Woman with kids demanded park bench?

[Crystalnightsky]

Something weird happened.

mum, 73 and I are sitting on park bench. its more like tiny small open green area with one bench.

We are talking and suddenly we feel someone staring at us. We look up and see a woman with a stroller (kid maybe 1 years old) and a kid maybe 6 years old.

For a moment I’m confused and even think I might have said something offensive because she just stands there and stares not saying a word and the child seemed angry, giving us this like very angry look. I ask how can I help you. She continues staring. He then starts waving his hand like move. And says SHOO

I then realise she wants the bench. I say oh you want to sit down? Mum and I move and she sits down.

the whole time while kid playing she keeps staring at us.

she then starts putting her kids toys like right near/next to out feet even though there is plenty of space.

for a good 20 minutes literally she just keeps staring at us as we talk. Head turned towards us. It was making me very uncomfortable and I thought after leaving but my mum says no. I am not leaving. We are staying.

I smiled and said hi. She continues staring at us not saying anything. My mum asks if we can help her she continues staring. Not saying a word.

she then sits there staring at us for another 10 minutes then leaves, leaving rubbish behind.

what was that? Was she expecting us to give up the bench and leave?

the tiny green area has no gates or anything and you can see who is sitting on bench from very far away on the road even before entering. So she saw bench was busy before even entering.

I tried bingo once and once was enough. They took it so seriously!

Ah. Don't ever do that, please. I reprimanded a group of teenage girls for dropping rubbish in the street in broad daylight 25 years ago, by a bus stop, they turned on me, saying 'you pick it up', I refused and they grabbed me by the hair, pulling me down, making me stoop. Nobody helped. They gave up after a while and ran away.

Yes, to be honest, this woman was rough. She wasn't going to react well to being told what to do, neither was she going to care about litter.

I don't think she was mentally ill. I think she was just rude and entitled and tried to make you uncomfortable so you'd leave.

This. An entitled weirdo who thinks having a child with her, gives her priority.

Smile, nod, and then ignore her.

Poor kid being brought up to be a little git,

No. It now carries a custodial sentence.

Maybe the child was saying “shoe!”, not shoo, and needed help with footwear?🤣

My dear departed mother’s very un-p.c., but favourite, phrase was “there’s saner locked up…” when anything like this happened.

‘Can the fattest one stand so the rest of us can sit comfortably’

She "shooed" you?! 😂
I don't think I'd have been able to not laugh in her face!
WTF lol
Edited to say I've just realised it's the kid that shooed you, not her.
Still, she's bloody rude and weird to keep staring, and to not tell her kid off for shooing someone!

Entitled angry nutter. Recently I had my bag on the seat beside me on the train (half-empty early evening train out of London) whilst I was getting my tissues and earphones out. A woman got on and was clearly so aggrieved by this that she ignored the empty seats all around us and shoved her way into the seat where I had (temporarily) put my bag (again, on a mostly empty train). Hopefully the tinny rattle of my earphones and my copious nose-blowing made it all worthwhile for her ❤feel bloody sorry for her work colleagues

Got to love your mum, 73 and she knows they the strange woman can sod off!

A while ago I was in a cafe (plenty of tables in general, several of them vacant). I took one and left my book on it whilst I went up to order, and a bloke fucking moved my book onto another empty table and took my table for himself! Hope he one day tries that on an angry bloke and gets the entitlement punched out of him.

Barking mad. Leave.

Not all of the people with MH problems are owning it and dealing with it in a mature way. Some people dont even recognize they have a problem.

A lot of people with MH issues are bloody fantastic and have great manners. However, I've been in the nuthouse many times myself and have no issue with the term "fucking nutter".

The thing about people with manners this bad is that they're either temporarily having some kind of episode and cannot be reasoned with, or they fundamentally lack basic human social reasoning skills and should be treated with caution, like wild animals. In theory I'd like to stand my ground but you never know if people who behave like that are just going to fucking attack you - all over a bench or something. It's just not worth the aggro.

Yes.

Woman on the verge of a breakdown imo

You did nothing wrong at all op, how awful for the two of you

I think she means white because white people obviously can't be unhinged in any way whatsoever🙄

Actually surprised noones been on to lecture
op for not “being kind” and for being so horrible to a poor defenseless child.. 😆

Arghhh, this reminds me of years ago on a crowded commuter train heading out of London at about five-thirty. Someone had put a large bag on the seat next to me, to save it. And this man, who was standing, said to me nastily, "Is your bag tired?" And he had SUCH a strong foreign accent that he had to say it about five times before I understood him. He was pronouncing the r, so it sounded like "ty-red." I was looking at him utterly confused, looking from the bag back to him - it must have been obvious that I had not one clue what he was talking about. I eventually got it, and I wish I could remember if I'd said "It's not. MY. bag!" or if the bag owner just came back.

But what stood out to me was the immediate assumption that it simply must have been my bag, that I was being selfish by putting it there (instead of perhaps saving a seat for someone) and the sneering aggression that he said it with. I'm sure he wouldn't have talked that way to a man. Fuckwit.

I can't speak for what the PP meant but there are definitely plenty of cultural differences between European cultures that can make one seem rude to the other.

Can you imagine how clever he felt? I always hope that one day these nasty men who like picking on female strangers will forget themselves, try this crap on with a bloke, and get their front teeth punched out.

If someone, even a child, tried to shoo me I would glue myself to the spot 😂 fucking bizarre