Would this pee you off???
I was shopping with my 7 month old and this girl who was about 4 years old came up to me and started asking me questions about my baby. The girl then started touching my baby's face and her legs before I had to politely tell her to stop. Meanwhile the girl's mum is just standing there next to her the whole time and doesn't bother saying anything to her and just lets her do it.
Children that age don't always understand boundaries but the fact that mum let her randomly touch my child really peed me off. I was really cross at the mum. Is it just me or should the mum have said something?
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I think it depends on the situation if she was being spiteful and doing it to hurt the baby then 100% you’d be right to be annoyed, I think if she’s just being a curious 4 year old she’s just doing it to learn☺️
I wasn't annoyed at the child. It was the mum passively letting her child touch mine that I had the problem with.
Nope. My 3 year old knows she cant touch other people, dogs and especially not babies unless the person and or parent/owner is ok with it. She's always curious and doesnt always listen but I also wouldnt stand idly by
When my boys (who are 4.5) approach an unknown baby, if the parent seems receptive to it, I tell them “use your eyes to look at the baby. If you want to say, you can wave or pat their feet.”
Usually this is an acceptable level of touch that satisfies their curious but doesn’t cross a boundary with the parent. Again, I go off vibes a lot and this is the most amount of contact I would allow.
If the vibe is unwelcoming I’d just say, that’s a baby, let’s wave to the baby. Then we wave and say “bye baby” and I guide them away.
Personally it wouldn't bother me if the child was being gentle... I can understand if it's a very young baby, or a new born. The way I see it alot of 7month olds have already been to playgroups, playgrounds and are more robust than 3 months or under. So I probably would've just monitored and if you were kindly answering her questions I wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with them touching her... It's completely understandable that you have different boundaries, but I'd expect you to verbalise them, which you did. (Also completely different if the child were an adult, in which case I wouldn't just touch someone else's child)
It would bother me. And allowing your child to touch someone else without consent is gross. I get them being young and not knowing better but that's where it's the parents job to teach manner and boundaries. You do not just go up to someone and touch them. Why would it be ok for a child to do that? Again I'm not shaming the child. It is up to the damn parent to teach kids to not touch ANYONE without consent.
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