Public behavior that just *pisses you off* (not ranty enough for The Pit)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was in a grocery store yesterday. Maybe I was just in a bad mood to begin with, I dunno. But I saw so many examples of public behavior that just piss me off that I was almost seething by the time I got my groceries loaded and got in the car.

Behavior one: A car in a good parking spot (when I’m alone, I don’t care how far out I have to park, but my cancer-patient sister was with me, and she tires easily) loaded all her groceries in her car, turned her engine on, and. . .sat there. Clearly, I was behind her (leaving her plenty of space), waiting for the space. Heaven only knows what she was doing in there; giving herself a manicure, making a few phone calls, whatever. Ugh.

I saw a little girl, maybe 3YO, cute as a button, pushing a little-girl sized shopping cart with her Mom. By the time I got to the far end of the store, the little girl was begging her mother to take her to the bathroom, and the mother was saying “You do not need to go in there! I told you we were going shopping! You should have gone before we left the house!” Double-ugh. I’d just bet, too, that’s the kind of Mom that, if the little girl pees in her pants, she’ll get punished for it.

Leaving the store, there were three women walking in together. One of them was smoking a cigarette. Not only did she just drop her butt in the parking lot (why do people not seem to realize this is littering?), she didn’t even take the time to put the damned thing out!

Finally, when I got into my car, I could have pulled straight through (the spot directly in front of me was unoccupied) except that someone had left a shopping cart there. It was a pretty breezy day, too. I just wouldn’t do that. I always think of the fact that I’m (A) taking up a perfectly good parking spot, and (B) I’m endangering other people’s vehicles; not to mention © someone else has to come gather that damned thing up.

Don’t get me wrong. None of this is anything I lose sleep over. But I think we all have our pet peeves, and it seemed that, at Food Lion yesterday, the other customers there were just out to push my buttons.

So, share. What kind of public behavior pisses you off?

2

I live in a neighborhood that is near some public housing. Suffice to say those who reside in said housing don’t have a very good education or vocabulary.

I hate the fact that these people use so much profanity in public but more so that they use it in front of and in spite of their children.

Because of the acoustics of the concrete building I live in (and the fact that I like to leave my SEVENTH story windows open), I can hear these people loudly yelling at one another on the street below. To them, it is their standard speaking voice but it is rude and full of so many expletives to be offensive.

3

I’m with her on this one. Occasionally I will need to make a phone call (would you rather she did it while she was driving?), check something in my wallet, make a note, whatever, that I don’t care to do standing out in public for reasons of noise, privacy, weather, whatever. The space is hers until she pulls out, no matter whether someone is waiting for it. There are other spaces. It sucks for you and your sister, but she was perfectly entitled to that spot.

I get irritated when I’m about to pull into a space, but instead some rube is pulling through from the other side. I’m with you on the cart not being put away, but please don’t pull through like that. Back out.

Like you, not things I’d lose sleep over, but I’d briefly cuss over them at the moment.

But I’m also with you on the little girl who had to go and the rude smoker.

4

Littering pisses me right the hell off. And yes, throwing your filthy cigarette butts on the ground is LITTERING.

5

Amen, sister! Preach it!

I’ve been known to get out of my vehicle at red lights, pick up cigarette butts, and throw them back in the offender’s vehicle, with the admonition “you dropped this”. I’ve called police and waited until they got there and wrote a ticket when I’ve seen people dump trash from their vehicle in a parking lot. I also once got a teen-aged visitor from the UK a ticket for throwing a lit cigarette on the ground in Bryce Canyon… in July… right next to a FIRE HAZARD! WARNING! sign. That one got me applause and a thank you from the ranger. :slight_smile:

6

It really, really isn’t - you expect people to hold on to a cigarette stub? Oh, and I don’t even smoke anymore, I just respect other people’s right to. Especially outside, where it harms no-one.

7

I’ll never forget a little boy - this was many years ago - who was crying that he had to go. He was maybe 4, and really upset. They were just outside the doors of the grocery store and Mom couldn’t be soused to take him to the bathroom, pretty much saying the same thing - you didn’t want to go before we left the house, so you don’t need to go now.

He ended up letting go, and it was an enormous amount. Yes, he really did need to go, Mom. That poor kid. He was horrified and humiliated. I didn’t stick around for the fallout. I still wonder how they got home. That woman was an unbelievable bitch.

8

There are these neat little things outside the doors of most stores - they’re called ashtrays. They even have them in cars - all of them. And then there are - what are they called? Ah, yes, litter baskets. See, you put the butt out, and then throw it away. When there are places for people to put their cigarette butts other than on the ground - oh, perhaps they have to actually walk more than three feet to find them - they are definitely littering. Is is littering to throw a little gum wrapper on the ground? What’s the difference?

9

Littering is even worse when the person is within 2 or 3 steps of a trashcan. I see people at the light rail station do this ALL the time. Is it against their personal policy to use trashcans or something?

10

You are absolutely right that the space is hers until she pulls out. However, in the spirit of The Golden Rule, if I need to do something time-consuming while stopped, I’d move to a spot on the outside of the lot, especially if I noticed someone else was waiting for the space!

Well, it doesn’t ‘harm no one’, any more than disposing of a candy bar wrapper or soda bottle would. In the second place, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a supermarket that hasn’t had trash cans/butt cans right outside the entrance. So, no, I don’t expect them to hang on to the butt. But they can throw it in the trash/butt can, or they can put it in they can put it in the ash tray in their own vehicle.

11

It really, really IS littering. You’re wrong on this one.

Wanna test it? Have someone report you to a police officer after you throw a butt on the ground, and see if he writes you a ticket for littering. He will. Then go to court and see if the judge doesn’t uphold the ticket. He will. You wanna know why? Because throwing trash on the ground, instead of disposing of it properly in a waste canister, is littering.

12

It really really is. Yes I expect you to hold onto it untill you can put it in a trach recepticle. I expect you to do the same with your gum. If you cannot keep from littering you should expect to be fined, you deserve to be fined.

13

Steophan, is a cigarette butt different than a candy bar wrapper or an old sandwich or a crumpled up piece of paper?

14

Arguably, cigarette filters are worse litter than paper or biodegradable trash. Cigarette filters are made of a type of plastic, and like plastic grocery bags, they don’t biodegrade but only eventually break apart. In the time it takes for that to happen, the chemicals from the cigarette smoke – that nasty carcinogenic stuff? – have leached into the ground or water.

My pet peeve are people who walk out of stores into parking lots, completely oblivious of cars.

15

I have a big problem with people not teaching their kids how to behave in public. They need to learn that you just don’t act out in, say, a restaurant the same as in your home. By now it’s a multigenerational problem that gets worse with each generation.

16

No ashtray around because the mean anti-smokers are repressing smokers? Hmm, I wonder what you could do… oh hey, portable ashtray. I’ve even seen people repurpose little metal boxes like you get as tins for mints, and turn them into portable ashtrays.

17

Where I live, it’s only illegal in a specific part of the city centre. In this part, there are ashtrays on all the litter bins. Anywhere else, drop it on the floor, don’t set fire to the bin! Seems obvious really.

18

People standing in doorways after they walk into a store.

People blocking aisles while they chat.

People blocking sidewalks while they bullshit.

People blocking. . .oh hell, you get the picture.

19

People who get on a bus and decide to sit on one of the aisle-facing seats just inside the door, then slump down with their asses on the edge of the seat and their legs stretched out into the aisle, so that everyone getting on the bus has to edge past them.

20

Most likely Mom was a jerk. But it’s also possible that, like Celtling, the little girl has now decided that all public bathrooms are better than the National History museum. It’s also possible that they just had lunch and that three times during lunch, including just as the food finally arrived, the child insisted that she needed to go to the bathroom, dragged Mommy in there, then began playing with the paper towels and refused to even enter the stall.

It’s a trying time, trust me. . . and the one time, the one time that you finally say No. I am going to eat my food now dammit you have been to the bathroom twice in the last fifteen minutes and you didn’t even need to go, now sit still and eat! That’s the time they wait until they get into the car seat and drench it leaving you with 2.5 hours of work to uninstall it, wash the liner, leave it to dry overnight and then reinstall the frickin’ thing. . .

Deep. Cleansing. Breaths.