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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that certain people should be banned from public parks

445 replies

ElleBing · 11/04/2010 10:59

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?

OP posts:
onagar · 11/04/2010 14:48

As several have said the drinking and swearing would probably have been ok if it were middle class drinking and swearing.

Freedom doesn't mean everyone is free to do what YOU think is right.

Oh and you said you liked to swear on here because there are no children about. But you see there might be since you are speaking in public. I guess you didn't think that one through did you.

ElleBing · 11/04/2010 14:48

Judging session?

There was no ambiguity about it. They were swearing, not disciplining their DCs, getting pissed in a park in the middle of the day and referring to their kids as "dickheads". Seriously, no judging to be done here. That type of idiot puts it all out there for you so you don't need to judge.

Aw but I'm sure that when they all got home, they have parenting skills that most of us on here could only dream of. Silly me.

OP posts:
SouthMum · 11/04/2010 14:49

You don't have to be MC to want to avoid confrontation. Id say thats just being sensible all round. I'm a bit of a chav and I am pretty sensible when it comes to not wanting my head kicked in for mouthing off about something that isn't really worth it.

baluchi · 11/04/2010 14:49

oh dear

iamwhatiamwhatiam · 11/04/2010 14:50

It's quite funny how worked up you're getting about all this EB.

Is this the first time you've come across chavs? You seem utterly thrown by it.

ElleBing · 11/04/2010 14:51

Onagar, please.

Assuming that swearing in a post on a forum populated by adults will only be seen by adults and swearing loudly in a childrens' play area cannot be compared. If a child goes looking for swearing then that's different. The children in that park yesterday were not looking for swearing. Big difference.

OP posts:
baluchi · 11/04/2010 14:51

Dear ElleBing

I couldn't agree with you more. Jeremy Vile watching, benefit cheating, council house single mum scum, the lot of em.

iamwhatiamwhatiam · 11/04/2010 14:53

Oh dear EB, you obviously don't realise how many adults you've offended on hear with your uncouth swearing. There have been plenty of threads from people who don't like swearing on here.

I guess they just have higher standards than you

frasersmummy · 11/04/2010 14:54

OP I dont think the police can confiscate alcohol unless you are in certain areas of scotland

where you are not allowed to drink in parks/ in the street

The thing about not taking your child away cos he has done nothing wrong.. I agree.. but legally neither of these people so they cant be removed either.. so you either have to remove you and your son or live and let live

and no you cant streak.... cos no only is it illegal but as my granny would have said.. Ne'er cast a cloot till May is out..
translates as stay dressed till June cos it gets cold...

onagar · 11/04/2010 14:55

Nice try Ellebing, but I expect lots of mums have to hide their screen when their LOs come into the room in case they see your language and are scarred for life. Some people have no consideration.

ElleBing · 11/04/2010 14:55

I'm not entirely sure why you're trying to get a rise out of me, Baluchi. Living in a council house or being a single mum doesn't make you a bad parent and that's not what I think. I don't think that everyone that lives in a council house or is a single mum is a chav. Otherwise I'd be friends with a lot of chavs. But this group of people were chavs. Is there some other PC terminology you'd like me to use to describe them? Socially challenged? Decency deprived? Do let me know, won't you?

OP posts:
ElleBing · 11/04/2010 14:57

IAWIA, so the MNers who complain about me swearing on here are complaining about me complaining about swearing in front of children?

That makes perfect sense...

OP posts:
iamwhatiamwhatiam · 11/04/2010 14:57

NO, they just find you uncouth for swearing at all.

ElleBing · 11/04/2010 15:00

Well, I view swearing in the company of adults as being offensive as an issue of taste. I view swearing in front of children wrong full stop.

Still, it must be lovely having that highly-developed sense of irony you have there...

OP posts:
PuppyMonkey · 11/04/2010 15:01

PMSL at pooface though...

iamwhatiamwhatiam · 11/04/2010 15:02

EB you are priceless!

I wish I could bottle your particular brand of indignation.

farmerjones · 11/04/2010 15:03

has the op bee suitably flamed?
her op was far more obnoxious tha tthe behaviour of the 'chavs' she spoke about. oh, and i am unashamedly middle class.

SouthMum · 11/04/2010 15:03

Am I the only one who actually finds MCers WORSE when it comes to drink, drugs, swearing and dress sense - the defining characteristics of Chavs?

Honestly where I work I get to meet alot of those types and seriously, the stuff I hear about actually makes ME blush!

NomDePlume · 11/04/2010 15:04

OP - Love the irony of your title. The clue is in the fact that they are PUBLIC parks so, no, you can't ban folk because they aren't cupcake bunting enough for you

SouthMum · 11/04/2010 15:06

Sorry I should have said SOME MCers, some of you are actually jolly blardy nice what ho!!

ElleBing · 11/04/2010 15:07

Well, of course I am indignant. I'm surprised that so many of you think that I'm so terrible for wanting a park to be a nice place for people to be able to visit with their children.

But that's MN for you. I've seen posters get flamed for giving their LOs dinner in front of telly and I've seen others patted on the back for far worse. You can't win them all.

OP posts:
Ladyanonymous · 11/04/2010 15:09

Phew...I knew I was on the right track disguising my wine in a coffee flask when we go to the park {grin}....

ZZZenAgain · 11/04/2010 15:09

is this a joke thread or is serious? I can't tell

If it is serious, I would not have been happy about it and I would have moved my dc away, I don't personally feel my dd has to "get used" to that kind of behaviour

Phrases like "I wanted to tell them to shut up with their common mouths and bad language" jar on me though. I see your point but the way you expressed it I'm uncomfortable with.

frasersmummy · 11/04/2010 15:11

have just gone back and re-read your op

The adults were not in the play area.. the kids were..

So it looks like they had enough savvy to think we shouldnt drink and smoke in the kids play area

we will sit here where we can still see them... a well thought out decision I would have thought and not the thoughtless people you make them out to be

SouthMum · 11/04/2010 15:11

Lady - good idea, hope its Lambrini tho. Thats wot chavs drink innit.