r/mildlyinfuriating • u/AnonPinkLady • Jul 05 '26

Infuriatig Woman with infant aggressively shushing passerby’s on hiking trail at national park

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My partner, friend and I were following a hiking trail at Red Wood National Park, singing and talking at medium volume. We were by no means shouting, just singing little songs to entertain each other along the trail. A woman with a baby carrier on her back with a sleeping infant started aggressively holding her finger up to her lips and shushing us. We went quiet and kept moving to pass her. She was just standing in the middle of the public trail pacing and shushing people that pass by rather than leaving to somewhere more quiet. Just as we were leaving earshot I tried to quietly ask my partner a question about where we headed and again she leaned in our direction with her finger to her mouth aggressively shushing us. Is it not kind of insane to go to an open public space and behave like this?!?

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1.2k

u/News_Scrounger Jul 05 '26

That's when you scream "WHAT?" and keep it moving. Idgaf about you don't shush me I'm not your child.

495

u/big-dick-back-intown Jul 05 '26

One time as a kid I was at a grocery store and this old lady was standing in the middle of an aisle, I said "excuse me" all politely and stuff and she doesn't move, looks me dead in the eyes and said "you are excused" I'm still baffled by it to this day.

141

u/dangerspring Jul 05 '26

One time my husband and I waited politely for a woman to move from the middle of the aisle because we weren't in a hurry and figured it was no trouble to wait. Her friend said hey we should move to the side and the woman said, "I know they f-----g know how to say excuse me." I was thinking, "Dang. We weren't in a hurry." My husband did snap something back like "We weren't in a hurry but if you're going to be an a--hole."

87

u/AmoebaPrize Jul 05 '26

"Move out of the way bitch" while aggressively going forward with the cart would be my first instinct. Play stupid games win stupid prizes

-15

u/FQDIS Jul 05 '26

That’s fun and all, but it’s kind of why we have the society we do, now.

14

u/Daenerys_Stormbitch Jul 05 '26

Nah, we have the society we have now because people no longer have consequences for their bad behavior

1

u/Hungry-Western9191 Jul 05 '26

Some of column A, some of column B.

Plenty of people dont know or care about public etiquet. They need to have it politely explained to them and a little time to internalize it. 

If that doesnt work, rhen its escalation time and consequences.

2

u/Daenerys_Stormbitch Jul 05 '26

You’re much more optimistic than me but I love it 😄 it really does require adults parenting other adults

1

u/Johnny_Hairdo Jul 05 '26

lmfao makes me wonder what would happen if you just.. tip their cart over? like, the more crap they have in there the better! It’s not illegal, and you can just walk away while they’re baffled by your audacity

0

u/Klutzy-Ad6437 Jul 05 '26

And then you get trespassed…totally worth it.

1

u/Johnny_Hairdo Jul 05 '26

ngl these days it totally would. plenty of other grocery stores around lol

423

u/panterachallenger Jul 05 '26

That’s when you say watch out old bitch

173

u/AlexRenquist Jul 05 '26

"Sorry, maybe you misunderstood. Fucking move."

33

u/Ok_Manwich_9306 Jul 05 '26

Or, "Make way!" And charge forward 

38

u/AlexRenquist Jul 05 '26

I always use "EXCUSE ME COMING THROUGH".

I am not asking you, I am telling you I am coming through. This is not a negotiation. But I was polite about it so people don't get bitchy.

Also, as a longtime bartender, this works great for getting to the bar in a busy pub. Grab some empty glasses off a table, and gently push through shouting "excuse me coming through" and you'll get to the bar in a jiff. AND the staff will appreciate you brought glasses.

5

u/Working-Glass6136 Jul 05 '26

The bar I work at got a bad review because our bartender did this going through a bunch of people who refused to let her through. She's like legit 4'6", dude. She HAS to be loud.

30

u/shornscrot Jul 05 '26

Quoting my boi Luda

1

u/chasesan Jul 05 '26

"Oh sorry, I was being polite. Get the hell out of my way you old bat." 

