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Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigCreek
Let's just not climb on statues or permit our kids to climb on statues, unless said statues are specifically designed and intended for climbing purposes.
If they're the type to not be climbed over, they probably aren't the type to sit on or against either.
Probably not. She'll probably just yell about how statues are dangerous and should be outlawed. People like that don't learn.
By the OP's own admission, the mother removed her children when she realized that the OP was bothered. What else should she have done? Some people actually don't mind children playing around them in a park, so until the OP climbed the statue and blocked the children, the mother may not have even been aware there was an issue.
Let's say the park has picnic tables and a grill, which you are using. I come along with my family, and we all start unpacking our picnic at the table you are using, and set our hot dogs next to your burgers on the grill. Now what do you do?
The OP was using the public statue for a legitimate purpose. Other people do not have an unbounded right to disturb her peace. Which is why "disturbing the peace" is a criminal act in some and maybe all jurisdictions. This is not to say that the kids did or did not have a right to play on the statue at that time and place. It is to say that a civil society requires people to make judgment calls, and quality of life in a social arena requires judicious ones, that take the interests of all parties into account without excessive confrontation. Sometimes, in the give and take, you have to give.
Consider this scenario. The children have, as children do, a particular fascination for this particular statue, and they look forward to some essential aspect of playing on that particular statue. From time to time, they beg "Mommy, mommy, can we go play on the statue today?" Yes, OK, but when they get there, there is somebody sitting on it with a laptop, who could just as well be anywhere else, because we've been looking forward for days to playing on "our statue". That's OK, we can play around her for a while, it doesn't matter that she is occupying our statue -- we don't mind sharing.
As has been pointed out, it is a public park. Perhaps you should have gone around the corner to the other statue. I can sympathize though. There is a spot up in the hills that overlooks a beautiful lake. It has a large cleared space and then there is a very, very small space farther along on the roadside. I love to sit at the latter place, especially early in the a.m., and look at the lake.
From time to time a tourist will squeeze their car in next to mine, unload a gaggle of kids and relatives and begin yapping their guts out and snapping shots, etc. etc. Yes, I am annoyed that my quiet time is obliterated, but it is a public area, and that's that.
By the OP's own admission, the mother removed her children when she realized that the OP was bothered. What else should she have done? Some people actually don't mind children playing around them in a park, so until the OP climbed the statue and blocked the children, the mother may not have even been aware there was an issue.
I never said the mother was evil incarnate. I just think that parents should not allow their kids to climb on the base of statues and run around. Not only is it dangerous but it teaches them to disrespect monuments. And when there is a whole park and I happen to be in that space, an aware mother would have noticed this and acted accordingly.
It is a PUBLIC space. So I suppose when you are in public, anything goes? You say, to hell with other people, I have a RIGHT to play my smartphone like a radio, blow smoke in people's faces, etc. As long as there isn't a law, I will do whatever, whenever.
Clearly this is an edge case and people are about 50/50 on how to respond to it. In such grey areas, as others have pointed out, you have to recognize it's a public space, you don't have 100% right to expect everyone else to make the same judgment calls as you would, there is a certain juvenile quality to an "I was here first and have dibs on it" argument, etc. As a parent I would steer my kids away from the statue if someone was quietly enjoying it already and respect their personal space. It looks like this mother was only guilty of being a bit distracted or inattentive until she woke up to what was going on.
Bottom line, if I want uninterrupted personal space in a public area, the library would be about the only one where there is a ruleset in place and mostly enforced, for peace and quiet and leaving other people the heck alone. Minus the absolute quiet, a table at a Starbucks or similar will do. Other than that, you should be sitting at home or in some other private space, or if none such is available, you just have to make do.
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People like that don't learn.
