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.

You're assuming he hadn't already tried that.

You've mentioned his age 6 times in one post, including referring to him as an codger. I suspect his version of events might be different from yours...

So it's a quiet residential street with no driveways.

????

You don't know how many times he'd asked nicely because you weren't looking after your DS.

I also think 'shouted loudly' is likely to be a rather large exaggeration.

Well given he was so far behind you, you don't know how many times the man had asked more quietly.

but god forbid you take any responsibility for your child.

Makes no difference, except that I'm slightly less surprised by your inattention to your youngest child.

oh & im out of medals for 'I'm such a hero for not being an even more aggressive twunt than I was'

🤣

Oh dear.

Well I suppose your DS has learned the important life lesson that there are nutters on every street corner.

You sound really unpleasant. I’d guessed you were a bloke.

Not sure why people are falling over themselves to blame you OP. That’s MN I suppose. The rude man was a prick. It really is that simple.

I had a 4 year old practically walk in to me in a shop the other day because she had her face buried in a book. It was so adorable that I nearly melted.

Yes. It's a quiet residential road with no driveways. What would you think these don't exist?

Why are you arguing every point made telling you why you are being a bit unreasonable? 😂 you clearly don’t think you were. And also we don’t need to know your height, I’m small and would protect my kid had they been in any danger from a scary old man.
note, yours wasn’t 😂

You should have your 4 year old in sight, or be holding his hand. I saw a Dad let his child of a similar age dawdle behind and the child darted out into the road infront of a car which had to do an emergency stop. These things happen. I realise that's not the point of the thread but I think it's actually more of an issue than the old man (who I agree was rude).

I think you could have explained all this without being ageist

How do the residents get in to their residences then?

I'm not arguing with people that have said I'm unreasonable. I'm taking issue with people making up random things - e.g. the man didn't shout, the street must have had driveways and a bus route, etc.

so you were, sorry, still a lot of glare on my screen!

but I don't think it's a bad thing to take a buggy if you need to go a long distance on foot with a 4 year old, especially when it's hot.

You have 3 children then - 'oldest' and 'youngest' - that means 3.

Are you American? In the UK it is common for residential streets in towns and cities to have pavements (sidewalks) and no off street parking.

This is what I'm wondering. Ageism I suspect

So how do people access their properties? If it’s on road parking then that is equally as irresponsible as drivers won’t be able to see if the child swerves off the path until it’s too late

I think there is a negative attitude towards older people.

I’m embarrassed for you.

Oh I don't know, maybe because residential generally implies housing & if it's one of those streets where the doors open onto the pavement that's just as bad.

whatever nit picking you want to do is fine though., just try to learn from this thread that your youngest needs to be being watched by you when out in public, for many reasons!

The door might open into a garden. It really makes no difference. He should watch his child no matter what type of road. And it’s really not that odd for residential houses to not have driveways