So I’m leaving MacDonalds at noon, and at the door when it starts to swing open outwardly. I continue to proceed and commence to look into the eyes of the man opening the door to give a a smile and a thankyou. Only at the very same moment, his 5 year old kid slams into me and continues around me going inside. No big deal. But I continued to look into the man’s eyes as I proceeded and all I was getting was a stony stare so I opted to decline verbalizing my gratitude for his opening the door. When I was about 10 feet away, he muttered “Why don’t you watch where your going ?”
Well, I was stunned ! I wasn’t sure if I was in the right or the wrong but given the fact that he had the door perhaps he had a legitimate reason to expect the right to pass through the door first. I let it pass without comment.
After I regained my composure I started to really get pissed off. I was at the threshold first. What the fuck was I supposed to do ? Move out of the way and let the two through the door first? Bullshit. I know when I’m the one to pull open a door I always let the oncoming traffic go through first. Its just common sense and civil.
Fuck you man. You need to teach yourself and your kid some manners instead of screwing up what would otherwise be another wonderful day for me.
Hey-if I’m opening the door for you, my child will not run into you. She knows better.
Take solace in the knowledge that with today’s activity levels and eating habits, the little shit will need a McStent by the time he’s out of high school.
If I understand the scenario, he was opening the door for his son, and you really should have paid attention. And you have absolutely no *right *to pass through a doorway unless you get there first.
But he was at the *door *first, no? How else could he have opened it?
When someone opens a door ahead of me I always make eye contact to be sure that they in fact want me to pass through ahead of them. Just common sense.
With all those wonderful days springing forth willy nilly I suppose a sense of entitlement would be inevitable.
I have to agree with Contrapuntal. Of course, I wasn’t there, but most dads with 5-year-olds do tend to open doors for them. Kids that age usually don’t have the muscle to open the door themselves. I don’t blame the kid for running into you, and I wouldn’t fault the dad for not teaching him manners. I might have muttered something, too, if I had opened the door and you came steaming out.
I don’t know if I’m just sort of old-fashioned and totally bound by irrelevant and quaint convention, but anybody exiting an entrance gets right of way, always, even when the door has been previously opened by somebody intending to enter the premises, in which case they stand aside and allow the exiter to, um, exit before entering.
Kids might take a bit of time to learn these protocols, but it is important that their parent/s reinforce the rules. It’s how we run a civil society. Dutchman, the dad in your scenario was totally out of line. You are right to be pissed-off.
I’ve never thought about that before. I think the way I do it is more connected to the way the door has opened - the person pulling the door towards them gives way to the person pushing the door away (it just seems easier that way), so I guess that yes, the person entering usually has right of way.
But people exiting a shop should GIVE THE FUCK WAY to people walking up and down the footpath. Nobody seems to these days, though - especially the people who walk out of a shop with their head turned finishing a conversation with somebody inside.
That is just plain stupid. Do you not teach children to stand aside when people are leaving a bus or a train, to wait until everyone has disembarked before getting on??
I guess not, which probably explains the recent (in my old life) phenomenon of crammers getting on public transport whilst people are trying to get off.
Fucking lack of basic manners if you ask me. :rolleyes:
I try not to use my size to intimidate people, but I make an exception for those arseholes. When people don’t let me get off the train, I just get off the train anyway. It is fun to see them scatter like ninepins, and I do enjoy the quiet gleeful gratitude of the other decent commuters watching on.
Regardless of your mammoth bulk and tendency towards inflicting bodily harm on fuckwits , the principle is still the same whether it be a train or a shop. Those getting off (or out) should be given right-of-way, even if the door has been opened by someone intending to enter the vehicle (or shop) unless there is a distinct (at least 3 second gap) between the door opening and the person exiting arriving at the door step…in which case, getters-inners or getters-onners have the priviledge of attempting to cross the threshold.
Naah, the shop is a bit different, I reckon. Here’s why:
The person who gives way is the person who holds the door open for the other one. As well as holding the door open, you have to stand aside. That is quite difficult when you are pushing the door away from you, as it can mean having your arm fully outstretched and bent at the shoulder at an unnatural angle (often slightly behind you). On the other hand, if you are pulling the door, you can just stand there like a doorman with a relaxed bent-at-the-elbow arm in front of you - which is much easier.
So if the door opens inwards, then I reckon the person entering the shop has right of way. If not, or it’s an automatic door etc, then yes, it defaults to the other way around.
OK, this reminds me a bit of an incident that happened to me several years ago. I was in a shop when a small child came running up the aisle and piled headlong into me. He was carrying an open bag of M & Ms, which went flying everywhere. I made sure he wasn’t hurt, stepped around him, and was immediately accosted by his mother, who angrily accused me of ‘not looking where I was going’, much as in the OP’s case, and basically berated me as a heartless bastard for not doing anything about his spilled candy. As tends to happen when I’m confronted by rudeness in public, I was shocked into speechlessness, and just walked away with a shrug, which obviously didn’t make her any happier. But jeez, I was standing still at the time; the kid ran into me, what could I do?
Anyway, I’ve always understood that the usual protocool when pulling open doors is that one lets persons on the other side of the door through first. Small children may be out of one’s line of sight, and it should be up to the parent to keep them out of the way of foot traffic. In my view the father was in the wrong here. It is understandable, though, that a parent’s defensive instincts may have been kicking in there.
Wait, the analogy of the train with the restaurant simply doesn’t fly. The reason you let folks off an elevator and a train first is so there is room for those getting on. Geddit?
You can blame lack of manners, but there’s another mitigating circumstance which ties back to the OP: McDonalds. As more and more Big Macs are consumed each year, less people are willing or able to share an adjacent seat. That group of crammers waiting outside the door are hoping to make a mad dash toward one of the few recently vacated seat rows.
