Not a real “work” issue but tangentially related and need to vent/hear opinions. We are visiting Disney World with our four year old and for my wife’s birthday. I’ve been immensely stressed with work and parents/in-laws among other things. Yesterday we are sitting in a show in a theater at the park and we sit down. People behind us want to go past us (apparently you’re supposed to move all the down the aisle but it was half full and most people wanted to sit in the middle and were doing so)….

Maybe next time don’t rush to be first to enter a theater if you don’t want to follow the guidance and go all the way down to allow others in behind without climbing all over you. It would have completely avoided any incident if you just followed the rules. Any seat can see just fine in any of those theater shows. Disney is always packed and everyone is at high stress. The guidelines are there for a reason.

Him smashing your foot is never justified, and you thinking your family is above the rules isn’t either.

Are you sure you are not reading too much into this? Is it possible that he was just getting past you and wrapped up in how stressful Disney is with kids and unintentionally stepped on you? It happens all the time. Should he have apologized? Yes. However he may have been wrapped up in his own head and not noticed. Calling him out to his back and disappearing is not calling him out at all, just a passive aggressive way of saying something that really accomplished nothing. Hopefully it at least made you feel better.

Guy walks past my wife and daughter and stomps down on my foot as hard as he can and keeps walking, presumably annoyed that we sat down in the middle of the aisle (as almost everyone was doing).

I yelled out at the time and he completely ignores it and then after the show I walked up behind him and called him out and continued walking like I wasn’t there.

I gave context about my stress because I definitely did not handle that the right way but also wouldn’t be comfortable saying nothing. I’m having trouble processing it entirely.

How would others handle this situation?

It sounds like an accident and like you egregiously overreacted to someone who didn’t engage either because they are sane or because there were kids around.

Wow. So aggressive. I am sorry that happened to you. Honestly, in front of my kids I would have remained as calm as possible, which is what you did. In my mind yelling at someone is a lot calmer then physical retaliation. I guess the question comes down to where you irate and screaming at him in front of others?? I would definitely would have said something to him and probably grabbed security mostly for my kids to show them escalation of things and not taking matters into my hand.

How big was the guy ? What are your physical characteristics? That unfortunately also plays into this. I am 6 4 and 225 so most people do not intemediate me and I would have perosonlly used that to my advantage if it wasn't in front of my children....

Some people are just asses.... I am sure you keep on replaying this in your head but try and let it roll of your shoulders and focus on your wife and kids while on vacation!!!

People are so dumb. You reacted fine. I’m guessing if these naysayers had their foot smashed by a stranger while with their family they’d just apologize profusely 🙄 You confronted the guy who physically assaulted you and when he wussed out you gave him some choice words and moved on, didn’t escalate it further and went back to your family. Proper reaction in my book. (Worth noting idk what the seating rules are there but regardless even if you weren’t following the rules he could’ve asked politely for you to move down or idk…communicate like a normal human before stomping on your foot?) Part of me wishes you muay thai teeped him into the next row lol

A simple “I’m sorry” would have been nice from that person especially if you made him aware of what had happened. No one deserves to be treated this way. My husband would have done the same.