Public Property ?

[lakeland27]

today i had an incident occur involving my 3 and 3 quarter year old son . its something that happens reasonably often.. and i wonder if it is rude of me to respond in the way i do.

I take him with me to the local shopping precinct in order to run some errands , and he tends to attract a bit of attention from some 'ladies' there as he is rather a cute little chap (its in his DNA 🙂 thanks tone).

anyway, the first lady drops down to his level and says 'i'd like to take him home .. what a gorgeous little boy.. etc'' i say 'yes , a lot of people say that' (or something similarly bland) and the woman ignores me totally and continues to annoy him with tickles and other unwanted attention. I take his hand and walk on only for the same thing to happen again... lady talks to my son and ignores me totally. dont get me wrong, i don't want the attention of these people.. but i do get annoyed with the ignorant behaviour so i asked the 3rd person not to talk to him, and told her to 'retreat' in no uncertain terms as the boy gets tired of it himself. needless to say person No3 gets irate and calls me various things .

am i being unreasonable ? it seemed a fair number in the crowd there thought so.

[izabsmiling]

A couple of years ago my OH's Mum came over from the UK with her new husband.We'd never met him.I had spent an hour with them (my OH was still at work), I thought our DD was sitting with her grandmother while I got afternoon tea...only to find her (my DD) missing when i went out.My MIL 'thought' she had just gone for a walk with her OH .

The new FIL had taken our daughter for a walk in the bush without even asking or letting me know .I was not impressed.

They didn't understand why 

[polksaladallie]

teach your child to say in a loud voice

stop i dont like it. and get him to pull away, they'll soon stop and it teaches him c

Spot on Chuk. 

he does not have to put up with being touched by strangers 

Or anybody else if he feels uncomfortable.

[polksaladallie]

my mother is a shocker for that.  just a couple of weeks ago i went into the loo and when i came out she was nursing some man's new born baby.  i tell her to stop but she talks to all the little ones.  i think it is her age she is 77.  

This is fairly common in that age group and older, Vampire, because those mothers were taught to leave their babies in their cots in their far away bedrooms.  There was very little interaction with them when they were awake.  So these older women are envious of today's different ways of mothering, and they are sad that they missed this loving care.

[colic2bullsgirlore]

Boobytrap him

Metal Hand Buzzer Shocker Classic Prank Joke Gag Gift

that should liven the old dears up

[vampire-teddy]

for once im right in your corner LL you have to stand up when your kids cant.

altho i would not put him in a tony abbot t shirt if i were you you will only make him more popular;-)

what as, a target? B-)

[vampire-teddy]

This is fairly common in that age group and older, Vampire, because those mothers were taught to leave their babies in their cots in their far away bedrooms.  There was very little interaction with them when they were awake.  So these older women are envious of today's different ways of mothering, and they are sad that they missed this loving care.

my mother was a very hands on mum and played with us all the time as babies but i think her problem is that she has no grandchildren.  both my sister and i failed her in this respect. I have a female partner and my sister didn't marry till she was in her mid 40s so poor mum missed out.  i think she suffers from grandchild envy as she tries to adopt everyone's children.  these days she spoilts her neighbours two little girls.

[azureline**]

Your mum sounds lovely and like LL, parents will say no if they don't want the attention.

[polksaladallie]

my mother was a very hands on mum and played with us all the time as babies but i think her problem is that she has no grandchildren.  both my sister and i failed her in this respect. I have a female partner and my sister didn't marry till she was in her mid 40s so poor mum missed out.  i think she suffers from grandchild envy as she tries to adopt everyone's children.  these days she spoilts her neighbours two little girls.

I know a woman with the same sort of family, but with two children in same gender arrangements, and the other two have not obliged.  Is your mother from another culture?   Because it would have been fairly rare in those days to do things differently.  Also a lot of older women who might have grandchildren do not have contact with them for various reasons.

[daydream**believer]

Yeh, my Mr 2 gets lots of attention as well from older ladies, not touching though.

It doesnt worry me, i think its nice.

[patchoo78]

Good on you LL, that was so rude of her to touch your child like that.  He is not public property and I'm pleased you protected him.  To many weird people out there to let our young ones think it's ok to trust strangers.  Unfortunately I think that also needs consideration in this day and age. 

You don't want him to think it's ok for strangers to just walk up and be grabbing at him.  I don't think you did anything wrong at all. 

I agree.. We all teach kids about "stranger danger" then we expect them to be polite when some random stranger comes and gets right in their face.. Children generally don't like people they don't know invading their personal space, so why shouldn't they say if they don't like it? Or in LLs case, the parents..

Being polite doesn't negate someone getting into your personal space, some kids are shy and don't like talking to strangers, this doesn't mean they're rude.. 

It should work on both sides, if you expect the kid to be polite, then use your own manners and don't get right in their face.