Whether we like being around kids or not, we can all admit that we’ve been around children who misbehaved in public before.
The question is whether or not their parents tried to do anything about it, pointed out the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA) subReddit.
The Redditor, who has since deleted her account, was nervous while waiting for her luggage at an airport baggage claim area, because a couple was allowing their teenage son to ride his skateboard through the area.
When she found herself knocked over by the teen, the Original Poster (OP) realized she should have spoken up about the behavior sooner.
She asked the sub:
“AITA for insulting someone’s parenting after their kid hurt me while doing something stupid?”
The OP noticed a teenager riding a skateboard through a crowded area.
“After a long flight, I (23 Female) was standing at baggage claim waiting for them to start sending the bags out.”
“There was a family whose kid (10-12 Male) was literally skateboarding around in the baggage claim area.”
“He kept getting in people’s way, but nobody said anything until the little brat ran into me.”
“He knocked me over, and it hurt really badly, and they still said nothing.”
The OP spoke up about it.
“I was furious, so as another man was helping me up, I looked at the teen’s parents and said very sarcastically, ‘Good decision. I think letting him ride a skateboard inside in a crowded room was a great choice. A+'”
“The mom started getting in my face and yelling at me, stuff like, ‘Who the f**k do you think you are?’ and ‘Don’t talk about my kid like that!’ and that kinda thing.”
“Her husband pulled her away, and they went to the other side of the baggage carousel.”
The OP was a little conflicted about her involvement.
“I’m normally a very passive people-pleaser, so I’m second-guessing my choice to say that to them.”
“But on the other hand, I think it was justified with how f**king stupid their choice to allow that was and how much pain it caused me (I have a few bruises, and they hurt).”
“AITA?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some thought the OP’s response was constrained and totally justified.
“NTA. What you said was spot on and absolutely justified. I don’t see how that woman could have yelled ANYTHING that could have put them in the right.” – patjames904
“I’m severely disabled with screws in my hips. Getting up from the floor is always… hard… and looks not good.”
“Just pain medication keeps me going. But to others, I look like a healthy chick. You can’t see it.”
“But if I get knocked down like OP… The chances that my knee, hip, or back need to be checked out afterward are 90%.”
“What OP said wasn’t even so bad, if you think that she got knocked down. Why did the mother think she has a right to go in the face?” – EvilFinch
“I’m low vision/visually impaired and can no longer see out of my right eye (not well, anyway, so I don’t use it and haven’t for years).”
“I would be furious if a parent was being irresponsible about their child and I, someone else, or their own kid got hurt because of it.”
“The airport could also sue the bejesus out of them if the kid happened to have severely damaged any equipment.” – _harpurr
“I’ve had three knee surgeries and my knee is super fragile. Like ‘bump into me with any kind of force and I’ll need surgery again’ fragile.”
“Parents who let their kids run wild make me sooo stressed. Even when I was in a wheelchair, they’d come running past me. I was/am always on edge.”
“Funnily enough, I do physiotherapy 3 times a week and we have to line up in seats in the hallway before the night sessions open at 6 pm.”
“The end of the hallway is child speech therapy. They get out at 5:45 pm. The kids come running down the hallway, not caring that literally everyone sitting in that hallway is disabled in some way because they are waiting for physiotherapy.”
“I’ve mentioned it to the physiotherapists, and they said, ‘Oh, we can’t tell them not to run. Kids will be kids!'”
“Yeah, but are they going to pay for my next surgery and the +6 months of my life I’ll lose to rehabilitation?”
“Totally justified, OP. NTA.” – XiaoAimili
“I am mobility impaired, and some days I use a cane, and some days I don’t.”
“I would and have done the same to kids running around and hurting me (speaking up, that is).”
“Usually, mine involves getting hit by a shopping cart in the back, which can actually paralyze me for a few minutes up to hours, but I’ve had adults do it also.” – Diligent-Touch-5456
Others who experienced chronic illnesses were sympathetic to what a fall can cause.
