Note: This rant does not apply to considerate non-assholes with strollers/baby carriages. Just want to head that potential pile-on off at the pass.
God this pisses me off to no end. Why is it that, just because a person possesses some sort of baby transport device (frequently unoccupied except for merchandise), said person feels that he/she is no longer obligated to follow societal rules regarding personal right of way. So frequently, I’ve been subjected to some jackass steering his deluxe SUV-sized baby stroller with DVD player, mag wheels, and DORRANCE #5X STAINLESS STEEL HOOKS into my ankles because apparently, all must now yield to the baby stroller. (E.g. coming out of a store as I’m walking by, steering the carriage into my path, etc.)
I tell you what, jackass, that is most certainly not the case, and if you’re going to bump me, I’ll bump back (assuming the stroller is unoccupied, which, as I stated earlier, it often is). Either that, or I’m going to get all up in your face about it, at which point you owe me an apology, not some dorky incredulous look as if you don’t know what’s going on. Dumbshit.
And while I’m at it, if you’re one of these pricks who insists on walking down the middle of the parking lot aisle rather than to either side, there’s a good chance I’ll be using your ass as a hood ornament.
Thank God I can now shop for Christmas presents on the Internets. There’d be a clock tower with my name on it otherwise.
I agree with you 100%, but if I can add my own rant as a stroller-pusher.
I am sick and fucking tired of having to navigate my way around people who stop dead in their tracks to chat or look at stuff. I don’t expect the right-of-way all the time, but once in a while, it would be nice if people would take a minute to consider where they are and move to a more appropriate place away from the flow of traffic.
And while I’m at it, if you’re one of these pricks who insists on walking down the middle of the parking lot aisle rather than to either side, there’s a good chance I’ll be using your ass as a hood ornament.
Grrr. I HATE these people. I usually drive about a foot behind them for a few seconds until they realize and jump out of the way. I wish running over idiotic people was legal. Especially at CostCo.
I’ll add my two cents as a server. The restaurant in which I currently toil is set up rather oddly. We have this thingy in the middle of the dining room, we call it a snake, because it undulates sort of, on one side are two-top tables, about 7 of them, and on the other are two large kidney shaped seven-tops. Padded bench all around. So, basically, there’s not a whole lot of maneuvering room to begin with.
Enter lady with OUTRAGEOUSLY huge double stroller. (double rant, sort of here.) She bypasses the hostess, and goes around to one of the seven-tops, with 5 kids in tow, and parks her manual minivan right in the aisle. This is bad enough, with 4 servers on the floor, all trying to walk through this particular space. Okay, so she and her insufferable brats eat their lunch (brats because they were aged in a range from 2 yrs. to 8 yrs., and immediately began to dump parmesan cheese all over, throw sugar packs…you know, kids in restaurants) and then she loads the stroller up again, whips it around to face the front door, and whacks straight into a server, who lost the pizza she was carrying all over the stroller.
Now while this inconsiderate lady’s stroller getting all pizza-y was kinda funny, what wasn’t was when she demanded to see the manager and that someone pay for a new stroller and her kids’ outfits. Thank goodness our manager is cool, and what he said was “Look, ma’am. We just let you slide with causing a fire hazard that could have cost us over $1000. Consider it even.”
I’m a baby stroller owner - a one-seater, not too big, and I think I’m probably pretty considerate. What pisses me off is that stores can’t manage to make their aisles big enough to get the thing through. Now, a little, tiny gift shop I can maybe see (although I wonder how anyone in a wheelchair would be able to manage it either). But, why in the HELL would they cram so much into the CHILDREN’S CLOTHES SECTION that you can’t get a stroller through there without knocking things off the racks, giving your kid whiplash, and raising your blood pressure to dangerous levels???!!!?!? It drives me insane.
I don’t think people running into you, though, is necessarily a stroller-owner thing. I was Christmas shopping the other day sans baby and I swear someone bumped into me every 5 feet. I must be invisible. Merry Christmas.
Ivylad almost got into a fight at Disney World because of this. An honest-to-God fistfight.
We were standing in line trying to feed through the turnstyle when some guy in one of those tandem strollers (two seats, one behind the other) ran into Ivylad’s cane. Due to his bad back, my husband cannot get around without a cane.
The guy very snottily turned to him and said, “Excuse you.”
Ivylad, never one to shrink from a confrontation, got up in the guy’s face and pointed out he was the one who ran into him. Stroller Asshole pointed out he had two little kids and he should have the right of way.
