"How distrustful the world has become of each other.
In the last month Ive seen two woman struggling with a child and bags of groceries to get to the car. Both of them declined my offer to help and one stared at me like I had snot running out my nose.
About a year ago I offered to help a woman with her bags and her 4 or 5 year old daughter, I was answered in the following way. "My daughter doesn't talk to males ever and that's the way Im gonna keep it".
I have pretty much given up trying to help anyone anymore, I find I am treated like a criminal, I dress ok, Im clean, I drive a good car and Im friendly.
But I wont offer to help anymore unless its an emergency."
------------------- AllforOne: I can so understand your disappointment. It's a tricky one and something I've thought about quite a lot when I see someone who seems to be struggling.
I think the potential problem is that the offer of help can be seen as intimating that the 'helpee' is not capable of managing his/her own situation. I've watched people in wheelchairs finding it difficult to reach a product in a supermarket, and in that instance I don't hesitate to ask "may I reach something for you". No fuss. Just a 'yes thanks, a packet of xxx, please', then a polite thank you and that's it.
On the other hand there's a chap in a wheelchair whom I regularly see negotiating his way out of the supermarket into the car park where he opens his boot, and - with difficulty - gets his bags into it, then slowly gets the chair folded as he gets into the driver's seat. It is clearly a routine he has worked out and I suspect it gives him a real sense of satisfaction that, despite his disability, he can still be independent.
So in that instance I wouldn't offer.
Some women, the feminazi types, can be extremely rude by not just simply saying 'thank you' if a bloke opens a door for them. I'm female and am perfectly happy to hold a door open for a bloke or a woman who happens to be following me into a shop. Simple basic good manners are not hard and make our everyday society transactions so much more pleasant.
