Did everybody stare as though you were both quite insane? Or maybe just you?
Impolite to ask, not impolite to refuse.
I’d share if a strange woman asked me (or I’d just give her my umbrella) but I would be surprised and wonder what her motives were as we pressed close beneath the nylon curtain, personal spaces crushed together, making small talk, her breasts brush against my arm as she says “Nice weather for Ducks … eh?” ..
“Eh”? Is she Canadian? Does she need to marry a man… any man, for a green card? I’m alarmed and confused. What do you feed a Canadian woman? Are they high maintenance? Why is this happening… Why!!!
Put me down as “impolite to ask, not impolite to refuse” as well. Asking to share puts the umbrella holder in an awkward position. I also think that it’s not required to offer to share.
The asker is asking to get way too close to me, way too soon, at the very least. The asker might be a perfectly nice person. The asker might also not have bathed in the past week, and/or used cologne or Axe as a substitute. The asker might decide that I don’t really need my wallet.
Worse, the asker might decide that I am dying to hear his/her religious beliefs or poetry. Truly, a fate worse than death.
I’d have probably invited you before you asked. I was raised a Southern Gentleman, I was.
Why does everything always have to come back to sex?
I only carry an umbrella when it’s supposed to be pouring and I expect to be outside longer than to simply run to my car.
In those cases, I carry a large golf umbrella, since smaller ones still let my feet and legs get rained on in any sort of breeze.
I wouldn’t mind sharing one with someone if they asked, since me walking somewhere with a five foot wide umbrella already covers some people on a sidewalk.
If it was a normal sized umbrella, then no, I’m not asking to share nor sharing.
You said this yesterday:
Your friends can’t invade your space, but you feel that a stranger should allow you access to their space because it’s raining.
Maybe if you asked a person of the opposite sex, you’d have better luck.
That and sing Bus Stop by The Hollies.
why are you so afraid of letting people be different from you?
Weird to ask, but I’d share and make you hold it. Then I’d be free to run away if standing next to you became unpleasant, plus most people are taller than me.
I assume you feed them Canadian bacon and maple syrup and milk from a bag.
I guess it would be rude if you refused rudely, but it’s not inherently rude. It’s not inherently rude to ask, but you’d better have a good reason, just like any other request of a stranger. (With a friend or even acquaintance, it wouldn’t be rude at all unless you asked rudely.)
There are some situations where you offer, but only if you have a rather big umbrella and thus there is enough space for both people to be comfortable. Most of the time, sharing an umbrella means you’re going to wind up touching other person or being really really close to doing so. And, unlike in an elevator, you can’t really turn yourself away to lessen the effect.
I am curious where you are and in what social circles you travel that you think that asking a stranger to share an umbrella is de rigueur, as you seem to assume.
I don’t see how this follows from anything he said. I’m also not entirely sure how you can “let” someone be different than you. Everyone is different than you.
You realize, of course, that you’ll need a HUGE umbrella to keep all of her dry.
It would be very nice to *offer *to share but a little forward to *ask *to share. Some people are just not comfortable with a stranger getting into their personal space and it’s not rude to decline the request.
I answered “maybe” because if you had been having a 15-mninute conversation while waiting for a bus then it started to rain, it might be impolite to refuse.
If it’s raining more than ever, you can stand under my umbrella-ella-ella-ay-ay-ay. But I’ll probably annoy you into leaving with my incessant Rihanna-anna-anna-ay-ay-ay rendition. 
I always lose umbrellas so I only buy the cheap ones, which are barely sufficient to keep me dry. If I was with a close friend I could see huddling together to try to keep as dry as possible, but a stranger? No way.
60’s lyrics can only steer us in the right direction.
Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say
“Please share my umbrella”
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella
All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine*
The revealed truth is the line "she’s there I say "Please share my umbrella.
He offered (polite) and she didn’t ask (weird, creepy behavior).
Same with ‘50s musicals, where umbrella-sharing is common. At the end of the "Singin’ In The Rain" number, Kelly gives his umbrella to the guy trying to use a newspaper to cover himself. Kelly giving it away? Polite. Newspaper-guy asking for it? Would have been disturbing and weird.
We have so much to learn from pop culture.
Kidding aside, to me, asking to share someone’s umbrella would be like a stranger at a restaurant coming over to your table and saying “Hey, that appetizer looks really, really good. Mind if I have a bite?” It’s the same sort of personal-space, hyper-entitled, weird behavior to me.
That’s funny. I did that once. Walking home from the train station in pouring rain I passed a woman with no umbrella as I got to my front gate. I offered her my umbrella to use on her walk home. She thought it was weird but I insisted, telling her she could drop it off on my front step any time later as I had other umbrellas. So she happily took it. I had never realized that I got the idea from Gene Kelly.
do you have any sense of boundaries when it comes to interacting with people?