When you’re out w kids - expectations of other adults?
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Anonymous
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Running off to work and as I’m locking my door I see a mom and kid (4-6 yrs old) in the hallway of my condo building; it’s one of those tall apartment towers with mostly grad students and young professionals though there are some families - maybe 5-10% of the tenants. She was clearly there for a play date or something, couldn’t find the friends apartment and was calling them but no response. So as I’m running out the door she goes — does the Jones family live down at the end of this hall? My response — no idea, don’t know who lives there. She then goes — well I’d expect you’d know your neighbors. My response - well I don’t - as I go past her and her kid. She then starts commenting on modeling politeness in front of a young child, as I rolled my eyes and left.
Do you now expect all adults to be polite and helpful bc CHILD?? Or was this woman being ridiculous? I mean I easily could’ve said eff off at any point in this conversation. How would she have explained that to her sweetie? |
Anonymous
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She was ridiculous. If I asked someone if a certain person lived there, and the person responded they didn't know, I'd thank them for their information and be done.
She's projecting. |
Anonymous
| I’m pretty sure neither of you are modeling great behavior for a kid. But...the kid spends more time with the mom than you, so she’s the bigger sh*theel. |
Anonymous
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The rudest person in this scenario is you, who had a negative experience with an individual, and blows it up to presume that pretty much all parents act/behave/have these expectations.
OK, you had a rude encounter. That's life. Move on. Do you really need the attention of this thread? |
Anonymous
Hey look it’s play date mom! |
Anonymous
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Is this how the interaction went?
-- Does the Jones family live down at the end of this hall? — No idea, don’t know who lives there. No "Excuse me"? No "Sorry, I don't know"? If that's verbatim, the whole interaction does feel very brusque to me. |
Anonymous
| She sounds stressed. |
Anonymous
| Nothing to do with being a parent, but I generally expect that most people I encounter will be polite. People like you keep disappointing me though. |
Anonymous
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You were brusque and provoked her. Who on earth answers like this? |
Anonymous
It does sound brusque — my first thought was OP is from NYC. Everywhere else you’d hear— sorry IDK. In NYC it’s more — don’t know, don’t care kind of attitude. |
Anonymous
Not OP but surely you’ve had a time in life where you were late, stressed etc and answered bluntly, no? |
Anonymous
| Were you just turned off at the sight of a mother and child “in your space” that’s normally occupied by DINKs, singles etc and you purposefully came off blunt? Because had it been a bunch of law students looking for their friends or a corporate type in a suit, I have a feeling you would’ve been nicer even if you didn’t know the answer. I have definitely seen people act that way when they see a kid beyond baby age in a place where kids are rare. |
Anonymous
Once, to a weird man, when he wanted to have a long conversation about my dog and I was late. I would never have responded rudely to a mother with kids needing my help! |
Anonymous
Since I’ve had kids, I’ve learned this some people (fortunately a small minority) are ruder to you when you’re with kids than without. Some people just don’t like kids/think they’re gross/annoying etc and feel it’s more ok to be rude to them/in front of them because what can you do? I imagine some of those people also look down on mothers. |
Anonymous
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Well, you started it. |