General State of Human Nature

heretolearn_2

OP, nah, I'm one of the 'get served then sit' crowd, so as far as I'm concerned, all those seats were fair game for anyone (although I appreciate it's tricky with little kids, so I'd have left you in peace myself).

I think most people are nice enough, and polite enough. It's just that you can't help noticing the few who aren't and they are the ones who stick in your mind. You might come home and say 'omg, you should have seen this awful family in McDs today'...but no-one comes home and says 'OMG, you should have seen the 15 lovely families in McDs today.'. So our perception gets a bit skewed towards the negative.

I catch the bus to work at the same time as lots of families taking their children to school. There are a couple of families who let their kids run riot :-( but there's many more who behave perfectly.

mippy

Equaliser123 wrote: »

People talking and having a view about immigration does not equal either bigotry or racism.

I really wish people would stop playing that card.

What 'card' might that be? You're not expressing a view about immigration policy, you're telling me that all Eastern European kids are dirty and rude. That strikes me as fairly bigoted. If I said a similar sweeping statement about Kenyans, I imagine you'd be pretty upset.

RHYSDAD

Fuzzy_Duck wrote: »

Just goes to show that it's not all young people who are rude- there's plenty of rude people around, of every age. I had a similar problem when I went to the pub on a Friday evening, and we managed to get the last table. A couple of middle aged women asked if they could sit down. We had a bit of spare room, so we obliged. A few minutes later several more people turned up, and these women shoved right up to let their friends in. We couldn't hear our own conversation over theirs, and one rather fat woman had shoved up so much she was practically sat on my left leg. We had to get up and wait for another table to clear. I think we were hoping they'd feel a bit bad forcing us out, but it was obvious from their gleeful faces as they all got comfortable that that was their plan all along.

How did you make a fuss by the way? I like the idea of you plonking down on their laps I don't think it makes you a bad person- treat people with respect unless they show you reason not to. If you've got the balls to do it then by all means give them a dose of their own medicine. I'm sure a lot of people (and rude old people especially) do this kind of thing because no one pulls them up on it.

I'd have tried to have farted as loudly as possible....:p

Rolandtheroadie

Fuzzy_Duck wrote: »

How did you make a fuss by the way?

All the tables are single, 2 were together (to make a double) and then a slight gap to another 1 table.
1 kid on the bench seat, putting the other 2 into the highchairs and moving them in.
Starts with them watching us then sitting down beside us at one of the 2 tables together. Ok, theres only 2 of them, we'll all manage, no problem.
Then it starts. The table they're at has a stale/cold chip on it and part of a straw paper. She lifted it and sat it on the table next to her. Looks up to the ceiling and plays with it (will I put it there or not?). I say " allow me" as I already know whats happening here. Remove the offending food and toss it into the bin. "there we go" says me.
Goes and gets served, back up, they're now 3 and ensuring we'll not all fit. So now i start moving the highchairs to another seating area just opened. A little bit of huffing and puffing to seek attention, then the wife says calm down. My reply to this so that at least 3 or 4 tables can hear is "what do you expect. I hate ignorance. Lets go kids, we'll sit elsewhere."
Very childish, but made me feel so much better.