Rude old man shouted at 4 year old DS

[ThisOldThang]

I was walking on a quiet residential road with both my sons (7 and 4). I was pushing the empty buggy. My eldest son was walking next to me and my youngest son was had fallen behind by around 10m.

I heard a man shout 'GET OUT OF MY WAY'. I turned around and an old man (65-70 years old) had passed my youngest son and was walking towards us.

When he passed he said 'You need to control your children.'

I replied 'He's 4.'

The rude old codger then started going on about how my son had been in his way, so I told him that he should have said excuse me, rather than shouting at a 4 year old.

Anyway, there was a bit more back and forth and I called him a rude old man and we went on our way. When I looked back, he was on the phone. Who to, I have no idea.

AIBU?
No and he's lucky that I'm not the sort of person that kicks off in front of my kids.

Yes. He's old and allowed to shout at young children in the street.

65 is not elderly 😂

He shouted loudly and angrily at a four year old child.

He's still working age, he's not OLD.

asking a kid to move is not bullying.

I mean neither of you come out looking great in this to be honest. He shouldn’t have been aggressive to a 4 year old who knows no better, but you’re not likely to be shortlisted for Mother Of The Year award are you… 10 metres you say?

He’s lucky that I'm not the sort of person that kicks off in front of my kids If you were that intimidating a figure to him he wouldn’t have instigated the interaction. Just write off it off as being wrong on both sides and move on.

Who should have been in his parents control.

sounds more like he was pissed off with you for not supervising your little angel! It’s certainly one where I would love to hear his side of things

You don't want to hear anything except that the man is awful so no idea why you posted.

The truth is you have no idea why the "old codger" was annoyed because you weren't supervising your four year old.

Shouting 'Get out of my way' isn't asking.

People have assumed I'm a woman, but I'm actually a 6' 1" man. I think many dads would have reacted much more 'assertively' than I did.

Exactly

He shouldn't be 10m away, if you were closer this probably wouldn't have happened. Both unreasonable.

He was rude but your child should have been in front of you. Small children can be missed by car drivers in reversing mirrors. Are you sure he was 10m behind? He might be very sensible but as you’ve found out, other people aren’t. He could be knocked over by a random dog or my worry with my dc is an opportunist van pulls up and grabs them when I’m too far away to do anything.

Well she's not going to be able to answer that is she because he was behind her!

I don’t care if you’re male, female or an alien. Your parenting in this case was shit!

Agree.
She cannot possibly know what the toddler was doing. Maybe he was stopping to pick up stones and stopped unexpectedly and the man nearly tripped over him. Maybe he was told not to pick flowers from someone's garden.
Maybe he was being cheeky and stuck his tongue out at the man.
Maybe he said something to the man that the man perceived as rude.

Whether you are male or female doesn’t change the answers to any of this. Supervise your children properly.

Hardly proved me wrong on the intimidating figure point have you. Instead of getting sassy on Mumsnet have you considered keeping a closer eye on your kid?

Lightweight pushchair.

Your sex is no more relevant than the man’s age

I know what it is, I was questioning the need for it, for a 4 year old.

Wouldn’t leave a 4yo out of sight

Exactly!!

Especially one so mature and trusted they apparently don’t need supervision!

They were originally (very many years ago) designed to alert the emergency services in an accident if the driver was unconscious.

but obviously they became immediately pointless as people didn't put them in & take them out with the child. They became trendy not useful

I inwardly cringe when I see young children trailing behind their adult carer.
Only takes a second for something to happen to that child.

Take more care of your youngster and he won't be in the position where he could be shouted at.

Don't condone the man shouting at him, that is unnecessarily rude.