“I’m mobility impaired and stuff like this stresses me out so badly.”
“I look okay if I’m just standing there, but I can’t quickly leap out of the way and it’s pretty easy for me to lose my balance. Just trying to deal with getting a bag is difficult enough without having to deal with a kid skateboarding inside.”
“And there are plenty of people like me who can seem able-bodied if you’re not paying attention but who actually have mobility issues.”
“What the kid was doing was dangerous and the parents are irresponsible and need to do something so he doesn’t keep hurting people.” – Born_Ad8420
“I’m mobility impaired. If I’m knocked over, I’ll have a very difficult time getting back up, and will likely walk away with injuries that’ll take weeks to recover from.”
“Or, more accurately, I might walk away, might have to hobble away, or I might get wheeled away.” – quidscribis
“I look fine but I’ve got rheumatoid arthritis. I work hard to keep it under control with PT (physical therapy), medications, and swimming, and I’m relatively young, so I don’t LOOK frail.”
“But if I got knocked down like this, I’d not only be in instant pain, but it would trigger a flare-up that could take days to calm back down, and in the meantime, I’d be at a lower level of functioning.”
“Not to mention that previous injuries did permanent damage to my mobility, so it’s never a given that if something like this happens, I’ll ever fully recover back to my previous baseline.”
“I’m only 40, so there’s a lot of time for this disease to get worse, and I hardly need some idiot kid pouring accelerant on this fire. If this had happened to me, I would be furious, too. NTA.” – microbewhisperer
“I got diagnosed with arthritis in my teens. I’ve had major issues with AHs causing me sometimes months of increased pain. My pain meds make me bruise like h**l and take longer to stop bleeding.”
“A physiologist has said even on days when I think I may be okay without mobility aids, if I’m going somewhere busy, I should use my crutches so people are less likely to knock into me and cause me to fall.” – PhDOH
“The number of times I have been frozen in place because of children running riot and being terrified they would run into me.”
“I got hit by a man on a bicycle when I was crossing the street and it subluxated my hip, and I was lying in the road. He carried on and ignored me and I was left to try and get my crutches and get back up.”
“I really wish parents would control their children a little better. It’s really scary to see them zooming around with the parents ignoring them. It’s dangerous for the children, too.” – SilentlyBroken
Some questioned how the mother could have possibly been defensive at that moment.
“NTA. Had he caused you to break a bone or something, they’d be responsible for your medical bills. They got off easy.” – ScaredEmploytgh
“She probably moaned about being judged, defensive people often lose it when in the wrong.”
“NTA, OP.”
“We had some kids riding illegal electric scooters here. Many of us told the parents they were dangerous and illegal, but they didn’t listen, and they kept riding up and down the roads and pavements.”
“Their son lost control and smashed into the side of their own car. The kid was fine luckily, but the paintwork was messed up. Dad got all screechy at the kid (about 7) until his mate told him to leave it out and that he got the scooter for the kid in the first place.”
“Just lucky it wasn’t a person as given dad’s attitude, I doubt he’d have cared.” – Klutzy_Day7343
“‘HOW DARE YOU SAY THE TRUTH’ should be, ‘I’M SORRY, HERE IS A SINCERE APOLOGY FROM MY FAMILY, A PROMISE TO DO BETTER, AND $100.'” – Petite_Tsunami
“OP has far more restraint than I do. We would have both been dragged out of there by the police if she decided to follow up that bulls**t incident by screaming in my motherf**king face.” – Syrinx221
“NTA.”
“Might not have been the most tactful thing to say, but sometimes parents need a slap in the face to get back to reality.”
“Letting a kid skateboard in a crowded indoor place is absolutely not a good idea, and they should have been MORTIFIED that he knocked someone over…” – RoxasofsorryXIII
Though she was worried about having spoken up to the parents of the teenager who knocked her over, the subReddit insisted that her response was not only justified but necessary.
Knocking anyone over is not okay, but if that person had been elderly, chronically disabled, or diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, that fall could have resulted in something much, much worse than a brief altercation.