Am I in the wrong?

[Rikk]

Am in the wrong for yelling at a child?

I’m a 36F and I like to ice skate for fitness. I am not an advanced skater. I was on a public session when I felt someone ramming into me from behind. Basically I was clipped from behind on the right side. I yelled ‘Jesus!’ on impact (I couldn’t see that it was a child at that point.) When I caught my balance yelled out ‘You can’t do that, it’s dangerous!’ Anyway, the child skates off the ice sobbing. It turns out this was a child in a group lesson and her teacher came over to apologize to me. A few minutes later I got off the ice and apologized to the girl and her mother. I got no apology from either of them, but I still feel bad that the girl was crying. So am I in the wrong?

 

[Mathman]

Stuff happens. The teacher was right to apologize to you. You were right to apologize to the child and her mother. The mother should have cautioned her daughter about being more aware of other skaters on the ice. Older skaters need to be especially cognizant of children during public sessions. Everything's cool. Jesus understands.

 

[icewhite]

yeah just happens
I was very sensitive as a child as well. Children are different, but it's okay to be upset in the moment when someone skates into you. You apologized, that was the right thing to do.

 

[Rebecca Moose]

no, not at all

i'm tired of whiny entitled brats these days and their parents enabling that behavior by excessively coddling them

 

[viennaskater]

no, not at all

i'm tired of whiny entitled brats these days and their parents enabling that behavior by excessively coddling them

With you 100%.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

You were on a public session so not much you could do, other than report them to rink staff. Yes, I would have said something as well and gave no care. Coach should have been advising child skater the proper ways of the ice and that coach should have also been with their skater. Also, why was a group lesson happening on a public session. That's odd.

Had this happened on club session, the skate director would have been informed immediately had it been me.

 

[icewhite]

You were on a public session so not much you could do, other than report them to rink staff. Yes, I would have said something as well and gave no care. Coach should have been advising child skater the proper ways of the ice and that coach should have also been with their skater. Also, why was a group lesson happening on a public session. That's odd.

Had this happened on club session, the skate director would have been informed immediately had it been me.

Totally depends on where you live. Here private lessons are very rare, group lessons also but sometimes they happen during the public times. Most of the non-public times the rinks are closed for hockey training. And during the public lessons I constantly get people skating into me, sometimes little children, sometimes teenagers, sometimes even adults. Sometimes they apologize, sometimes not. And sometimes it's so crowded that when someone skates into me it happens I cannot help but fall into someone else... There are rules of course but nobody enforces them and very many people don't respect them since the others don't either... Or they don't even know... To have the luxury of more or less free ice is... well, a luxury.

Of course the child should also have apologized but first of all I don't know how old it was and secondly I remember myself, a very frightened, insecure child who likely would have held back the tears but would have been so ashamed if I did something that made an adult call me out. My non apology would then not have been due to impoliteness but the impossibility to even speak to an unknown adult...

That's why I think the poster did nothing wrong, but the child is absolutely not necessarily a "spoilt brat".

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Totally depends on where you live. Here private lessons are very rare, group lessons also but sometimes they happen during the public times. Most of the non-public times the rinks are closed for hockey training. And during the public lessons I constantly get people skating into me, sometimes little children, sometimes teenagers, sometimes even adults. Sometimes they apologize, sometimes not. And sometimes it's so crowded that when someone skates into me it happens I cannot help but fall into someone else... There are rules of course but nobody enforces them and very many people don't respect them since the others don't either... Or they don't even know... To have the luxury of more or less free ice is... well, a luxury.

Of course the child should also have apologized but first of all I don't know how old it was and secondly I remember myself, a very frightened, insecure child who likely would have held back the tears but would have been so ashamed if I did something that made an adult call me out. My non apology would then not have been due to impoliteness but the impossibility to even speak to an unknown adult...

That's why I think the poster did nothing wrong, but the child is absolutely not necessarily a "spoilt brat".

I never said it didn't ever happen on public ice, I said it was odd. And I also said in initial post that the coach should've had control of where that child was skating etc, it should have been in the middle of the ice with the rest of the children in the group lesson. Not doing laps around the rink terrorizing other skaters.

 

[noskates]

Seems like the coach is the most responsible here for not having control over her student(s) Having a class during a public ice time seems a bit counterproductive but then......as I always say.....I raised a rugby player so what do I know!!!

 

[Magill]

Whatever happened was unfortunate, of course, and emotions were understandable. OTOH, this kind of accidents - skaters bumping into each other - were reported happening during skating club practices and even during competition warmups among most elite skaters, obviously much better trained to be mindful about others on the ice than a child at a public rink. Still they happened, and some of them were much more terrible, with much more dangerous consequences, too. So it seems the ice is slippery and accidents happen all the time, no matter how well trained and mindful we are. Personally I would not rush to conclusions as we do not really know how it happened here and why it happened. One thing we know for sure is that no one got hurt - and that's lucky and something to be truly grateful for and happy about.

 

[Rikk]

You were on a public session so not much you could do, other than report them to rink staff. Yes, I would have said something as well and gave no care. Coach should have been advising child skater the proper ways of the ice and that coach should have also been with their skater. Also, why was a group lesson happening on a public session. That's odd.

Had this happened on club session, the skate director would have been informed immediately had it been me.

Not sure why the lesson was during a public session. Often times at that rink there are cones in a rectangle in the middle of the rink to block off the lesson area for those taking lessons. However this incident occurred outside that designated area so I don’t know why they were there

 

[Rikk]

Whatever happened was unfortunate, of course, and emotions were understandable. OTOH, this kind of accidents - skaters bumping into each other - were reported happening during skating club practices and even during competition warmups among most elite skaters, obviously much better trained to be mindful about others on the ice than a child at a public rink. Still they happened, and some of them were much more terrible, with much more dangerous consequences, too. So it seems the ice is slippery and accidents happen all the time, no matter how well trained and mindful we are. Personally I would not rush to conclusions as we do not really know how it happened here and why it happened. One thing we know for sure is that no one got hurt - and that's lucky and something to be truly grateful for and happy about.

True, no one was hurt and I am grateful for that