Fancy having a young child in the sun yesterday. It'll probably be dead by 12 due to skin cancer.

And here is where I am wondering why this even needed to have the explanation above.

Kamarate was pretty clear about the situation and yet, people went from the story to a totally different understanding/interpretation/comments...

Why I am not surprised?

Murphy undoubtedly had children.


Any mom worth her stretch marks will get their kid in the shade, even if that means overlapping someone's towel.

But, back to the OP, after the first few hundred diaper changes (about 2 weeks old) you learn how to do it discretely even in a crowded area. Not sure about 20cms... that's 7.874 inches... but regardless, it is easy enough to shift baby to another part of the blanket a bit further away.

My husband and I came back to my stuff from a swim in the lake to find some woman sprawled out with her feet all over my husband's towel.

The hubby isn't too impressed with things like that (he's got a foot phobia, especially when they were as dirty as this woman's) and he asked her if she wanted to take the towel home and wash it.

I understand people sitting close to you when it's really crowded, but it happens too often that you get towels and parasols being set up almost on top of your own site for no apparent reason. I like to think it's because I am a gorgeous hip chick and people wanna be close to me...

Fortunately we unleash the secret weapon of the 4 year old who will run riot with very little encouragement which often creates our own personal ground zero, especially if he is soaking wet and armed with squirty guns.

It is hot and lots of us are bored and sitting in an office.
Posting on EF is about the only thing you can do now because coffee doesn't taste that well when it is so warm

children and dogs are so useful arent they?

I love how my dog shakes off any excessive water randomly on anyone sitting too close to me.

PS kamarate, I'll lend you the little fella if you like. If anyone displays disgust, you can always tell them to sit further away.

Get out of my head, Meisie

The best is when you bring your own umbrella and people come to sit under...

Some friends of mine are fighting with the other residents on the new housing development in which they live because some active participants want to purchase "an umbrella" from the common funds.

How this will work in practice is anyones guess.

AYB

I used to be shocked and appalled (and sometimes rather faint) by my own son's nappies. Nasty.

I was so engrossed in what I was doing I didn't notice until I smelled it (I'd just eaten my lunch too!). Kid's bum was right next to my face, mum's elbows were probably jabbing around my ears somewhere, but she didn't get me... think that would have added insult to injury!

Thanks for all the replies (well, the balanced ones, anyway ). This certainly wasn't intended to be a mother/baby-bashing thread as some of you seem to have inferred... more a place to rant about behaviour you've found to be absolutely incredible (in a bad way, obviously). My story just happened to involve a baby and its inconsiderate mother.

Well, the nappy itself isn't the issue - I used to work in a nursing home, so I've seen my fair share of soiled nappies (and the rest ). The difference is that I was getting paid there to have that kind of thing shoved under my nose - I wasn't trying to have a pleasant afternoon out!

Should we hear more of the "shock and awwwwwwwwwww" rather than the "Shock and Awe" ?

AYB

The thing is an idiot is an idiot, when the idiot becomes parent, president, rich, bald, hero, etc. He still an idiot.

So yes, it isn't a bashing against kids. It is not the fault of the poor kid if his mother is an idiot.

Fully agree. Some mums seem to be in a bubble of "I have a child now so I have no feckin' idea of what's socially acceptable anymore." I'm sure I slip into that category now and again but I'd never subject anyone to a nose full of soiled nappy like that.

Sometimes it's a bit of a faff to get a kid to keep still and you sometimes have to change him at the spot where you finally got a decent rugby tackle in but even so, you can still shift them about a bit so the people around you don't get too involved.

I would have definitely said something to her, mucky missus.

Yes, they have a word for it "Lebensraum". They have traditionally followed it up with tanks and Ju-87 Stukas when forcefully creating more space for their towels.

Next time may I suggest being a little better prepared when it comes to putting a towel out.

We can start a new thread with this topic..
WTF is wrong with the European parents???? They let their kids run around naked with maybe sunscreen only.. Don't they know what is a rash vest???

From where I am from, parents put hats and long sleeves rash vest for their kids (and themselves sometimes)and avoid sun between 11:30-14:30..

Why do the parents want their kid to die of skin cancer??? They do not like kids here??

Unrelated to the OP, I know... but did anyone else think, just for a split second, that the (advert) photo below was meant to illustrate the accompanying headline?