to have told her to call social services?

[moogy1a]

Taking ds2 into loos at supermarket when a woman followed us and handed me his hat that he'd dropped.
"oh, thanks, I hadn't noticed he'd dropped it" I say with a smile
Mad Lady:"why don't you take more notice of him, I saw him drop it earlier and you had to pick it up. You should look after him"
Me: " well, I do my best" ( with a nervous laugh)
Mad Lady: " well you're obviously not doing your best as you're not paying him enough attention"
Me: " what the hell are you on about you mad old bat?"
She carried on having a rant so I ended up telling her to "shut up you nutter" and then said she should obviously call social services as I'm a bad bad mum.
Conversation ended with me saying "oh do go away you mad old bint"
WIBU? ( probably was with the old comments but she was old and frankly very unpleasant)
BTW ds was oblivious as he was busy having a wee .

[Tee2072]

[TheToysAreALIVEITellThee]

Really?

[moogy1a]

yes really. DH looked a bit sceptical too. Really was one of the maddest things that's happened to me in a long while.

[WorraLiberty]

Where the fuck are all these people and why in my 44 years, having had 3 children, do I never encounter them?

[NewlywedUpTheDuff]

All over a dropped hat? Yanbu. Kids drop stuff all the time! Crazy woman

[TheScreamingfrog]

Don't you just love the great British public and their views
I'm with you, having on many occasions got to the till to find all sorts having been secreted in there by my thieving DD whilst I was busy not paying attention.

[TheScreamingfrog]

That should be secreted in the trolley

[TheToysAreALIVEITellThee]

I wish id run into mad bastards, I've got a stack of responses to nutters like this :(

[TheDetective]

I'm still scratching my head over how you are supposed to pay attention to your baby, pay attention to everyone around you, so you don't run them over, pay attention to the roads, so you don't get run over, pay attention to the direction you are going, and if in a shop, what you are even doing in there to begin with I have to stand there trying to remember why I went in.

Fucking batty bags. I'd of said worse. So no, YANBU. I'd of laughed in her face and made a fool out of her. But I'm quite cruel to idiots.

[Iamsparklyknickers]

If you'd told her she was right and next time you'll staple it to his head, she would have imploded in self righteous rage. Problem solved.

[TheDetective]

Me too Toys I love a good argument!

[HollyBerryBush]

How bizarre. I've just read your Ofsted thread, where someone complained about you making a child walk barefoot, and your excuse there was that the shoe fell off and you didn't notice.

Are you really that inappropriate to call people 'nutters', 'mad old bint/bat' etc?

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Sad thing is, I believe you. There really are people like this.

[HotCrossPun]

This is completely plausible.

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Well of course she should phone ss you crap bloody mother

Everybody knows your supposed to superglue hats to their heads.

Shocking parenting

[quesadilla]

That doesn't surprise me. When you have kids a certain type of judgy person who is constantly on the hunt for excuses to be a stickybeak takes their gloves off.

When my dd was a newborn a strange elderly woman tool it upon herself to start taking clothes off her in Boots (it was sub zero outside but hot in the shop. She was hot, yes, but within minutes was going to be in the cold.)

I generally ignore these sorts of people for a quiet life but in your case the woman crossed a line. I would have been tempted to tell her I was calling the police.

[moogy1a]

Holly
Yes, I obviously have form in allowing small children to drop items of clothing. bet it's never happened to a parent of a toddler before....

[LadyBeagleEyes]

[SgtTJCalhoun]

Horrible name calling. No need for that. A firm "oh mind your own business" would suffice.

[moogy1a]

What's with all the scepticism? If I explain it happened in a Rochdale Morrisons will that convince the disbelievers?!

[HotCrossPun]

OP, I think the difference is that most people don't seem to get threatened with social services or OFSTED inspections with the frequency that you do.

[moogy1a]

FFS. he dropped his hat. Inside a supermarket. And it was me who said you better call ss in a sarcastic manner.

[WorraLiberty]

You do seem to have some bad luck OP

Anyway, I wouldn't have engaged with someone like that.

She was probably pissed/on drugs or possibly mentally ill.

[Tee2072]

OP I think the difference that most people don't get called a bad mother for dropping a hat.

So what else did you do? Give the child a gregg's and a froot shoot?

[EggsMichelle]

YANBU to tell her to bugger off or call SS if she was just interfering. YABU for calling her batty/mad etc. doesn't do well for getting rid of the stigma of mental illness, and if she was unwell a polite smile and walking away would have been sufficient.