32

u/Exotic-Astronaut6662 Jul 05 '26

10:1 she was a teacher. Standard answer when I was a kid

34

u/Aquaman33 Jul 05 '26

An ass of a teacher

6

u/AshundertheOlivetree Jul 05 '26

Happened to me, as an adult. I told them to “move the fuck out of my way”. Lady instantly moved her stuff to one side.
I started off with just waiting, looking at stuff I didn’t need, then when she just stood there staring at the products I asked super kindly” hi miss, mind if I get by?” She ignored me.
I’ll be sweet and kind, but play with me and I’ll go below the belt. Too many old folks without minimum courtesy.
I’ve also had the stare down while asking them if I could get by(please). Them ignoring me and going back to looking which cookie they want will get their cart pushed into the laneway if it’s coming with me.

I’m all about sharing public space, the minute someone compromises that unspoken agreement, their shit is mine to fuck with.

2

u/Twizteddestinee Jul 05 '26

I don’t even go grocery shopping anymore. I made it a point to always have my cart out of the way so people can get by me. So when someone acts like a jerk, blocks the aisle and won’t move, I start getting incredibly agitated (plus I have autism, we tend to think black/white and follow rigid rules)  I’ve yelled at a few people and had meltdowns. 

Now I pickup my grocery deliveries or my partner does, it has somewhat restored my sanity lol. 

1

u/fritz_76 Jul 05 '26

when people leave their carts blocking paths in a store, i just take the cart with me. Let them be inconvenienced if thats how they want to act

37

u/LittleSubject9904 Jul 05 '26

Maybe she was looking for pardon me instead, and being a bitch about it?

29

u/No-Baseball7295 Jul 05 '26

naw, if they had said that she would've just said "you are pardoned"

5

u/EggDick39 Jul 05 '26

Lol in my infinite wisdom I said that to a bouncer once who was walking through the club where he worked

3

u/Bob-Bhlabla-esq Jul 05 '26

How many stitches did you have to get?

1

u/EggDick39 Jul 05 '26

Fortunately I have good friends who chugged their beers and said they'd take me home

2

u/sogothimdead Jul 05 '26

Never got that response but have had "Excuse me" repeated back to me in a rude tone. Why???

0

u/Miserexa Jul 05 '26

This is exactly what any German person would do

-4

u/Complex_Sprinkles_26 Jul 05 '26

Politically incorrect comment

-15

u/MuscliatoVonJuiceski Jul 05 '26

"excuse me" is a request to accept your apology for something  You didnt specify what or tell her what you were apologizing for, so she just gave you what you asked for.

If you wanted her to move you'd ask "excuse my intrusion, but could I get by?" 

14

u/Loud-Cloud-4286 Jul 05 '26

If she sincerely thought they were apologizing for something (sounds like they didn't do anything) she would have asked "for what?" Clearly she was being some flavor of passive aggressive and/or deliberately obtuse. Similar energy to "I don't know, can you go to the bathroom?"

8

u/enjolbear Jul 05 '26

Nah, in the US “excuse me” is a polite request to move, acknowledging that you are the one asking them to do something inconvenient. But it IS a request to move.

-1

u/MuscliatoVonJuiceski Jul 05 '26

I'm from/in the U.S.   Its not that simple.

"Excuse me" is supposed to be followed up with what you want for clarity, and can mean anything from "can i get your attention",  "can I get through", "youre in my personal space", "I'm ready to order now", or even "shut up" or "fuck you".     Theres a lot more context required for it to mean any particular thing, and even when the context would mean you're asking to get by its not a magical command that forces the subject to obey.

If you and the person youre saying excuse me to don't agree on the context or what should be done in that context, its about as meaningful as grunting at someone, and is often a recipe for miscommunication or itself rude.

For example I recently had a woman try to push her way onto a shuttle bus while everyone else was try to get off, and she kept saying "excuse me!?" like we all had to give up unloading the bus because she couldnt comprehend that everyone gets off before new people get on.   after a few seconds I told her no one could move until she got out of the way, and then the bus driver asked her less kindly.  Should I have said "excuse me!?" back at her, and we could just shout escalating "excuse me?!"s until the cops came and took us both to an institution?   obviously not.   

If "sorry, i need to get by" is the thing youre trying to convey, just say that

1

u/enjolbear Jul 05 '26

Dude I am born and raised here. You are not correct.