Stroller Asshole’s wife and I separated our respective husbands, and we went on our way.
I get a particular kick out of people who push their (occupied) strollers into moving traffic in order to get the traffic to stop. Because if you’re going to stop a two-ton vehicle that’s going forty-five miles an hour, it’s best to use a four-pound piece of aluminum in which your precious baby snookums is sleeping.
Strainger -Once an asshole, always an asshole – becoming a parent just gives them the opportunity to pass their assholery on to another generation. I doubt this is new behavior, they just have a new weapon.
My related pet peeve is when I am shopping somewhere like TJ Maxx where shopping carts are available. I’m (sans cart) looking at clothes between two crowded racks and here comes someone barreling in with a big-ass shopping cart, not looking at any of the clothes, and screeches to a halt expecting me to…what? swing from the rack so they can get by? Nooo, they want me to back out of the space and let them through so *they * don’t have to go over to the open aisles to get to the next department. What planet are these people from? Can we send them back?
C3 – I don’t think you are invisible. I think you just need some more characters in your name
Sorry, couldn’t resist with that comment and your name!
Perhaps I’ve just been out of touch, but what is with these monster baby carriages? On a recent trip to Vancouver, BC I couldn’t get over these things. They’re were like infant Hummers, for Og’s sake, each one larger and more aggressive than the next. And the ones for twins or two kids? Ho-lee cripes! More than once, I had to step off the sidewalk in order to let one of these things go by.
My own related pet peeve. Almost every single time I go to Barnes & Noble some inconsiderate ass pushing one of those tandem strollers parks the fucking thing right in front of the new releases, walks three feet away to have a book discussion with some other clowns. So here I am, a)trying to figure out which asshat is the parent of the abandoned child or b) attemting to find what I’m looking for while hovering over someone else’s spawn while of course being stared at as if I’m sone kind of pedophile/kidnapper. I swear I’m tempted to push the thing a couple of aisles over just to see the fuckers losing it.
Yeah, I noticed that too when we were in the stroller stage. It’s like, um, hey, retailer? Your main clientele, the people you’re trying to sell to, are probably going to have carts and strollers. And they’re not going to come in and spend money if they can’t advance two feet without raking down a dozen hangers of wittle biddy cutesie jumpers.
Our local maternity shop was the same way. I was thinner then (for those of you inclined to snark about my large, wide ass) and found my pregnant belly could hardly make it through the store. Hint to the manager: I’m probably not the only person with a pregnant belly that might be shopping here!
Whut we have heeyah is a basic wiring thing. There’s two kinds of people: People who are oblivious to the fact that they are IN THE WAY and people who want to kick the everloving shit out of them.
And while I’m at it, the sign at the airport says, “One carry-on and one personal item per passenger,” not, as many people seem to think, “One carry-on and one personal item per passenger, unless you have kids in which case it’s perfectly OK to drag on approximately 15 carry-on items per passenger in your party.”
Another shopping-cart variety of these: in your typical grocery store, there’s room for one cart on each side, but there’s no getting by a cart in the middle of the aisle. So why the Sam Hill do people leave their carts in the middle while they examine the nearby shelves? Usually they’re polite enough about moving their carts when they realize I’d like to get by, but why didn’t they leave their cart next to the shelves on one side to begin with?
What exactly were they dragging, do you know? I’m asking because we traveled from South Carolina to Australia with a 10 month old (36 hours door to door). We had a stroller and the airlines had us take it with us up the gangplank. We were told to leave it there (along with about 16 other strollers). The airline then stowed it somewhere for the flight. So, in addition to our three carry-ons (one for each person, TYVM), we were dragging the stroller. It probably looked like we were moving our whole house on board. What we were carrying, though, was clean diapers, toys so that our baby didn’t scream during the flight, bottles & assorted paraphernalia (again, so that our baby didn’t scream during the flight), and assorted clothing for him so that he didn’t freeze or sweat and, thus, scream during the flight.
(On our leg from Chicago to LA, we entered the plane with me first, holding the baby, and my husband behind me, with the bags. As we passed through first class, a woman looked at my husband and said, “I’ve been there, Dad. Good luck on the flight!” It was JAMIE LEE CURTIS! How cool!)
Works in reverse. I’ve attempted to cross the street on the green light many times only to have lunatic speeders nearly run me over with their SUV’s while making turns. Because lord knows it would be real tragedy if you actually stopped for five seconds for the lady with the toddler and the baby carriage on your way to Walleyworld.
