AITAH for expecting a girl to get off a treadmill in the gym?

The gym I go to doesn’t have a lot of treadmills and I’ve recently started running. I went to the gym with my partner last night and all of the treadmills were in use. I used some weight machines to start then went back to the treadmills.

I noticed there was a girl just sat on the treadmill while her friend was using the treadmill next to her. She’d been there for at least 15 mins not using it so I went up and asked if she was planning to use it. She said she was with her friend but I just said she can wit next to her friends machine instead of taking up machines from people who want to use them,

She shrugged her shoulders and refused to move. A women comes over and asks what’s happening so I explain it. She said she’s the girls mother and that I shouldn’t be telling her daughter to move. I just said her daughter shouldn’t be taking up machines she has no intention of using. She said her daughter is feeling to sit there if she wants and that she’s doing nothing wrong. I just said I can see where her daughter gets her entitlement from.

She said I was out of order for commenting on her parent but I just said she should be a better parent if she can’t handle any criticism.

A member of staff came over and when I explained why was going on, asked the daughter to move off the treadmill or leave the gym.

My gf said maybe I shouldn’t have argued with the mother but I don’t see how I’ve done anything wrong.

AITAHfor asking a girl to get off a treadmill in the gym then arguing with her mother?

Other People OP:

OniyaMCD

8d ago

Certified Proctologist [24]

NTA – but next time you might consider just notifying an attendant first.

Respond by: GoingAllTheJa

Before asking politely, once?

Did everyone really backslide that far, socially?

AppleSniffer

After you’ve asked politely, once. Don’t stick around to argue

Other Reply nonbinary_parent

This is the way.

Soft_Yellow1757

depends- i would say that the general behavior of sitting there is normally fine. As soon as the rest of the treadmills filled up, it was no longer fine, and the person should have moved on her own.

The fact that this a person who is doing this is normally a tip off that they are the type of person who will cause a physical fight over this sort of nonsense.

Mesapholis

Supreme Court Just-ass [118]

Top 1% Commenter

A member of staff came over and when I explained why was going on, asked the daughter to move off the treadmill or leave the gym.

Totally right way to handle it, this is a gym not a social hangout for kids with no parenting NTA

Other Respone:rishwol

Not quite the totally right way. As soon as the princess sitting on the machine refused to move OP should have gone and find a member of staff, certainly as soon as Mommy got involved. Either way OP is NTA here though.

Mesapholis

somtimes it’s giving grace, the change for the parent to not be a f-up – I suppose some people would also be stunned at such an antisocial interaction.
But good that a member of staff intervened

Unable_Researcher_26

My kids are 5 and 9, so gyms haven’t really come up yet, but I have absolutely told them to move off a piece of equipment in the playground that they’re just sitting on and someone else wants to use. It’s called parenting.