Outrageous ageism at the toddler singalong!!

Don't think you should complain. Get together a small group of grannies and their DGCs and teach them all the words are "The Grannies on the bus all smile at me". Then take them along to the next session and sing VERY LOUDLY at the same time fixing the organiser with a deadly stare. Bet he changes his tune (sorry words) !

This thread could of course be a wind up.

Well, as I've said on another thread it's not likely to be a wind-up when the OP is an established poster.

In that case I apologize if I'm wrong.

I've been a grumpy bunny today.

And I seem to be defending posters who should be defending themselves!

Must be something in the water (I blame the government again...)

Having come to this late, I too think it is highly offensive and I don't care if the play leader was smiling or swinging from the lampshade. It is not funny, it is downright rude, let's not let him off with "ageist", but say what it is, "bl**dy rude* and entirely inappropriate.
I think the event should have been named and shamed and I cannot see how OP could have found it amusing, even if she feels she doesn't "offend", it could be totally offensive to other elderly people and it is not helpful to poke fun at grandparents. Full stop.

There were no grannies on the bus !

Ha Ha, Greenfinch That's because they were all on Dial A Ride

Or the government had withdrawn their bus passes.

Or possibly driving their sports cars at breakneck speed and overtaking the bus.
This young (?) man needs to be taken down a peg or three. I think I might have been tempted to 'out' this organiser in a letter to the local press, or even invited an undercover reporter to visit the next event with me.

Lots of posts

Seems I need to defend myself??

I was looking after my grandson all day yesterday then went out to dinner and the theatre, so no opportunity to respond.

This did happen,I assure people.

In detail: singer asks each time for suggestions from the audience for verses ie wheels, then bell, then wipers, then driver. Conversation went like this:

Singer: "ok, what's next?"

Audience (or one or two children, or mothers/fathers): "grannies"

Snger: "ok, what do they do?"

Audience: silence

Singer: "nothing?"

Audience: silence

Singer: "ok....lets say they smell of wee.."

And he launched into the verse.

It is ridiculous and of course he was rude, but a lot of his style was poor - asides to the adults throughout and so on.

There were no organisers to complain to. He was the organiser, one of the owners of the bookshop where the session was held, but I gather not the usual one who lead the session.

Oh, it was a bookshop. Have they got a Twitter account? We could 'deal' with them.

No dealing with them, ta! I should have made a calm, dignified and gentle comment at the time. The moment has passed. If it happens again, I will say something. But they don't deserve a 'monstering' on Twitter

Sounds as if he was an ignorant stupid man.Hard to believe that nobody complained though.

I think that version of the song is outrageous. Another thing that annoys me are the Tena Lady products being advertised on tv. It says "laugh all you want". As if the average lady can't laugh without wetting herself. It really bugs me.

I would have been very annoyed ! and said something . You can't teach children things like that !

Calm, dignified and gentle???

I'd have given him a knuckle sandwich.

Good for you, merlot.

It's hard to think what to do when taken by surprise like that.
I think it'd still be worth having a word with whoever does usually run the session then it's up to them if they do anything about it.

How nice if some of the kiddies later had a chat with their granny about smelling of wee!

elena I would have spoken up there and then and told him the children do not need to be taught rubbish like that.

That's one thing I like about being older, I don't hold back!

I do agree with FarNorth that it's not easy to respond appropriately in these circumstances. It's been easy for all of us, with time to frame our responses, to say "Oh I would have said this / done that". But would we? I mean, would we have thought of it there and then? Quite probably not - we'd have thought of it when we got home, or on the way home. We would have said, "THAT'S what I should have said! God, I wish I'd thought of that at the time!"

But, I think I can say hand on heart that, having thought of what I should have said, I would have gone back to the shop and said it. I would definitely have given the fellow a bit of a dressing down.

Are you sure the organiser wasn't Jeremy Clarkson? He made a similar comment on "Who do you think you are" about the fact that his mum was doing OK so far and not smelling of wee yet.

That was several years ago but for me it summed up his total bad attitude to others. This presenter sounds as utterly obnoxious as well.

Ana - my apologies - completely clear to me now. I was, regrettably, under the influence of one too many vinos at the time and clearly didn't read the post properly. Must remember NOT to post when indulging. Thanks for pointing it out!!