I was eating dinner at a lebanese resturant with my dad tonight. It was a great dinner, we were eating good, drinking a couple of beers and catching up. In the middle of the dinner my dad points to a painting across the hall and asks if i know who is on it (since i know arabic and have lived in Tunisia and Egypt, he thinks i might recognize the portrayed Arabic musician).
I confess that i do not know, but i pull out my phone to take a picture so i can ask my arabic friends about it because my dad was clearly curious about it.
We finish our dinner and when we are about to leave the owner of the resturaunt pull us over and inform us that two old ladies seated next to us had complained about us and accused us of filming and harassing them for hours.
We are like WTF and ask who they’re talking about, then the owner points outside to two ladies that are just leaving, We rush out and confront them, and it turns out that they were sitting below the painting that me and my dad had been talking about and photographing. They had missunderstood the situation and thought we were actually pointing at them and filming them. We said we were sorry for the missunderstanding and tried to explain what had really happened, but they insisted that it was our fault anyways for not “observing social rules” and refused to accept our apology.
Both me and my father left the resturant with a sour taste, our evening ruined.
Were we the assholes?
Comments
^^^^AUTOMOD Thanks for posting! READ THIS COMMENT – DO NOT SKIM. This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything.
I was eating dinner at a lebanese resturant with my dad tonight. It was a great dinner, we were eating good, drinking a couple of beers and catching up. In the middle of the dinner my dad points to a painting across the hall and asks if i know who is on it (since i know arabic and have lived in Tunisia and Egypt, he thinks i might recognize the portrayed Arabic musician).
I confess that i do not know, but i pull out my phone to take a picture so i can ask my arabic friends about it because my dad was clearly curious about it.
We finish our dinner and when we are about to leave the owner of the resturaunt pull us over and inform us that two old ladies seated next to us had complained about us and accused us of filming and harassing them for hours.
We are like WTF and ask who they’re talking about, then the owner points outside to two ladies that are just leaving, We rush out and confront them, and it turns out that they were sitting below the painting that me and my dad had been talking about and photographing. They had missunderstood the situation and thought we were actually pointing at them and filming them. We said we were sorry for the missunderstanding and tried to explain what had really happened, but they insisted that it was our fault anyways for not “observing social rules” and refused to accept our apology.
Both me and my father left the resturant with a sour taste, our evening ruined.
Were we the assholes?
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our voting guide here, and remember to use only one judgement in your comment.
OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> 1. I was carelessly taking a public in a crowded public enviroment that could have been percieved as me photographing or filming strangers. This was compounded by the fact that my father was pointing in the direction that i was photographing.
The question is should our apology and explanation have been enough?
Help keep the sub engaging!
Don’t downvote assholes!
Do upvote interesting posts!
Click Here For Our Rules and Click Here For Our FAQ
Subreddit Announcements
Follow the link above to learn more
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
Info: if you know that this was just a misunderstanding then who cares?
NTA. When confronted with reason and logic, these women absolutely could not fathom not being the center of attention. Especially elderly women thinking anyone is is fawning over them. The absurdity of narcissism strikes again. It actually is that simple.
Nta
Why did you confront them and apologize? You did nothing wrong and they were liars who said you were harassing them for hours. Obviously no productive conversation was going to happen.
Claims to have lived in Tunisia and Egypt, doesn’t know pointing is considered rude. It’s also generally considered rude to take pictures of other people without their consent. You might not have been taking a picture of them directly, but most people that see a camera point at them by a stranger probably aren’t going to like it.
>confront them
Ah yes, approaching strangers with hostility is definitely going to make them think differently about you than they already do.
>They had missunderstood the situation and thought we were actually pointing at them and filming them.
That’s their prerogative. And with how terminally online so many people are, constantly filming and posting other people, their conclusion wasn’t exactly misguided.
They’re not obligated to accept your apology.
YTA.
NTA they jump to conclusions. I wouldn’t worry about it.
I always watch the direction that my phone is pointing when using it, especially in a place like a gym. I always make sure the back is pointed down, because you know someone going to say you’re filming them.
So, what was it? Were they seated next to you, or across the hall under the painting?
“two old ladies seated next to us”
“my dad points to a painting across the hall”
“they were sitting below the painting”
Please come back once you have your story straight, because right now YTA.
YTA. If you had just explained to the owner what you did and left it at that you’d be fine. Confronting them made you the AH.
NTA, Offcourse they were right to accuse you of filming them. But after the explanation, they should have accepted your apology. Anyway you should have just explained everything to the owner. Why bother confronting self centered people?
Sounds like a product of unfortunate circumstances, none of your actions seem particularly out of the ordinary or malicious to me.
NTA
YTA
I don’t think it is a big deal at all, but if you’re taking a picture with your camera clearly pointed towards people who see you doing it, it would be polite to acknowledge them and explain. Maybe by pointing upwards to the painting.
Some people really would rather not have photos taken of them, and it is polite to respect that.
Not a huge issue, but your actions caused them discomfort, and if you’d been more aware you probably would have acted differently.
NTA, if the “ladies” want to carry on being angry for no reason then that’s their problem.
How were these two old ladies sitting next to you and across the hall at the same time? This doesn’t make any sense.
There was no need to confront them.
Nah