Most parents would be proud, why can't you thank them and move along? Or teach him some self protective behaviours. Most kids of that age are excellent at letting adults know when enough is enough, so I'm thinking it's more your problem than his. I'm thinking of a tshirt he could wear that would discourage the women 😄

lol At the age of 3 My brother would have bitten people to let the adults know enough was enough.

Aren't you setting him a bad example by being rude to people who are paying him a compliment? Do you think the praise from strangers, or its rejection by his mother, would be more beneficial to his self esteem?

LL, I think young kids also need to learn or know that they don't have to take attention from adults that they don't feel comfortable with...so personally I kind of want/ed my kids to know that and be guided by how they feel in different situations ? 

Have you thought of bullet hole t-shirts? 😄

I thought of that first :^O 😄

I might notice a young child and say "Oh, what a lovely smile" or something.  The parent smiles back and I move on.  I'm shopping, they're shopping ... we're busy.  

When my son was young, he had white blond hair and lovely blue eyes (he's still got lovely blue eyes, although the hair is a bit darker now he's 15).  So, he got the attention, too ... 

When we were in Malaysia, almost every woman in the street wanted to touch him, pinch his cheeks, talk to him in his stroller.  It used to take ages to get anywhere :^O

Lakeland, you're a guy, right?  I think older women love seeing men taking their kids shopping and doing things with them.  It probably didn't happen with their fathers or their husbands.  And, maybe they are a bit lonely and want a conversation.  They might be a bit shy of you because you are different to their experience of men - but not scared of small children.  

Dunno ... generalising here ... 

one with skull and cross bones may work ?

We have always taught our children to avoid eye contact with strangers but mostly nutters, bit hard to do that with a 3 year old, maybe worth a try!

Unreasonable to expect strangers to respect boundaries? no. However, twice already and then you let them have it....maybe a tad unreasonable. Person 3 took the brunt of it undeserved. However, person 3 should not respond like that. There are polite ways to get people to leave children alone in public.

i didn't so much 'let her have it'  as ask her to 'let go of him' as she had him by the arm. he's told me he doesn't like it very clearly and a i have to consider his wishes. thanks for the opinions 🙂

Maybe a Tony Abbott t-shirt would do the trick?

I reckon that would work lol