To think that certain people should be banned from public parks

[ElleBing]

We have a really lovely park near where we live. It's really big, with lots of grassed areas for picnics etc then an enclosed play area.

DH and I took DS there yesterday for a quick run around before dinner time. I noticed that a group of chavs had set up camp next to the enclosed park whilst their kids ran amok inside. The chav parents were sitting on the grassy bit drinking cider, eating junk food and swearing. Two of their kids started fighting one another and rather than try and intervene, the person who I assume was the father sat in the kids' pushchair screeching at the LOs to stop fighting. They carried on drinking their cider before deciding they were going home to "watch Nanny McPhee on pirate wiv a bag ov chipz" then when the motehr of one of the LOs wanted the child to leave the play area she started shouting "come on will ya pooface" Eugh?

All of the other parents were doing cats bum mouth, not just me. I wanted to tell them to shut up with their common mouths and bad language but too middle class, you see? I'dlove to be able to stand up to these people who make life unpleasant for everyone else...

Anyway, DH were talking about them and I said that people like them shouldn't be allowed in parks. They should have an admissions policy. AIBU?

Just tell them Ugg boots are going for a quid at poundsaver and watch them run like the wind.

ElleBing:
I don't see the problem. The breakdown of family has been blamed for a lot of societies ills, yet here you are complaining about families who take their children to the park and supervise them whilst encouraging them to indulge in healthy physical activities. Next time I think you should join them. You could play games such as guess who's hiding under the bridge.

lownenergy where I live, you can get an ASBO slapped on you for drinking in public. You can get fined for dropping litter. So yeah, not actually a matter of wanting something done about it because I find it offensive, but because the law can actually do soemthing about it.

And PSCOs don't actually deal with burglaries and the like. They deal with minor things like this so not unreasonable to think that this is something that they should be seeing to. I've seen them ambling along in the local shopping centre giving people ASBOs for public drinking, so why not parks?

Elle

"And yes, I did the travelling thing and got on fine thanks. This is how I learned respect for others, sweetie. I think that the people who sit swearing and smoking in parks ought to go and see some of the world. That way they might learn that things do happen beyond the 4 square feet that they happen to be occupying at that precise moment. "

That means NOTHING. Ffs - surely if you travel that's PRECISELY what you see - people who have no idea of what happens beyond 4 square feet of their own lives. That's what makes them who they are. That's their lives - all over the world. That's the majority of the world's population - they have THEIR way of doing things and you have YOUR way of doing things and that's pretty much it and in the UK we have lots of ways of doing things. Does it really matter?

You say you've travelled and hence more respect - but boy, you cannot apply it to your own kind can you - ie UK folk in all their shapes and guises.

redbin and here lies the rub: they weren't supervising their children. And I really doubt that they saw a day at the park as an opportunity for their children to get some physical exercise, more as an opportunity to get blottoed and lie on the grass whilst their kids cause havoc in the play area. All of the other parents were supervising their children, not lying on the grass smoking so don't tell me that their childrens' leisure was their paramount concern.

Oh and getting bored of the trolling thing now. I've added several MNers to my Facebook profile if you need anyone to verify my authenticity.

Actually, I'm a teeny, tiny bit pissed off that I am the one being virtually beaten because I took my child to a park and came away upset because some people acted really inappropriately in an area aimed at children/families.

How can I be vilified for wishing that people could show a bit of respect and courtesy for others? Courtesy and respect is part of what makes us a civilised society. We adhere to certain codes of conduct, written or unwritten, to make life nicer for us and those around us. Where does it all end if we just do as we please because "it's perfectly legal so what's the beef?"

So Elle, why didn't you call the cops when faced with a barrage of commonness - with it allegedly being against the law and all that...

In my park it's not illegal to have a tinny/glass of wine/bottle of really nice organic cider (all of which I have done!!), eat junk food (done that too) or say pooface (not done that, but I probably have said shit, bugger, fuck and bollocks)

Basically you are saying that some common folk upset your middle class sensibilities and that you'd like that to be illegal.

I say that you sound like a bit of a wanker (and I'm smoking a fag whilst saying that) - so call the cops

*note I am not calling the OP a wanker, just saying that she sounds like one.

There's no respect here though, I really wish things were different Elle, it's a loosing battle though. All I can really do is teach my son not to say/copy.

I'm not vilifying you, it's a loosing battle though.

I don't think you're being vilified for expecting people to show courtesy and respect. I think you're being challenged for taking a position that implies you and your children are more entitled to public space than other people.

FWIW I don't think you're a troll or a journo though.

No, lowenergy. Some people upset my sensibilities as a person able to behave like a decent adult and treat others with respect. The only people not offended by those people yesterday were themselves.

But yes, OK. Swearing, fagging, getting pissed and being generally agressive all perfectly acceptable behaviour. Better to be an anti-social lout than a judge, huh?

I don't think the OP is wrong in wishing that some people in parks would behave with more consideration for those around them. She wasn't the only one getting annoyed. As I have said several times above, it's not necessarily a class issue (people behaving without consideration for others). I don't think she deserves the shoeing she is getting on here.

ROFL @ park-people

How were the park-people aggressive, did they threaten to shit on yer boden?

I'm with tinier - courtesty is classless as is disrespect but the OP has put in the firmly in the realm of the the lower classes.

You might be a muliticultural person with lots of friends in council properties but you are snob.

I hate bad behaviour but guess what - I'm a smoker and I do smoke on the odd ocassion in parks (away from chilren) - but I'm middle class, educated, from a global family, speak lots of languages and have travelled most probably more than you - but still I would have probably tackled these people rather then have lovely convo with dh about standards in parks and I'd have recognised them, as a multicultural person in a multicultural place - this is my heritage and these are my people. That's it really.

as i said only on mn would opining about neds unsavoury behaviour result in such a roasting and counter accusations of trolling/journalism and overall class war

fwiw they sound like hairies and worthy of derision

all this judge ye not is keech

all this faux of course one can swear,fight,slurp electric soup,cuss in a play park.how very dare a snob dare to deny any ones entrenched god given right to act in such a way

aye right.

parks are predominately for children and families - and yes there is a particular expectation of behaviour. swearing,cussing,alcohol usually breaches that normative behaviour

why oh why do people start an AIBU
then get really upset and personal when people say they are.........

Elle, that's dead funny - of course I'm dim, I'm low energy!!!

And I am of the park-people. I am in every park at once... beware!!!

Elle, do yourself a favour and stop calling posters dim/thick etc

Giveitago, I too am a smoker. And a drinker. And a swearer. But I don't do it in close proximity to thirty or so children. See the difference?

Snob? Maybe. I call it having standards but if it makes you feel better to label my distaste at some wrong behaviour then do feel free.

And btw the way, these people aren't my bloody heritage or my people. I'd shudder if I thought anyone even distantly related to me in whatever way behaved like that.

Just out of interest, how would you tackle ten or so pissed chavs who have no regard for verbally abusing their own children? There's ten of them and one of you. How do you tackle them?

There are ten of them now?

Right, so calling someone a wanker (and typing "you sound like" before it doesn't disqualify it) is fine, pointing out that someone is coming across as a bit dim, not OK?

Just so I know exactly what levels of hypocrisy I'm dealing with here. I thought I'd plumbed the depths tbh.

op it's not what you say

it's the way that you say it

Parks are not predominantly for children and families. They are for everyone. They may well be predominantly used by children and families, but that's not the same thing at all.