Meeting ex friend in public you don't talk you anymore. How do you behave?

[Johny4543]

How do you behave when you meet your ex friend that you blocked on every social media and his number due to his control issues? Do you greet him with simple hi or just completely ignore him and keep walking? I don't want to give him any impression that our contact could be renewed. I just need a bit of advice please.

Ignore and keep walking.

I should say more ex mate. He was never friend really.

What if his kids are going to same school as mine and I have to walk past him nearly every day during pick.up?

We've all been there, when I'm trying to avoid a convo for whatever reason and I catch a glimpse of them I pretend to be preoccupied by something else completely - intense conversation with someone in walking with, frowning in concentration at my phone/something over to my right/in my bag, etc 😂

Don't have to do it very often but means you're never on that awkward situation!

Oh and definitely don't acknowledge.

That's even easier - be intent on the kids! "How was your day? What shall we do later?" Etc. You have the perfect, genuine distraction!

Yeah that's very true what you said there. I am actually strong headed person and I don't have problem walking past him and looking directly at him but I was just wondering if out if courtesy I shall acknowledge him at all. It seems that it is better to not even acknowledge.

Just say “Morning”, smile and walk on. No need for conversation if you don’t want one, but I wouldn’t want the awkwardness of ghosting someone every day for up to 7 years..

I'd behave towards him like I do to the rest of the parents that I don't know and don't want to know. Walk briskly past with a blank face, looking right through him if necessary and avoid eye contact at all costs! It may be that he now feels the same about you but, just in case he doesn't, don't give him the slightest opportunity to sneak back in to your life.

Say hello or nod, then walk past, unless you can legitimately be in your phone / talking to your child. I had this for months and months, it was excruciating.

I’ve been in this situation and while I’d feel like a terrible person ignoring, I have tried acknowledging people like that and they’ve then started clinging on again. Just be careful so you don’t end up ending (what he thinks is a) friendship twice.

Exactly that's what I am afraid of that even if I'll give him simple hi every day, he will start talking to me which I don't want. He is the past to me

Someone with control issues I guess is likely to push boundaries in general so maybe just acknowledge once and then from then on just go about your everyday business without saying hello each time?

Ignore

I wouldn't even say good morning because by doing so you are opening up the possibility of conversation and for him to get inside your head again. For me it's quite simple with ex friends who caused me trouble - they don't exist. They are dead to me. I just walk straight past like they aren't even there. Problem solved.

Whatever you do, don't go opening up conversation because he will see it as a possibility for more than just a hello. Next thing you know he'll be asking about your life, what you're doing, where you're at etc. Not even for the sake of politeness should you acknowledge his existence. If he says hello you just say sorry I'm busy and leave immediately. You just blank him like he doesn't exist and pick your kids up and leave. Don't give him an entrance back into your mind.

DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE
Full grey rock treatment. There's no such thing here as 'being the bigger person' and greeting him. No mixed messages. A clear boundary. Ignore . You don't know him anymore.

You don't have to look directly at him. If we looked directly at every parent at gate time blimey our necks would be darting around so much our heads would fall off.
Just look into the middle distance as if watching for a friend, or the kids, or a bird in a tree!, then place yourself a way away and tell the dc to meet you over near the football net etc every day.
They'll soon get the message.

Just ignore him. Are you worried about what he will think if you ignore him, so his judgement? Or the judgement of other parents? Either way it’s pretty irrelevant isn’t it? Ignore.

Just ignore, anything else could give him incentive and hope. With a controlling person, best not to engage at all. Might seem rude, but to treat him like others you don't know, isn't the right way to go about it either. Unknown people do not have a history of control over you, he does, so it's different. It's fine to give him less time than you would a stranger.

ignore, ignore and then ignore some more.

Don't look at him, don't make eye contact, pretend to be talking to someone on the phone if it helps, wear sunglasses, ignore, ignore, ignore.

I would like to thank you all for all your responses. They helped me a lot I making my decision. I will just ignore him, period. He can think what he wants. I don't care anymore

There is lots of sense in what you said

What if his kids are going to same school as mine and I have to walk past him nearly every day during pick.up?

I don't look at or acknowledge half the parents I walk past at the school as I don't know them/we're not friends and I don't need to speak to or even make eye contact with every single person I walk past.

He can be treated just the same. If you have cut him off, then he is a stranger to you, and you don't need to engage.