AITA for cussing at a lady at the park?

A Reddit user shared a story about a confrontation at a park after two kids took their younger sister’s bike without permission. The user, a 14-year-old boy, initially tried to resolve the issue politely but ended up in a heated exchange with the kids’ mother, who dismissed his concerns and made offensive assumptions about his relationship with his sister.

After the situation escalated, the mother left angrily, and when the user recounted the story to his mom, he was chastised for his language. Now, he’s questioning whether his reaction was justified. To read more about the encounter and how others responded, check out the full story below.

‘ AITA for cussing at a lady at the park?’

I (14M) recently took my sister (4F) to a park close to my house, she was pretty excited to go because her dad bought her a bicycle and she wanted to try it out. When we arrived there was a lady with her 2 sons and a daughter, I made eye contact with the lady and just smiled and waved at her to be nice.

After 15 minutes or so my sister was playing on the swings because she got scared and didn’t want to ride the bicycle anymore. I looked away for a second to say hello to my uncle since he lives close to us and he was passing by and when I turned my head around to check on my sister I saw she was crying and the lady’s sons were using my sisters bike,

I approached the kids and politely asked them to please leave the bike alone and use theirs (the 3 kids had brought their own bikes) they ignored me and continued to play with the bike. I decided to go up to the lady and ask her if she could talk to her sons,

she responded with “My kids are having fun and yours isn’t using the bike so I don’t see a problem” I then responded with “I’m aware that she isn’t using it, but it’s her bike and your kids have their bikes so I don’t see a reason for them to use hers” she then started going on about how I have no reason to talk to her like that if I was going around getting girls pregnant,

insinuating that my sister was my daughter, at this point I was pissed and didn’t want to deal with this lady so I angrily said “Lady, she’s my sister, and I believe I have the right to talk considering I’m not being a little b**ch, so I’m going to ask again, are you going to tell your little rats to get off my sisters bike or not”,

she then got up and told her kids to get in the car. Later when I got home I told my mom about it thinking she would see it as a funny story, boy was I wrong, she started going on about how I was so rude to that lady and that I need to learn to respect my elders. Am I the a**hole?

These are the responses from Reddit users:

Unseen_Owl −  NTA at all, and your mother is wrong (and you can just go ahead and *tell* her that some old man on the internet told you so, too. That should settle it for her). I totally disagree with everyone who said it was partly your fault. I think you handled it splendidly.

You were perfectly polite and reasonable when you first approached Crazy Lady, and the first time she was rude to you, you were again polite and reasonable. When she started yapping at you about being your sister’s babydaddy, she crossed the line, and you were well within your rights (and within reasonable boundaries) to let her have it.

Why are you supposed to still be respectful to her? S**ew her. She didn’t earn any respect. Good for you. If you were my son and you came home and told me that story, I’d have loaded you into the car and taken you to your favorite fast food place to pig out.

robynkuka −  NTA as a mum of a 14m and 4f if you were my kids I’d be how proud of you regardless if you swore or not. The way I read you didn’t call her a b**ch and you held your own. It’s that adult who should be embarrassed of the way she responded and let her children behave.

Watchatatcha24001 −  NTA. Your mom has a really weird way to reacting to these things…

LittleBlondBrit −  Nta. “Ok, then hand over your car keys. You’re clearly not using it as you’re playing with your kids right now. I’ll bring it right back when I’m done.”. Edit: Thanks for the awards!

upthecreekwthnocanoe −  NTA, good for you. Adults are not always right, and feel free to call them out and stick up for your little sister when she is being bullied.
Carry on being a good sport by being better parent than that lady when you’re older, and even better than your mum so you only bring good kids into the world!. Well done.

Eskabarbarian_1 −  Info: Are you from a culture where elders are auto-entitled to respect (eg. Korean)? NTA either way. that woman clearly wants to teach her boys how to bully and take what isn’t theirs. Great parenting

acetrainerjayce −  NTA Honestly I would have just yanked the bike out from under the kid and told the mother to put a leash on her animals.

AllyAddams −  You’re 14!? Wow I wish I had the 🏈⚽️🏀 to defend myself from rude adults at your age.

Fabulous_Quality2149 −  Those kids had no business on your sister’s bike. You asked the kids to get off your sister’s bike. They didn’t. You asked the lady to get her kids off your sister’s bike. She ignored you.

And the lady went off acting like the morality police… she had no business even if she was right… and she was wrong! Showing a little attitude was called for in this instance.. NTA

NotMyFirstChoice675 −  NTA. Your mum needs a reality check I’m afraid.