To think This is unsafe parenting?

[LondonLady29]

On the tube. A toddler approx 18 months at a guess is in a pushchair with his mum stood behind him. The toddler is sucking and chewing on a plastic bottle lid. I immediately thought that he could choke on it. The mum doesn't seem to notice/ care. I wondered if she had realised what he was doing. Toddler then drops lid on the tube floor and it bounces over to my feet. I thought "Well it's a plastic bottle lid and now it's been on the floor of a tube carriage where millions of people and some dogs walk everyday she won't want it now." Also as a toddler had been chewing on it I felt no inclination to pick it up or touch it. A woman next to me bent down and picked it up and handed it straight back to the mum who gave me a dirty look as I had not picked it up, then (there was not even so much as a wipe not that that would help) gave it back to the toddler to suck/ chew. This happened twice in three or four minutes whilst I was standing there. AIBU to think this is slack/ careless/ dangerous parenting? Surely not safe for a young child to suck a bottle lid especially when on and off the tube floor? AIBU not to have been retrieving the lid for the child?

Well not everyone thinks op ibu

Puntastic - after reading everyone's responses I don't think I am, unless you can give reasons why?

My 2 year old cousin choked to death on a bottle top before I was born.
FOAF's 3 year old child choked to death on a chuppa chup that came off its stick last year.
I am a very relaxed parent but choking fodder really gets me.
I would've stood on the lid and not given it back

I first read this picturing a bottle teat sort of thing. But an actual LID? That is crazy and even more dangerous on a train that will be lurching. YANBU

YANBU.

I'd be more worried about the choking risk than the germs.

But it's pretty skanky letting a child suck/chew on something that's been dropped (repeatedly) on a mucky floor, even if it wasn't a choking hazard.

There's being non-judgemental and then there is been happy to passively hang around watching a small child choke to death . They are not actually the same and yes you are allowed to care about people endangering their children, even if there is nothing you can do about it.

"Children put worse things in their mouth!" Like what?! Setting aside the issue of the cap being dirty, it's a major choking hazard.

Ew it's pretty yuck, t if you'd have given me dirty looks or commented about my child chewing something, I'd have been astounded!

It's none of your business.

Plus I'd have had no idea about grapes or marshmallows or any of the other instant-death-to-toddlers items had I never read mumsnet.

I'd have thought a random stranger was bonkers if they'd pointed it out.

Oh yuck. I wouldn't let my toddler chew something off the floor of the tube train. grim

YaNBU. That is a) minging and b) a choking risk.

If you posted on here that you actually did that with your child, people would be queuing up to call you revolting I bet.

Yabu.

It's a few germs - I'm sure it won't kill him!

No not unreasonable but just because there is potential for danger doesnt mean danger will happen. This child might be quite adept at playing with such things. Sometimes you have a split second to decide what you would do in these situations. Say something or not? Had there been a rapport between you and the child i.e did you smile when they giggled or something earlier on in the train ride and the parent saw and smiled at you too? If so I would have picked it up and said oh whats that you dropped? a bottle top? You could choke on this little one. You know what, Ill give it to your mum for safe keeping. Then to the mum your little one dropped this, not sure if you wanted her to have it? Then with a little luck the mum would respond to the kind words you said about her child and would realise what you were doing. If no rapport, I would definitely not have picked it up but would have kept an eye out whilst I was there just in case anything did happen.

Don't be daft. A few germs builds 'em up and perhaps the mum needed the first aid practise which she'd be able to get if the nipper started choking.

You are right but this is AIBU so people deliberately take the opposing view.

Bottle caps are a choking hazard.

Oh mumsnet. First commandment on the ancient scroll of AIBU: thou shalt not judge any parent, ever.

Sometimes it's ok to judge when something is fucking disgusting, and dangerous.

Hoiked judgy pants are not a real thing and will therefore cause you no injury.

OP yanbu.

I do agree it's disgusting but them I'm germ phobic so not the best judge.
However the risk of painful death is the main point I'm judging on

Oh.

I concentrated on the germs, not the potential choke hazard.

Yanbu, coming from a choke perspective.

It's both unsafe and disgusting. Who could think otherwise? All these posters extolling the virtues of immune system building germs...
Ir's perfect possible to build a healthy immune system without licking the floor of a tube carriage (I'm completely at the very thought) and a plastic bottle lid is probably the exact size of a toddlers wind pipe.

Yes I think I have a pretty strong immune system, despite my germ phobic ways, which started in childhood :) thanks mum!

'Children put worse things in their mouths' so we as parents should allow them to? How far should minding our own business go when it comes to seeing a child being put in harm's way? A bottle cap is a definite choking hazard. I would no more give my child a bottle cap to chew on than a knife to play with. YANBU.

As to giving it back to the child after it fell on the tube floor shudder

Was it a water bottle sized lid or an Oasis bottle sized lid? I'd let DS chew on the latter- there's no way he could choke on that. And as his mum I would know that, just like she probably knows what her DS can handle.

And germs shwerms.

Pfffff, I'd have picked it up (incase it was a lid for an open bottle) given it back to the mother saying "your child was chewing on this and I'm concerned they might choke".

I would rather stick my neck out and be judged to the end of the tube line and back than do flippin' infant heimlich.

I think it's pretty grim. I wouldn't put something in my mouth that had been on the tube floor. I always wash my hands after I have been on the tube. The bottle top is also a choking hazard.