I don't think we've seen this bridal shower scenario yet

What the?!!

That's ridiculous, what was the bride's reaction? And why didn't she say something?

This same thing happened at the last baby shower I went to. I was so annoyed with the little child opening the gifts but the mom to be didn't seem to mind. She was much more gracious and patient than I ever would have been!

We just came home from a cute little fall festival at a farm down the road. There was a rope swing that kids and their parents were waiting patiently in line for and right before it was my son's turn, a woman ran up with her two children and told them to hop onto the swing. Just cruised right by the line of people.

Hoping she was just oblivious to the line, I tried to be as nice as possible and said something like, "Oh! The line for the swing actually starts back there, my son was just getting ready to take his turn!"

Her response? "Yeah, I know but my kids will be quick and they're just dying to swing on this thing." Even after I pointed out that all of the kids in line were "dying" to swing, which is why they've waited for so long (still trying to be friendly, but my plastered-on smile probably looked utterly psychotic at this point) she just looked at me like I was trying to set her children on fire or something.

But NO ONE ELSE said a word! The people in line just sort of looked around like they were pretending nothing had happened, and I wound up feeling like the jerk who made a big deal out of nothing even though we had been standing in line for ten minutes.

I don't understand when it became the norm to just accept rude and selfish behavior, but I wish more people would speak up a little more. Although, I can completely understand why they don't. I'm still cringing and blushing just typing this out when I think about the line incident. I know the woman was in the wrong, but I still feel dumb for pointing it out because everyone else stayed quiet.

Holy rudeness batman!!! :0

THANK YOU for speaking out! I hate when people do rude things like that but where I work, I can't do much because I'm the cashier and I could get in trouble by saying something. But a few weeks ago, I was at another department store where they have ONE line to go to the 1 to 5 other registers. They had 2 registers open and ONE line. I was third in line and had one person behind me when this guy and girl shove past me and the other people and go get into the line that was 3 registers down.

It is very narrow where we wait so it is OBVIOUS to everyone else that there is one line, never had anyone mistake that there is a line to each register instead of one line and next register free gets the next in line.

Well, I had FINALLY had it. I'd had a rough week at work (actually not customers, management) but I'd had it with rude people. I said, excuse me, but the back of the line is back here. He said there was no one in line here, I said, there is ONE line to all the registers and you just cut in front of several people. You need to get back in line. He argued with me a bit but finally got back in line. Ticked me off he was being such a @#$.

Wish someone else had backed me up but the other customers were very young or very old and were either too intimidated to say anything. Normally I might not say something but he caught me in a bad week and I wasn't going to let it go when he started arguing. And no, I didn't feel I was in danger, there are some people I wouldn't want to cross but he "felt" like a "full of hot air" type of guy.

And Jenjie, that mother... I was going to say what was she thinking but obviously she doesn't think...

Yup, it happens everywhere. DD and I went to a fall festival last weekend at a neighborhood church, and she was waiting patiently behind a few kids for one of the carnival games. A few more kids get in line behind us. She finally gets almost to the front of the line and a family with three kids budges right in front of her. The mom was going to let them too. The kid immediately ahead of DD got done doing the game right then and the three kids who budged were jockeying for the next turn. I was just about to say something (back of the line for this game is BACK THERE) when I think their grandpa told them not to budge and pulled them back, and I thanked him. But yeah. Even at church.

I've noticed a recent trend at showers where friends of the bride-to-be or mom-to-be "pre-open" the gifts for the recipient, and basically hand her the gift and the opened card, and I find it really obnoxious. At the shower of an old childhood friend, I wrapped her baby gifts chronologically to represent different phases of our childhood, teenage, years, and adulthood, and the thought behind it was completely lost on the recipient because all of her stuff was opened already. I think it's stupid.

In the situation you described, I would have said something. That's just rude parenting.

I agree, this is an obnoxious trend that thankfully I haven't personally experienced. This just screams "I have sooooo many friends who want to give me soooooo many gifts that I couldn't POSSIBLY open on my own, so in the interest of saving time, I will need some assistance."  Obnoxious indeed.SaveSave

I had that happen a number of years ago. Once at a baby shower and my gift was one of the ones the little girl (maybe 5-6 yrs old?) opened. I made a gift basket filled with small items like a thermometer, lotion, baby powder - you get the idea.

Little darling ripped open the package and started tossing the items on the floor, saying she was "looking for something good". When she was done, she announced that it was a stupid gift and there was nothing good in it and she wanted another gift to open, something good this time. Everyone laughed and laughed and argreed it was a dumb gift. I left early.

A few months later, I was at a bridal shower where two young nieces (about 6 and 8 yrs old) of the bride, announced that they wanted to see everything and help open the presents. They stood directly in front of the bride to be who was seated on a couch, completely blocking the view. A couple other guests mentioned that they couldn't see the gifts as they were opened and were told they could see the gifts later when the bride was done because it wouldn't be right to spoil the little girls fun.

I haven't been to any type of shower since. I'm done.

I have attended one bridal and one baby shower like this (same friend). On the plus side, it made things go faster. On the negative side, why did we bother wrapping the gifts if the recipient wasn't even going to open them.

Wow
I cannot believe that

Wow. Just, wow.

What is one supposed to say to "back up" the courageous one?
I don't usually hesitate to help people understand how "line ups" work, but if someone else jumps in to instruct, I'd feel a bit silly saying "Yeah! What she said!" 

If I'm not the one providing social instruction, then I'll usually say thank you to the other person who did ... but I wouldn't "pile on"