Do you "challenge" people in the street re dropping litter etc?

Sometimes, although not as much as I used to - there only so much verbal abuse you can take.

Some peopls live worse than animals, and no amount of suggestions / gentle encouragement will change them.

I'd like to see PCSOs / the Police take a far harder line. But then the tabloids would just rant about how they should be catching "real" criminals.

I have done, yes. I choose carefully though as I don't want to be beaten up. ?

On saturday, I was walking through Twickenham just by the station and a bloke spat his chewing gum onto the road, right where the pedestrian crossing is. I told him he was disgusting and that I hoped he sat in some himself later on. Dirty git.

No. I'd like to, but I hate confrontation and am physically a lot smaller than most people (5ft1) and therefore can feel a bit intimidated if someone's having a go at me.

Yes, I do, although since I was assaulted at 3.30pm in the middle of Putney High Street for asking two teenage boys to pick up their litter and put it in the bin less than 5 yards from where they were standing I'm a little more cautious now. The police told me that my attitude was admirable but a little foolhardy ?.

I also ask people playing their music out loud on buses etc to turn it down, and have been known to run after dog owners waving a poo bag so they can clean up after their dog.

I am so going to get stabbed one day...

I've had a couple of major rows with yoofs on buses over music.

The streets of sarf London will run red with the blood of the bossy middle class women ?

No, I'm too much of a wuss. I normally tut and give filthy looks which is cowardly and ridiculous as it'll probably still get a hostile reaction.

You, me and Anne Widdecombe ?

Often, and have generally been told to 'eff off'.

I've also told two motorists to slow down as they sped by in a residential area when I was unloading the kids - both reversed up the road to give me a mouthful in front of my children, then sped off again. Knobbers.

I also intervened between two blokes about to have a fist fight outside the local school (it's a nice area, honest - they were both driving Audis ?). To my eternal shame I channelled my Kentish-born-and-bred Nanna and shouted "Oi - there's kids abaht!".

(Terrifying-and-almost-certainly-up-for-a-fist-fight) Nanna obviously came through though, as the instigator backed down, and drove off.

I don't even think - mouth opens, stuff comes out. The more full of righteous and public-spirited indignation I am, the less the filter works.

Me too. ? I wish I had the balls to speak up properly, but as pointed out by others, you run the chance of coming off worse for it. ☹️ So sad that people can show so little respect, not just for the environment, but for everyone else around them.

Sometimes. Depending on the territory and how much of a bad mood I'm in. Most memorably was at the playground pushing my 2 yr old on the roundabout when a couple of 15 yr old boys strode through smoking and dropping fag ends. I asked them to pick them up and they just carried on walking and swearing at me. Another father joined in and they offered him 'out' of the playground to where their mates were.

I stormed after them and drew myself up to my 5'1" with my 7 mth pregnant belly and asked them if they fancied taking me on. Possibly a leetle to much bravado. ? Don't think I'd have tried that in the high street.

? Loving JKs burst of estuary.

I've been pondering this lately as I tend to admonish people I think won't stab me, and leave well alone those who look like they will. that makes me a bully doesn't it?

I have done in the past, and have had a few insults thrown my way.

My current battle is against the people who park on the double yellow lines outside my house, whilst they go into the post office.
I had a bit of a rant about one yesterday, who just stared blandly back at me whilst waiting for whoever was in there, until I went inside and grabbed my camera and took a photo of his car. He swiflty drove the 10 yards further to park in a proper space when I did that.

I had a cracking one last night.

The tube at about 11pm in Leicester Square. As it pulled in I could see a very obviously blind and disabled man, and his carer, moving with difficulty to get off. I stood back, as did several other people. The doors opened and several others surged to get on, almost knocking the poor man off his feet.

I saw the red mist and just yelled 'will you stand back and let this gentleman off the train first'. Cue some very red faces and muttered apologies. Then 2 young children (very young, like 7 or 8) attempted to push on BETWEEN the disabled man and the carer who was holding him up. Their father made no attempt to hold them back. I turned to him and told him he should be ashamed of himself. He apologised and made a show of telling them off once we were on the train.

Mr K says someone will stab me on the tube one day. FFS! They even have constant announcements and posters everywhere that say 'let people off the train first'.

I sort of do it without thinking about the consquences and later I'm shocked that

a) I did it

b) that I got quite so worked up about it.

I think the daftest think I did was after seeing a motorist stopped at traffic lights emptying his rubbish into the gutter.

I recognised the car as one belonging to a house down the road so I gathered up all the stuff and took it round later than day - the guy was most perplexed when I knocked on his door and explained that he must have not noticed all the litter he had "dropped".

Don't even get me started on what I do to those so-called charity street walkers or the comments I made to a litter-bug's wife about the size of her husband's penis.

I used to be such a calm and shy person but as I get older I'm becoming a right Victor Meldrew?

I did once give run after a guy whose dog had just done an enormous poo in the middle of the footpath, I shouted and he ignored me so I waved a dog poo bag under his nose whilst pointing out the £1000 fine sign for not picking up after your dog. He kept muttering about how he just forgot a bag etc. Saying that he was middle aged and looked fairly innocuous, had he been a scally with a pit bull I would not have said a word.

I found a empty bottle of vodka and three beer cans in our front garden this morning, it's at waist height to the pavement and we get a lot of rubbish shoved in, if I saw anyone doing it I would have a fish wife moment, but definately from a window or the door as there are some well dodgy people round here sometimes

Gosh Boop that's terrible ? hope you are OK now.

