Today my family went to see the Women’s Super League game of Aston Villa vs. Manchester United. It was the first game of the season and the first women’s game that we had been to. We chose seats in the family stand as we always do when we go to the football with the kids but really didn’t expect this to be something that we needed to worry about. As a Manchester United fan myself, I was mindful that I was going to have to be discreet if we scored only to realise that the stands were a mixed and both sets of fans were together; this is unusual for football but it was refreshing (or so I thought).
We were really enjoying the game until the man sitting behind Rich started to show his frustration by using bad language and an aggressive tone. When Manchester United scored, and some young fans in front of us stood up and cheered, the man behind us shouted at them using expletives. Rich challenged him about it which led to an extremely unpleasant encounter; it left the whole family feeling very uncomfortable and shocked. What was so upsetting was how quickly it escalated and the horrendous reaction of the man and his wife to our simple request for him to keep the swearing down. I was horrified in particular that they were so aggressive with us with their own kids in tow.
In the end, Rich had to fetch a steward. Not one person seated near us chimed in to corroborate our complaint, despite the wife of the man launching a vile verbal tirade which must have been heard by the people seated nearby. The family were moved anyway and when we caught up with the same steward at the end of the game, the woman had apparently shown who she was by making some spurious allegation about him, threatening to get him sacked.
After the game, Evelina was so upset as she realised that the couple’s children were being exposed to horrible parenting. I was upset for the same reason as I see the results of this sort of parenting in the classroom. What was meant to be a fun day out ended on a very sour note.
We talked about it quite a bit on the way home and then again after dinner this evening. Rich asked me if if I thought he had done the wrong thing by saying something to the guy. I told him that if he hadn’t, then we certainly wouldn’t have had any unpleasantness, and we would’ve had to have just told the children to ignore him, But then I also pointed out that he did the right thing and so it doesn’t feel right that doing the right thing is the wrong decision.
For what it is worth, we have reported the incident to the club although really, it came to nothing. And I am sure there will be people out there who just think ‘what do you expect?’ like we are just meant to accept that people can act horribly to other people (including children – the targets of the initial verbal attack) and just keep our heads down and ignore it. That just doesn’t sit right with me. Sadly we will be hesitant about taking the kids to more games and if we do and we’re in the same situation again, we will certainly think twice about challenging antisocial behaviour even if it is the right thing to do.
Notes From My Day 