To have "apprehended" this toddler

[Whatever17]

I was in a local shopping mall today and saw a little boy (about 7) crying his eyes out. He was with an older bloke but really, really crying.

I have kids of my own but it didn't sound like usual whining, it just gave me the chills. And weird for a 7 year old to cry like that if he wasn't hurt.

It just gave me the willys and I followed them and the kid kept pulling away and crying.

I went to a police special in the end and pointed them out, after giving the special my details I faded away.

The special has just called me and said it was his Dad and they had had a scrap, no problem.

I feel like a right mug.

It just looked wrong to me, and I was so wrong. I have the old "scrap" with my kids too.

Maybe I'm a nutter? Dunno - if one of my kids was being taken then I would want someone to be "nosy" like I was.

YANBU, at the end of the day it was the work of one conversation between a Special and a Dad. Yeah it might have seemed a waste of time, but imagine if had been the other way round.

Seriously, it's better to have been wrong than right in this situation.

Have you seen - it's an experiment on American Tv to see if anyone would come and help a girl being dragged along in the street yelling "You're not my daddy" Takes ages and alot of ignoring before three young blokes go to help her.

yanbu at all

True, OP, but what if it hadn't been? What if you had been right and not done anything? As a parent, I can honestly say in this scenario, I would rather have been confronted than think nobody cared about my child. You have nothing to be sorry for here.

I have always taught my kids to shout "stranger" if someone is trying to take them.

However, this backfired when my DS2 was about 2 (by which time he was too young for me to have taught him anything at all).

We were in the supermarket, he was in the trolley, all happy. He fixed his gaze on the bloke opposite in the aisle and shouted "help, help".

I looked at the bloke and said "he is mine, look" and said "kiss Mummy" and got a kiss. The bloke and I laughed.

Lol I bet that will be a story the dad tells the 7 year olds kids 'ur dad was such a pain when we went out that someone thought I had kidnapped him!' definately an embarrassing story for his dad book

Yanbu & maybe his dad will realise this wasn't that healthy a state of affairs now. I have an 8yo & tears in public a really rare without having hurt himself

Don't really understand your thread title though, sorry!