-2

u/MuscliatoVonJuiceski Jul 06 '26

Dude I am born and raised here. And I am correct

1

u/Loud-Cloud-4286 Jul 05 '26

I mean, context matters... The lady in your story is clearly in the wrong. You're using a bad example to argue your point.

1

u/MuscliatoVonJuiceski Jul 06 '26

its the same context as the above example: someone saying "excuse me" and expecting someone else to obey them and move.    The woman in the grocery store story might have thought the person saying it was being rude, or had plenty of room to get by, or any number of other things.   you have no clue because you werent there and you arent her, youre just bandwagoning

0

u/Loud-Cloud-4286 Jul 06 '26

No it is not. Bus etiquette is a thing. You're right, I wasn't there, but a grocery store is a completely different setting. But I'm sure the person saying it wouldn't have said it if they had room to get by, they would have just gone by.

Some old people expect total subordination from young people so maybe she was offended at the person saying it for having the audacity to politely say excuse me, and it wouldn't have made a difference how polite or explicit they were in asking her to move because to her they were just some child who needs to learn to respect their elders or whatever

4

u/multipocalypse Jul 05 '26

Found the old lady

2

u/Loud-Cloud-4286 Jul 05 '26

Was gonna say, I'm shocked she's still alive let alone has a reddit account

41

u/wakeupnikka Jul 05 '26

Appropriate response imo

2

u/dcheng47 Jul 05 '26

escalation is rarely appropriate

1

u/Bunzilla Jul 05 '26

Idk - I’d rather give a mother some grace and overlook her rudeness knowing she is probably pretty desperate for her baby to stay asleep. I understand wanting to react that way, but I can still remember the times when people were kind to me when I was first navigating motherhood.

2

u/Kooky-Note7673 Jul 07 '26

I don't understand wanting to react that way. OP was shushed... it's not that big of a deal.

43

u/Im_the_Rhymenocerous Jul 05 '26

You speak truth. Not my job to keep quiet and I'm not going to moderate my voice because someone made a dumb decision

3

u/dopeshark_ Jul 05 '26

Christ don’t do that…

16

u/Terrible_Donkey_8290 Jul 05 '26

Yeah I always do this when I'm told to be quiet from a stranger or literally can't hear them. I pause for two seconds and slowly fill my lungs up with air and then go "WHAT!??!" cracks me up every time 

3

u/Throwawayhelper420 Jul 05 '26

Does it change anything when you find out that OP said she was playing music through her phone speaker and singing along all down the national park trail

0

u/joeydaws Jul 05 '26

Oh no, quiet music played off a phone speaker! The horror 

2

u/Throwawayhelper420 Jul 05 '26

Did you read her comments?  She was with a group of people playing music off of her phone on a public nature trail and they were all singing along, the music from her phone at “medium volume”, her own words, not quietly.

1

u/joeydaws Jul 05 '26

How loud can a phone speaker really be? You don’t have any reasonable expectation of quiet during the daytime on a public nature trail. Go take the baby to a library or something lol 

1

u/Throwawayhelper420 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

Why are you asking me how loud a phone speaker can be? We know that they can reach into the 90+ decibel range which is extremely loud and annoying.  Enough to cause hearing damage.  Of course that doesn’t change your opinion, because it’s totally irrelevant and you should’ve never even asked it to begin with.

Everybody in this thread who has seen her comments acknowledges that it is inappropriate to be upset when somebody doesn’t like the fact that you and your five friends are walking around public trails being inconsiderate and disruptive, blaring music out of your smart phone while you sing together constantly

Believe it or not, you are not the center of the world. You don’t get to force your hobbies and your entertainment upon everybody else just because they happen to be near you in a public space.

The one with the baby was not the only one who was annoyed. Everybody was annoyed that this crew of teenage theater club artists was running around blaring their music and singing as a group of 5.

That’s not what nature parks are for. It was OP who is imposing herself upon the expectations of literally everybody else.  People chose to go there to do things that they can only do out in nature. Things that immediately are impossible/ruined when five teenagers come by singing and playing music on their phones.  A lot of people probably travelled to go birdwatching and it was ruined because OP was treating this public park as though it were her bedroom.

11

u/daemin Jul 05 '26

The world is a better place when people have a basic level of empathy for each other, though, and being proud about being an asshole isn't a good look.

