No one should invade another person’s space, especially kids. So, when a stranger tried touching one woman’s child, the mother didn’t hold back.
An anonymous contributor shared a post to Café Mom in which she shared her disturbing experience in which a stranger tried putting their hands on her child while at a grocery store. In the post, she explained that her baby had been sleeping in a car seat with a canopy covering it. She was quickly going through the aisles trying to complete her shopping list before her infant woke up.
But things got weird quickly when the mom turned her back for a brief second. When she looked back at her baby, she saw that a total stranger at undone the car seat canopy and proceeded to rub the child’s cheeks What?! She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, but she quickly told the stranger to stop it immediately.
The mother went on to write that it’s never okay to put your hand on a child, especially if you’re a stranger. “In no way shape or form is it ever OK for you to touch someone else’s child when you don’t know them,” she wrote.
“In all honesty, it shocks me that something like this even has to be stated,” she continued. “I don’t even have the balls to go up to another mom to try and make a friend, let alone go up to a complete stranger and invade their space like that.”
The mother says she’s since had difficulty going grocery shopping with only her and her child, for fear that she may encounter another uncomfortable experience. She said that while she understands the stranger was only admiring how adorable her baby was, it was still wrong of them to do.
“I appreciate the compliment on how adorable you think my daughter is,” she explained. “But please don’t caress her hair and rub her back when you don’t know either of us. Even though she is older, it is still inappropriate and super creepy.”
The anonymous writer then took the opportunity to also warn people against rubbing a pregnant woman’s belly without permission, which can be equally as invasive. “If I had a dollar for every time a stranger randomly decided it was OK to touch my growing stomach, I would be a millionaire by now,” she wrote. She also added that the same goes for unsolicited parenting advice.
Moral of the story? Keep your hands to yourself in all situations!