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 would worry that people who lack basic social skills to that extent will get violent

I wouldn't be worried about that if she has children with her to be honest.
She'd have too much to lose by going for me

I agree to all this
and I’d never have let her even sit down!!

Welcome to batshit Britain.

Sorry what? SHOO? Who the hell says that to a total stranger sitting on a bench? And then left her rubbish? Wtaf?

Maybe she had mental health issues.

Yep, this!

Perhaps she didn’t speak English? Though that’s no excuse for staring and leaving rubbish behind.

I always put my bag on my lap. I only put it on the seat next to me if we're in transit and it's obvious that no one needs a seat at that time. It's very rude to keep your bag on your seat if people are getting on.

Oh, I'm sure he felt wonderful. And when it became clear that the fucking bag was absolutely nothing to do with me, and that my actual bag was politely on my lap, do you think he had one word of apology for me? I hope he gets his teeth knocked out too. All these years later and the memory still makes me mad! His tone and his face were just so nasty. I still cannot understand why he assumed the bag was mine. And it was made all the worse by the fact that I have very good manners and would never put my bag on a seat when a commuter train was filling up and people were standing!!!

I think it was the kid who said shoo. But yes, I agree. I didn't confront the weird woman who kept trying to get me to move from a train seat next to her by flaring her elbows up and out. She just made herself look ridiculous. I truly thought she had a movement disorder until I saw her glaring at me as if I'd murdered her puppy.

If a six year old told me to shoo, I'd put on my best twee grin and sickly sweet voice and say, "I'm a lady, not a shoe! What a silly billy!" Then chuckle and shake my head whilst locking eyes with their mum 😂

The mum sounds like she has issues of her own! Well done for standing your ground 😁

It sounds like the boy might have some kind of SEN (autism?) and maybe she does too.

Very odd behaviour, especially the way she kept staring at you.

I've the opposite experience. The majority of English people I've met have been rude CF's. The majority of the French (and other Europeans) have hands down been the nicest, most polite people I've ever met. I wouldn't dream of applying my impressions to a whole country's population though when. There's rude a**holes in every culture and country. Hoping this is hyperbole.

Have had my fair share of stares in public and some have been SEND/MH related with no ill intent, but there have been a couple that have set off that little alarm bell in my head and told me to leave asap. Sometimes it's worth not letting someone who is a jerk try to intimidate and bully, but other times there's a sociopath and that isn't worth putting yourself in danger for just to prove a point.

Never had problems at Schiphol or on a KLM flight and we've used a lot of KLM flights flying via Amsterdam to the US.

I remember many years ago my DSis telling me about her journey one day. Standard commuter train, no seat bookings or anything. She was around 8 months pregnant and looking like it, go on the train & there was one seat left that had a newspaper on it; one of those old small carriages. So she removed the paper, put it in the luggage rack above and sat there.

A man comes back a few minutes later and started raging at her because he'd only gone to the loo and had reserved his seat by putting his paper on it. DSis gently pointed out she was heavily pregnant and needed to sit down, and his response was that he didn't care & it was HIS seat. The other passengers in that carriage suggested if he didn't like it he could get off at the next stop & find another seat. He muttered and swore all the way into London.

There are a lot of nasty men around who will pick on someone vulnerable. I'm so glad the other passengers stuck up for her!

I agree with this. Many's the person who has been beaten up, stabbed, or killed because they said something. It's totally maddening not to stick up for yourself against these people, because you should be able to, but often it's just not worth it.

The Dutch are not rude, they are direct.

You could actually say that British people are rude for not saying what they mean and then slagging you off behind your back.

Reminds me a little of an encounter DH and I had out walking once. It is a walk we do fairly regularly and we knew that at the top of the hill there are two benches so we planned to have our sandwiches and flask of coffee there if one of the benches was available.

Anyway, as we approached we could see a young couple sat on one of the benches but the other was free. However, they had a little lad, maybe 5 or 6, who was doing a sort of circuit - jump on the free bench and walk along it, jump down and go round his parent's bench and repeat.

When we got there we smiled and said "Hello", as you do when out walking, and then plonked ourselves down on the free bench. To my surprise the little boy yelled something like "Get off I am using that!" I just smiled at him and said "Well I need somewhere to have a rest for a few minutes and eat my sandwich." I kind of expected the parents to intervene and call him over but they said nothing. The little lad then stood and glared at us, stamped his feet and made angry noises which we ignored. Still nothing from his parents.

We proceeded to eat our lunch. When I glanced over to his parents the father was sitting with his head down but the mother was staring at us with the most venomous gaze. DH and I just continued eating and chatting to each other and after a few minutes the couple got up, called their little boy over, and made their way down the hill. The mother obviously thought we were very unreasonable though for daring to want to actually sit down on the bench her son was playing on.

What a little horror. I'm glad you stood your ground.

My ex and I were at a casual restaurant within a pub once. It was our regular place to eat out and apart from us, there was a table of two women with a small boy. The boy ran around the dining room and under our table. The women said nothing! The waitress said nothing! If this happened now that I'm older and bolder I'd tell the child to go away and go over to the women and tell them to sort their child out but back then I was meek.

I have a really bad cold and am huddled in bed and this comment has made me smile.

@ByWittyGoose you and I would rule that bench, I would have both my withered butt cheeks on there come hell or high water with you by my side. It would in years become known as The Bench of Petty.

Sometimes people are just rude, mentally ill isn’t always a reason