Figure skating requires practice… and space to practice.

In this figure skater’s story, we learn that an argument happened when a mom took her son to a freestyle skating session and he took the “free” in “freestyle” too literally.

There was yelling, and now she’s wondering if she was in the wrong for yelling at the mom.

Read the story and see what happened.

AITA for going off on a mother for bringing her kid to a freestyle skate session?

So I’m (20, F) a figure skater.

For those who don’t know, freestyle skating sessions are for figure skaters to safely practice, since public sessions are too crowded and my rink doesn’t allow figure skating moves to be done during public sessions.

My rink has you pay for the session online, where it very clearly says that this is for figure skaters to practice on, however there isn’t any verification on the website, so technically anyone could buy it.

That’s becoming an issue.

Anyway, yesterday I went to one of these sessions and saw a woman and her son (who I guess is about 7 or 8) enter and go get rentals for the kid.

I didn’t think much of it, and just assumed that he was just starting out and they haven’t gotten skates yet, plus I’ve seen other beginners use rentals so it’s not a huge deal.

Once we get onto the ice however, this kid starts doing circles around the rink super fast and every time he passes his mom, he yells “mom look!” (his mom was sitting in the bleachers on her phone).

He was basically playing around, and his mom was not really watching him.

After I guess he got bored of that, he starts skating wherever he pleases, often getting in the way of other people.

Some of the coaches told him to slow down but he didn’t really care.

Well, the issue began when I started doing my program.

For those who don’t know, when someone runs their program during a practice session, they wear a yellow belt and they basically have the right of way in the rink.

You can still skate but if they come towards you, you have to get out of the way.

But of course, the boy and his mom did not know that.

Well, I’m wearing the belt and I start my program and everything is going fine until my first jump.

While I’m mid air this kid crashes straight into me and we both fall.

I ended up hurting my knee but the kid seemed fine, maybe a few bruises.

But emotionally, it was pure chaos.

Well, he starts wailing like he’s being stabbed and his mother finally looks up from her phone and runs onto the ice (no ice skates, just regular shoes) and starts berating me in front of everyone for hurting her son.

I was super mad about being interrupted and getting hurt because of this kid and started yelling back that he should learn the etiquette of being on a freestyle session.

Things reached a boiling point.

After this a coach comes up to her and says that they need to leave because her son in a hazard to himself and others (before this he also crashed into people doing spins and other things).

The mom then yells “But public sessions are too crowded! He can’t have fun on them!”

So she basically admitted that she was planning to use this time for her kid to run wild.

The coach later came up to me and said that I was right to be upset, but I should have let her handle it and not yelled at them.

AITA?

Although things could have been handled better by everyone, she was rightfully upset and shouldn’t feel bad for feeling angry.

Let’s see what Reddit thinks.

I agree.

Another commenter agrees.

A reader shares their thoughts.

They have a lot to learn.

Another reader chimes in.

This person sounds baffled.

They shouldn’t let kids run amok and disturb regular skaters.

This situation was a result of poor management.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.