I must admit I was more afraid of a verbal backlash than a physical one from this pair. But it still put me off.

Good for those of you who do have the guts to speak up. ?

Littering is a particular bug bear of mine. I will challenge people in the street, sometimes I've picked up their litter and ran after them, stopped them and said 'I think you dropped this, would you like to put it in a bin please?' Invariably people have taken the offending item off me, but I haven't tried that with any scallies!

I used to work in a university Library where the kids would leave all kinds of rubbish lying around on the desks, kept finding apple cores on the shelves and fried chicken bones scattered under the computers. It was VILE. Although it wasn't strictly my job to challenge students about tidyness, I just couldn't help myself, which probably didn't do librarian-student relations much good!

Melbourne is generally a fairly clean city. One night H and I were hurrying to go to a concert and there was a couple about 100m ahead of us. Woman dropped a huge greasy kebab wrapper. Cue me picking it up and running after her (H hung back as he was embarrassed by me). I tapped her on the shoulder and said "I think you must have dropped this" She looked mortified and said "Ooops yes- I was looking for a bin".....what the bins every 200m or so? Her H started muttering to her 'told you".

So I did not get a knife in my chest!
Last week I told a guy off who pulled into mother and baby space, with supreme sarcasm ' You have forgotten your baby".
His reply " just going to collect him"
Me "you have also forgotten to install a car seat"

H says I will get into trouble one day!

I don't mind challenging people who are smoking in the grounds at work. I work at a hospital and you're not allowed to smoke there at all, although people still do. They don't give *** when I ask them to put it out though and just ignore me ?

I did challenge someone who'd been tailgating me dangerously on an A road. I was frustrated at going so slowly too but I can only go as fast as the bloody lorry I'm stuck behind, can't I? He overtook dangerously and further up pulled off into a garage. I pulled off behind him and got out and shrieked at him - he was about 18 years old, same size as me and looked scared, as did the bloke he was talking to ?

Boop - how scary for you

JK - loving the 'kids abaaaaht'!

Oh yes, all the time ?, but it is the schoolkids who drop litter outside my house. (which maybe isnt the best idea, MrS says I am asking for a brick through the window)

One time I got a mouthful of abuse (the boy dropped it right infront of me next to a bin, and i saw red), the next time the boy picked up the rubbish and shoved it in our hedge, I ran after him ? much to the amusement of a neighbour. The kids here seem to have a game of throwing full Macdonalds juice cups at each other, then leaving them lying. It really annoys me. That and chips, which are so dangerous (well, when you are 7 months pregnant and cant see what you are about to step on. I slipped and fell. There started my crusade against litter ?

I am lucky in that the school are trying to do something about it, but I just wish the rest of the idiots who decide that a lane is actually a bin could also be pulled up for it. Litter dropping is one of my biggest hates.

I have done this many a time, I used to hate the smokers outside our office who just threw their butts on the pavement instead of using the bin about 1m in front of them. They used to look at me as if I had horns whenever I said anything.

Alos, I remember sitting in my car waiting on someone and there was a taxi driver eating a McDonalds in his cab. He threw all his empties out the cab window and then started to read his paper. I was fuming and got out and went over to him and he just sort of rolled his eyes and hufed, put his window up and drove on.

I used to love being out with my aunty as she had a rather funny way to tackle peope If she saw someone drop rubbish. If it wasn't dirty rubbish she would pick it up, tap them on the shoulder and say 'excuse me, I think you've dropped something' . Most of the time people would say 'oh thank you' and take it back from her, very rarely would they say 'actually I meant to drop it'.

I tend to rely on handing it back to them, smiling sweetly and saying 'you almost left this behind...' However, I'd never do it with food they'd eaten.

Exception to the no food type rule is when I'm on my motorbike and people throw cigarette butts out their window towards me. On one memorable occassion, flying down my jacket and started to burn through my shirt and into my stomach. One of my pleasures in life is picking up tossed butts and dropping them back in the car window, saying 'you lost this...'. I'm not sure if its me leaning over into their window, the leathers and helmet or the fairly aggressive looking bike, but oddly, no-one's had the presence of mind to challenge me. Usually they're more concerned about getting the still smouldering cigarette out of their laps*. Mwahahah.

*Yes, this means they risk a slight burn (which is no lmore than they've just done to me) while putting their cigarette in the tray conveniently designed just for this purpose. In case anyone is concerned about their wellbeing, I'm completely unrepentent. I'm comfortable this might make them reconsider throwing a lit object at me while I'm straddling 15 litres of combustable fuel in the future.

I haven't caught anyone at litter but I fishwifed at the old guy who lives on the floor below us who likes to smoke in the lift. You can only smoke in your flat and not in any public areas of the building. He makes out sometimes that he doesn't understand (he's chinese) but I refused to let him in the lift till he put it out.

I have been grumped at after asking nicely in the laundry as I don't want my clean washing smelling of smoke thank you very much... She moaned and said she wouldn't as there wasn't any signs in the laundry saying "no smoking". I told her it's in the contract for the flats as it's a public area. She put it out grudgingly...

You tend to hear me mutter fairly loudly about manners too if you were to follow me round Aberdeen if I'm shopping. I held a door open for someone this week and practically yelled after her "Thanks would be nice!". That's my phrase of the moment hottly followed by "you're welcome" and "I'll not move the next time"...