Who WBU: baby and train

[Charmander123]

So I'm on a train with my baby which is about an hour long. There's a woman next to me with a young baby and a toddler. Her little girl really needed the loo so she asked if I could watch the pram. I said yes and luckily the baby didn't cry in that time ;-)
(This train is a little dated so the only toilets are those very tight ones at the far end of the train)
As the mum left, this group of l women behind me started bitching and having a go about how wreck less the mother was leaving the baby there with a stranger. I turn around and say he is in safe hands, and asked how many of them had 2 young kids (turns out none of them had any ).

I didn't mind at all but in this situation;
Do you think the woman were wrong to be so judgemental or wrong for the woman to leave the baby with me?
Xxxxx

I would/could never have asked a stranger to watch my littlest, but then I am super freaky about certain things. DH thinks I have issues. I have been in exactly the same position as you though on a plane, and did not think it the slightest bit odd that she would see me as an ally (I was holding my own daughter while she slept). They were wrong (IMO)

Yes I would judge. I have done this journey with babies, all of them went everywhere with me. Leaving one of them with a stranger is pretty shit parenting.

So I'm on a train with my baby which is about an hour long

Your baby is about an hour long??

I just don’t understand the world some of you live in.

Asking a mum with s baby to watch your baby for a few minutes in a moving train is shit parenting

Where do you live? Ffs havnt you ever helped another mum let alone another human being?

ThisLittleKitty but you can't live life assuming that is the norm andthat most people want to hurt you

I don't think it's that risky or irresponsible to ask someone to watch/hold your baby in this situation. Most people are decent human beings. I've both asked for help and been helped in the past, it's sad really that people are so fearful.

As a childless woman I’m obviously a whacko bitch who can’t be trusted......

jay

Yes put that bottle of bleach away

kitty

I understand anxiety over children. We nearly lost a dd over the reckless idiocy of one man but you can’t then lock them or yourself away.

Society needs to offer help to each other and most people are good and decent.

Poor womn was really caught between a rock and a hard place.

It was really kind of you OP to not only watch over the baby but to stand up for the poor woman as well.

You were hardly likely to scarper with the child on a moving train...

Yep, prudent to remember that the overwhelming majority of the time, it's someone known to the child who harms them, not a stranger.

I left my two month old with a grandma while I left the shop and went to my car. Crappy Sainsbury's wouldn't give me a glass of tap water for free and said I couldn't breast feed. Came back and felt very relieved the lady was still there with my baby and she didn't mind at all his nappy had leaked wee onto her nice trousers. I then drove off with the baby not strapped into the seat and the seat not strapped into the car. Sleep deprivation. Realised after half a minute.

She seemed very sensible. Additionally she announced it loud enough for others to hear they would know if you suddenly started to kidnap or harm her child.

If i was in mcd’s, and someone came in and handed my baby a bottle, there’s no way i’d sit there while the baby drank out of it! Was no one watching the child? At 11m wouldn’t he be sat eating? At that age they need fairly close supervision.

Not supervising your child in a public place/while eating is far riskier than asking another adult to watch a pram for a few minutes. How many parents carry round baby bottles full of bleach?

I was once at a bus stop when a mum asked the girl next to me to mind her baby while she went to the loo. She ran off without waiting for an answer, crossed a very busy dual carriageway into a church, and disappeared! We were panicking because what if the bus came? One if us would have to miss it and wait another half hour. Or what if she didn’t come back at all!

She did come back, fortunately just as the girls bus was coming. I thought that was a bit mental though.

A PP post has reminded me of the terribly sad case from 30 or so years ago. A woman offered to take another woman's baby to the toilets to change her nappy. Baby never seen again. NOTHING like the OP story but it just came to me and was so sad.

I’d be delighted I was beside another mum who I assume would be understanding about leaving baby to make it quicker to get toddler to loo. So hard when you have two. Also if I’d seen her start to go with baby I’d have offered to keep baby.

Iv watched other people kids in similar circumstances. I had 3 under 4 so know whats it's like when u get stuck

Your baby is about an hour long??

I wanted to make that joke! :(

I have held a baby roughly around 9 month old whilst the Mum went on a ride with her son. We were all inside a play area that we had paid to enter and my sons had just come off the ride and I was with Dh.

I made sure she had a clear view of me the entire time she was riding round on a little go kart thing.

I offered to hold a baby at my table in a restaurant whilst the poor frazzled parents tried to wolf a meal down. My two children were with me but are much older. I was on the next table, the baby was fussing and needed feeding. Luckily bottle fed. The parents were 2 mouthfuls into their food. The Dad picked up the baby, started feeding him/her and I offered. They were very grateful.

Haven't we all been in these situations where an extra pair of hands is something so small but makes a huge difference? I have folded and carted prams onto buses for people, helped feed legs into supermarket trolleys and had people do similar things for me.

Not saying it happens often just that it does happen. I already said I wouldn't have judged this situation. Although it's not something I would do.

This is my favourite type of AIBU mainly because it's one of those praise-seeking 'I saved a baby rabbit from an oncoming 2-tonne lorry full of bricks - WIBU?'

Really? It's hardly worth bragging about is it? "Someone asked me to watch their baby for 2 minutes and I said ok". Saving a baby rabbit from a 2-tonne lorry full of bricks is infinitely more impressive than that.

A PP post has reminded me of the terribly sad case from 30 or so years ago. A woman offered to take another woman's baby to the toilets to change her nappy. Baby never seen again. NOTHING like the OP story but it just came to me and was so sad.

Got a link for that? I can’t find anything on google..

Nobody sat with their own baby is remotely at risk of kidnapping a baby

Just out of interest would you leave your baby with a man on the train?

I’ve the watcher and accepted help when it’s been offered too. I’ve got a toddler and baby twins. There is no way I could take all three into the loo with me. I think you have to trust your own judgement and instincts on these matters. Most people are good people. The percentage who would take/harm a baby is tiny and I would imagine the percentage of mothers with their own baby who would hurt your baby even smaller.