Woman hits 'close door button' on elevator with a family coming; gets called 'b*tch.'
'AITA for purposely shutting a woman and her kids out of the elevator?'
I (20sF) was on my way to a specialist's Dr appointment in a complex that has many different offices for different branches of medicine, including family practices and a large clinic.
I got into an elevator to take me to the right floor, and I was all alone. Then I heard an angry woman and several shrill voices, all arguing, and a woman with a gaggle of children rounded a corner. Four children, the oldest probably no older than 10. One was loudly crying, two were screaming and arguing.
The mom said something like 'everyone shut up, we can look in the elevator!' Then she looked up, locked eyes with me & shouted down the hall 'please hold it!'
I didn't WANT to hold it. It was a small elevator & I didn't want to be crammed into it with 5 other people, most of which were screaming or bawling. And as they got closer, I saw that some of the kids looked obviously sick. So I started pressing the door close button over and over.
She saw me doing this and yelled for me to stop and started jogging down the hall, but the doors closed before they made it. I went to my appointment feeling a bit bad, but relieved. We're in a pandemic!
On my way back out to my car, the woman and I saw each other in the parking lot. She screamed at me that I was a f**king b*tch for making her life harder than it already is, said I'm a selfish cunt, flipped me off, got in her van and tore out.
I know taking care of four kids alone is hard, but I feel like that was... pretty over the top? Especially because of covid? But I can't help but feel sort of guilty.
Here's what people said in the comments:
chefwalleye writes:
Door close buttons rarely do anything on an elevator so she wouldn’t have made the door unless you had actually held it. Really just a passive AH if anything.
taylor914 writes:
Depends on if you’re in the US or not. In the US most of them don’t work because of the ADA. Elevators must remain open long enough for a disabled person to get on. Outside of the US, just depends.
obsequious_lens8745 OP responded:
I'm not American.
MuppetusMaximus writes:
C'mon, you looked a harried parent directly in the eye and all but slammed a door in her face.
You're gonna get a lot of NTAs here and a lot of 'you go gurl, you don't own anybody anything' and a lot of child-free asshats who hate kids telling you good job.
But you looked a frustrated mother directly in the eye and slammed a door in her face. I hope the roles are never reversed on you.
YTA
obsequious_lens8745 OP responded:
Yeah, I feel pretty shitty about it. I just panicked, I'm immunocompromised and so are my parents, I already survived covid once & it was rough. I was afraid of getting it again through exposure
OrigamiCrocodile writes:
I'm a mother. You're absolutely not the AH. The woman was unhinged.
obsequious_lens8745 OP responded:
I mean I'd be 'unhinged' too if I had to deal with all she had to deal with. I feel bad
msdu5276769 writes:
YTA. Part of living in a society is being kind to strangers, even if it's not a perfect utopian moment for you.
obsequious_lens8745 writes:
I think we can all agree that in our current state of living no one is expecting utopia. We're basically in a hellscape. I know it was probably rude, but I just really don't want covid AGAIN on top of an already record-setting shitty year & felt like NOT taking an elevator with a gaggle of sick kids would help that. I also just kind of panicked
CantaloupeArtistic65 writes:
NTA, if she has to RUN for the elevator (and then she would have to wait for the kids to catch up) then she can just wait for the next elevator. Also, who wants to be in a small elevator with sick kids? Meh, survival of the fittest, lol. I personally would probably have held the door, let them in and then taken the stairs.
8bitterror writes:
Pro-tip: next time, press the close door button but say 'I'm hitting open but it's not working! I'm so sorry!' That probably makes me an asshole but it's what I would've done. NTA.