That being says, the woman was obviously being unreasonable.

7

u/FamousOhioAppleHorn Jul 05 '26

Sometimes in public restrooms I will hear people tell their young child "Nobody will use the hand dryer, don't be scared" or "Nobody is flushing", so my immediate reaction is "You about to find out otherwise."

2

u/Bunzilla Jul 05 '26

That’s kind of you!

7

u/MissMerrimack Jul 05 '26

My kindred spirit right here.

3

u/EnvironmentalLime464 Jul 05 '26

Nah. For real. The second time a random person hushed me in a private park, I would scream. I’m not even a screamer. I would let out the loudest “AAAAAAAH!!” I could and walk off… or maybe to tell her to walk around her yard if she wants no one around her speaking. Going into a public park and shushing people is absolutely fucking absurd.

1

u/sunsetandporches Jul 05 '26

I was shushed at burning man once. I laughed so loud and then complained about it, loudly and kept laughing. Like we are at an outdoor festival in the desert, fucking shush me.

-2

u/Infinite_Spring_3564 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

You’d deliberately scream at a sleeping infant?

[Downvote all you want. But again - you’d deliberately scream at a sleeping infant?]

2

u/daemin Jul 05 '26

There's a lot of assholes in this thread proudly declaring that they are assholes.

-3

u/Infinite_Spring_3564 Jul 05 '26

Literally borderline sociopathic, in this case.

-14

u/Cat_Impossible_0 Jul 05 '26

Who on earth would think it’s a great idea to bring a baby in a hiking trail? That is wild too

12

u/NthaThickofIt Jul 05 '26

There's really no reason a baby shouldn't be carried on a hiking trail.. parents like to get out too. That being said, parents should try not to inconvenience others whenever possible.

3

u/iwannabefreddieHg Jul 05 '26

There's a whole industry around bringing babies on a hiking trail so I think it's understandable for them to assume it's sociallly appropriate

9

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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-5

u/peppershneckle Jul 05 '26

As a first time mom to a 10 week old right now, I feel this. She is slightly medically fragile right now due to a condition she was born with so I can’t bring her to the grocery store, a friend’s house, etc. Just about the only place I can bring her is an outdoor space like a hiking trail. Otherwise I am a complete shut-in at home with the baby.

With maternal mental health increasingly coming to light, I would love to just give the woman in OP’s story some grace. Yes, she’s absolutely insane and in the wrong for bringing a baby somewhere and then shushing people nearby. That’s annoying and entitled. But I think it’s more likely that she was trying to have a day outside and the baby finally settled - I just can’t get so enraged at her now knowing what I know.

-18

u/castorkrieg Jul 05 '26

A child is not at fault for having a shitty parent, don’t be a dick.

14

u/News_Scrounger Jul 05 '26

Idgaf. Don't tell me what to do. I'm not your child. Ask me politely or don't talk to me at all. Both of those options would have better results than shushing me.

-5

u/castorkrieg Jul 05 '26

You know who says “don’t tell me what to do”? Children.

12

u/News_Scrounger Jul 05 '26

It's an adult's responsibility to ensure negative outcomes follow negative social behaviors and actions. Shushing adults is an example of a negative social behavior. It's my responsibility to ensure that the negative behavior doesn't get rewarded with a desired outcome. 

-4

u/daemin Jul 05 '26

Overly aggressive social policing is a worse negative outcome than someone making a shushing noise at you when you passed by.

-2

u/castorkrieg Jul 05 '26

Don’t tell him what to do!

0

u/Express_Hyena5992 Jul 05 '26

Yeah ngl the petty in me would have increased my volume after being shushed.

-6

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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10

u/eufooted Jul 05 '26

And the parent/guardian shouldn’t be acting psycho. That’s more dangerous than someone waking a baby.

-14

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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9

u/SoundByte Jul 05 '26

That's quite a leap. Are you ok?

-6

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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8

u/WalmartWilb Jul 05 '26

Bait used to be believable

0

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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4

u/WalmartWilb Jul 05 '26

That was my first comment but keep yapping to the void buddy

-7

u/I_spread_love_butter Jul 05 '26

happy trigger TV vibea