Hi, All
Something happened to me after picking up Little R from school. It was around 4:45 pm, I just wanted to turn a corner but there were some male youths bunched off the curb. Since safety comes first, I didn't want to accidentally run into anyone who did not notice that I was there. So I did was I thought was the sensible thing to do: lightly beep my horn to get their attention.
Now, what I expected was that they would notice me wanting to turn and just hop onto the curb and let me turn. I smiled at them (this is just a common greeting) in a gesture of "thanks" but they cursed and threatened me, spat on my car and warned me "go around next time!" Why were they SO angry? Did they not see that I just wanted them to be safe? Was it not courtesy to step out of the way (off the street) when someone is trying to turn?
There were about 5 or 6 of them to my right and a couple more coming from my left. Little R was in the back observing this violent situation, so what was I to do? I just smiled and briefly explained that I didn't want to accidentally run into them (they weren't looking and couldn't see me - that's why I beeped).
As you can imagine, I don't feel good about this. I realise that I know very little about how youth are these days, and even less on HOW to deal with them. DH strongly recommends avoiding them. Seriously, they looked no more than junior high kids - maybe 15 at the most. I just could NOT understand the anger and inappropriate language that employed. Where is respect? Did I actually do something wrong?
PLEASE leave your comments to give some insight and advice on how I could avoid these situations in the future. But this experience also stirs up many questions on our social system and educational system. What is behind their violent behaviour? How do we protect ourselves? We live in a small town - what do you do if you can't avoid them?
