't have a picnic to lay out and eat once the welly was sorted 😆

Elfie23 · 01/02/2026 14:37

The Sims comparison really made me laugh! What a strange person!

WizardLizard86 · 01/02/2026 14:40

Elfie23 · 01/02/2026 14:37

The Sims comparison really made me laugh! What a strange person!

It was exactly like a Sim that needed resetting. And I got a face full of her long puffa coat 😂

OP posts:
nfjufg · 01/02/2026 14:43

Yes, she's batshit!

DanaScullysLegoHair · 01/02/2026 14:44

What a strange person indeed! I'd have been baffled. Glad you took your sweet time. How rude of her to say "you're learning"! That would have enraged me 🫣

Arlanymor · 01/02/2026 14:51

"Choo wagga choo choo!" Which is Simlish for: "Something in the way!"

Thought it was apt!

But clearly Nancy Landgraab was in the wrong here - utterly bonkers behaviour.

I bet she's one of those tits that stand on the left-hand side of the escalators on the London underground too.

WizardLizard86 · 01/02/2026 14:53

Arlanymor · 01/02/2026 14:51

"Choo wagga choo choo!" Which is Simlish for: "Something in the way!"

Thought it was apt!

But clearly Nancy Landgraab was in the wrong here - utterly bonkers behaviour.

I bet she's one of those tits that stand on the left-hand side of the escalators on the London underground too.

Edited

Amazing. She wishes she was Nancy Landgrab 😂

OP posts:
CarefullyCuratedFurniture · 01/02/2026 14:53

Ah, she was a common or garden looney. There's loads of them around. Well done for not just bursting out laughing at her.

NutButterOnToast · 01/02/2026 14:54

What a total loonspud that woman was. Bizarre!

FOJN · 01/02/2026 14:58

She's just a weirdo. I'd take her point if she was walking in a straight-line and you were weaving about on the path and obstructing her but you'd moved to the side whilst you stopped so that you wouldn't be in the way, normal people would just walk around you.

Her determination to wait in the hope of intimidating you is very funny. Nowt so strange as folk.

WizardLizard86 · 01/02/2026 15:11

During the exchange she also wagged her finger and says ‘I know what gaslighting is!’ when I told her she didn’t have a right to a particular side of the path.

I was trying to keep things vaguely civil considering I was with a small child but I did want to tell her she was certifiably crazy. I also live in a fairly sketchy area of SE London so you just never know what people might do (she was well dressed and had a hessian bag of fresh vegetables on her though, so hardly a violent stereotype)

OP posts:
Worthalltheyears · 01/02/2026 15:16

This is like a strange version of patriarchy chicken!

MysticChevron · 01/02/2026 15:24

What a nutcase! I had a (very vaguely) similar experience at the service station yesterday. Paid for my fuel then turned to leave. Some bloke behind me just stood there, blocking my exit. Righto, mate. I’ll take the long way round if this is the hill you’d like to die on 😂 some people are just dick heads!

WizardLizard86 · 01/02/2026 15:24

Worthalltheyears · 01/02/2026 15:16

This is like a strange version of patriarchy chicken!

I did think that! But what a strange situation to play it in 😂

OP posts:
FionnulaTheCooler · 01/02/2026 15:30

What a twat. I'd have stayed where I was and taken out my phone to watch something on YouTube with your DC until she got bored and left if I wasn't in any hurry to get somewhere.

mbosnz · 01/02/2026 15:38

I wonder if her minders knew she was out. . .

dentalflosser · 01/02/2026 15:42

I’ve had to stop to empty stones out of wellies, water out of wellies, find the exact same holly leaf that DC had been carrying from a pile of holly leaves at DC’s command, stop to wipe DC’s nose, stop to smell every last flower next to the path and have never encountered someone speaking to me in such a weird way OP.
That woman would unleash the petty in me and I would have found myself additional tasks related to 4 year old in order to take as long as possible to make her have to wait.
I would also have clapped my hands over the four year old’s ears in order to be able to tell the self styled pathway monitor that she could shove her hessian bag containing vegetables up her own arse.
I hate snotty wankers with entitled attitudes like that, I think you did well to contain your fury in front of DC OP.

MaloryJones · 01/02/2026 15:48

LOL
I would laugh about it too OP but to her face (I am old now though and don't care so much)
No, I would not have moved for Her.

neeoom · 01/02/2026 15:49

Woman sounds bonkers! Yes, I would’ve moved but only because I would want her away from me as quickly as possible.

BeanQuisine · 01/02/2026 16:14

I'm picturing her walking on the spot with her knees banging into you robotically while she "waited".

Friendlygingercat · 01/02/2026 16:14

Some people are so entitled that they feel able to cut a path through a busy or restricted place and everyone else will jump out of their path as though they were royalty. Something similar happened to me in Waterstones bookshop. There was a waist high island bookshelf and I was standing on one side looking at the books (as you do in a book shop). A guy had come up behind me so I did not see him, Rather than cutting around the other way he simply stood there waiting for me to move. After a few minutes I heard this voice behind saying "Well Im waiting for this lady to move." I told him that this lady will move when she heard words like "Excuse me" or "May I pass please". The girl with him was really embarassed and told him he was being rude.

Ohcrap082024 · 01/02/2026 16:49

When two people are walking towards each other and one has to step out of the way, surely the one most able to do so moves.

So adult with kid in buggy vs adult with no buggy… no buggy moves

I often push my elderly mum in her wheelchair. It’s shocking the number of people who walk straight towards her as if they don’t see her. 90% are young women glued to their phone or chatting. Weirdly, young lads tend to be far more aware of the need to move out of the way.

You did nothing wrong @WizardLizard86- she was a strange cookie.

WizardLizard86 · 01/02/2026 16:58

Ohcrap082024 · 01/02/2026 16:49

When two people are walking towards each other and one has to step out of the way, surely the one most able to do so moves.

So adult with kid in buggy vs adult with no buggy… no buggy moves

I often push my elderly mum in her wheelchair. It’s shocking the number of people who walk straight towards her as if they don’t see her. 90% are young women glued to their phone or chatting. Weirdly, young lads tend to be far more aware of the need to move out of the way.

You did nothing wrong @WizardLizard86- she was a strange cookie.

Yeah, this is the etiquette I’ve always gone by too, when he was small and I pushed him in a buggy it was bloody frustrating how often people just kept coming towards you with zero intention of moving, and then if you didn’t get out of their way behaving like you were the rude/entitled one. Lots of people really don’t get the concept of give and take in society. Sure, it would be nice to never have to move out of the way or change your step ever so slightly to accommodate others but that’s really not how real life works.

Not moving out of the way for a wheelchair is shocking.

OP posts: