Headphone-wearing children (and adults)

dreamdaisy
dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
edited 2. Dec 2015, 12:57 in Community Chit-chat archive
This morning I had to move my car off the drive because room is needed for another vehicle. I drove at my usual slow speed, slowing when I reached the gates because a footpath crosses the end of the drive. I began to cautiously pull out when a teenaged girl walked right in front of Bea. I stopped, she turned, flicked me the inverted victory sign and walked on. Her ears were enclosed in a massive pair of headphones so she wouldn't have heard my engine and if I was exiting in the style of The Spouse she would now be in A&E.

Why do people do this? Cyclists in headphones, drivers too sometimes, runners, pedestrians - why do they all blithely assume that the rest of us will look out for them? It's the same with people striding along, head down whilst they fiddle with their phones - I haven't been cannoned in into as yet but I'm sure it won't be long before someone does and it will (probably) be my fault foe getting in their way.

I must be getting old - I don't understand why people, when out and about, will not engage with the world around them. We should use our sight and our hearing (if we are lucky enough to have it) to help us negotiate our way through streets and shops etc. DD
Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben

Comments

  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I share your puzzlement and irritation DD.A particular annoyance is when walkers and runners aren't on the correct side of the road(ie facing the traffic) when there is no pavement, and so present double the risk.The lanes round my previous house were especially prone to this kind of stupidity, often compounded by an inadequately controlled dog( extending or no leash).
  • theresak
    theresak Member Posts: 1,998
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I find that very annoying as well, DD. I can`t understand why folk have to be `plugged in` when they`re out and about crossing roads etc., or fiddling with their phones. I often wonder what they all used to do before all this push-button world came into being.

    My real pet hate, though, is mothers or fathers who walk along pushing a push-chair while talking continually into their mobile phone. Talk to the child, for goodness sake!!
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,697
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I am very old.

    I date back to a time when we could only communicate with people if they were actually present or if we took time to write letters and then post them. We did get our first telephone when I was about eight or ten but it was rarely used and essentially for adults. When I went on a school exchange, aged 14, I couldn't phone home because it cost too much. Homesickness was a rich person's problem.

    Don't get me wrong. I'd be lost without my weekly, or more, skype with my son, and email and texting are wonderfully cheap ways of staying in touch with people I don't often see.

    But I also value silence and solitude. I love Chopin and Mozart and Brahms but I don't wish to be plugged into them, exclusively, all day every day. It's a different world, one in which accidents never happen and someone (else) is to blame for everything. I promise you, if you had, despite your precautions and her utter lack of them, exited with her on your bonnet, she'd have held you entirely responsible.

    It starts in school. It used to be that, if you got into trouble at school you got a further clattering when you got home. Now nothing is the little darllings' fault. If they don't work it's the teacher who is to blame. Bah humbug I say!
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • tkachev
    tkachev Member Posts: 8,332
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Silly girl, she should be thanking you. I can only assume she was startled and responded with the V sign in shock and embarrassment, as teenagers are never wrong! No excuse of course.

    We have an entrance/exit that leads to garages next to our house and driveway and I've lost count of the number of people who cross over without looking, headphones or no headphones,so it won't be long before somebody gets hit.

    Elizabeth
    Never be bullied into silence.
    Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
    Accept no ones definition of your life

    Define yourself........

    Harvey Fierstein
  • daffy2
    daffy2 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Talk to the child, for goodness sake!!
    And they compound the failure by having the child facing forward and screened by the pushchair hood. It's so sad and infuriating to see a small child trying to communicate, or in distress because of something frightening or grit blowing in the face, and being ignored. As my son discovered though it's hard to find a pushchair that does face the parent.
    If you don't want to interact with your children then don't have them - contrary to what so many seem to think these days they don't magically bring themselves up - just getting bigger and learning facility with gadgets does not constitute growing up.
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    About 6 months ago, 3 people, on 3 separate occasions, were knocked down by buses in a nearby town whilst crossing the road. All 3 were busy on their phones and hadn't checked the road first. I've seen quite a few people cross small roads without looking for traffic and often had to stop until an oncoming pedestrian has almost bumped in to me and then looked up suddenly as if they couldn't understand why I hadn't moved for them.
    Christine
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    That touched a few nerves, didn't it? For what it's worth I agree with all of you about the headphones, the wrong-facing prams etc., mobile 'phones etc. May I add another irritation?

    You're in the supermarket checkout, the woman in front of you has unloaded and their shopping is going through. They start packing, the bill is determined, then THE 'PHONE RINGS.

    Everyone is left 'immobilised' whilst they carry out an earnest discussion about whether kangaroo meat is healthier than ostrich, why Roops ditched Charlotte and sorting out the school run. Call ends, purse dug out, payment eventually made and not one word of apology to anyone. (No prizes for spotting the supermarket chain in which I witnessed such call.) I then saw the woman drive away in a 65 reg. Chelsea Tractor - classic!

    Another supermarket nightmare is the lone shopper, usually male, who unloads, stands and watches everything going through, then begins to pack, eventually digging out the wallet to pay. I'm a lone shopper but of a different persuasion in a number of ways - stuff on the conveyor belt in order of packing (hards first, softs last), bank card out ready, keep up with the cashier as the goods go through, packed and off within ten seconds of the transaction being ended, restuffing card into purse away from the checkout so the next person can get through. It's not rocket science.

    I think it was Oscar Wilde who opined that 'Hell is other people.' I daresay I too am 'other people' for someone but I can't see why. :wink: DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,697
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Years ago I was sitting in the A&E waiting room. There was a large notice saying PLEASE KEEP MOBILE PHONES SWITCHED OFF. Underneath it sat.....yup, you know the rest
    :roll:
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • barbara12
    barbara12 Member Posts: 21,280
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    DD its so scary to see how many young people walk into the rd with headphones on...we have had a few near misses :shock:
    Love
    Barbara
  • Slosh
    Slosh Member Posts: 3,194
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Just as dangerous are cyclists who are plugged in so less aware of what's going on around them... but think it's ok because any accident will be the fault of the car driver, or even worse who then happily ride along pavements expecting pedestrians to get out of their way!

    Oh and impatient parcel delivery /post men who "didn't see" the "disabled person lives here, please be patient " sticker by the doorbell.

    On another note Westminster council are to trial an electronic system to automatically detect people who mis-use disabled parking bays. Not sure of the technical details but an interesting experiment.
    He did not say you will not be storm tossed, you will not be sore distressed, you will not be work weary. He said you will not be overcome.
    Julian of Norwich
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    It's about time that someone came up with a system to do that. Our local Asda has a number of bays and, a few years ago, each had an orange lump in the centre: when you drove over it something similar to the following message was loudly played: This space is for a disabled driver displaying a blue badge: if you are not disabled or have a badge move now. It worked for a while - it certainly made people look! - but the orange things were removed a few years ago and now you get all sorts parking in them - with badge, without badge, time clock only - that's the one that really irks.

    If I pull into a BB space but find I've left the BB behind I immediately pull out and park in a normal space. Those who park there without one and with no shame well, I hope they find themselves needing one sooner rather than later. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • applerose
    applerose Member Posts: 3,621
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Don't get me started on cyclists on pavements. I've lost count of the number of times cyclists have whizzed past me silently and I've jumped to the side, usually away from them. They could easily have been sent sprawling in to the traffic though. There are a couple of roads here which I don't blame anyone not wanting to cycle on, especially youngsters, so don't mind so much if they use the pavement but either walk with the cycle or, if there are only a few pedestrians, use a bell or shout to alert people.

    A couple of times, I have been on a plane waiting to take off. There was an announcement asking everyone to switch off their mobile phones but the person next to me has carried on using it. I never know whether to say anything in case I get shouted at. Fortunately, the cabin crew have spotted them and waited till they switch off.
    Christine
  • Slosh
    Slosh Member Posts: 3,194
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    When younger my daughter got knocked over by a cyclist who was riding on the pavement and then the cyclist had the temerity to tell her off! I refuse ( as often as I dare) to move out of the way (young children excepted) especially as where I live there are lots of cycle lanes.

    My pet disabled space annoyances are people using one because of a temporary injury and those who leave a passenger ( who,I presume is the badge holder) in the car in the space while they go shopping, not quite what it was meant for.
    He did not say you will not be storm tossed, you will not be sore distressed, you will not be work weary. He said you will not be overcome.
    Julian of Norwich