to not of let this woman touch my baby

[flower1994]

had a really strange experience (in my opinion) happen in large supermarket earlier. was walking around with my 10 week old daughter in her pram when this older woman I would say in her 70s appeared out of nowhere and said rather consistently "you must do me a favour. you must let me touch the baby. you must let me touch her!" I was quite freaked out by this and backed off, turned my daughter away and said no. she asked rather aggressively "why not?" I said because I dont know you and she looked at me disgusted, stormed off whilst saying "the generation of today"

was I unreasonable to say no and be freaked out by this?

not sure if this is a generation thing or if people allow random strangers to touch their babies who are this young but I have to say I found it seriously odd!

@Bunnyfuller

Grammar police whoop whoop

It’s would have’ ‘should have’

Should’v/could’ve are the contraction

Yes, of course those are the contractions, and nobody would object to them.However, the OP didn't use the contractions. She used 'of'.

"Should've" = contraction of "should have", in case that is not clear.

Not to have, not "to not of"

user32564567 I think the whole point is you dont know who is a nice clean person regardless of age hence me not allowing said person to touch my baby..I'm not sure why you've taken the post so personally

She was probably following an old superstition/ culture that's gone out of favour in modern times as people are more wary of strangers in general as well as aware of spread of diseases.
I've encountered people putting coins in the baby's pram or hand before.

The pedants are even more annoying than the frothing old lady haters.

OP, yanbu. You dont no where people have been. With all due respect, old people have diffrent standards. Even if their not old you dont no were theyve been, and your only trying to keep youre bubba safe from germs. Even if their not old they could be a peedo or a bit wierd. xxx

guys, let's chill on the spelling please lol I got the point a few posters ago

You make her sound like a witch. Was she, like an old hag wearing rags and waving a bunch of twigs?

I would like to marry you, @APedantWrites I can do bigamy, if that helps.

user32564567

LadyTiredWinterBottom2 nope just a random stranger who approached me out of nowhere and insisted I must let her touch my baby haha no hags or witches here

It's not spelling. It's basic level grammar.

No that's just crazy. If she knew you, it would be alright although really weird still to just jump out of nowhere without saying hi. But she was a stranger. That's just strange.

Huns,u r rite dem oldies r discusting.

Hmmm interesting

Well it's your baby, your rules, and that's all l have to say about that.

your bubs your roolz hun xxxxxx

When my ds was a baby I was out for the 1st time with him at the shops and this women came up Tom me and said you can see why people steal then can't you? I was very freaked out and held tightly onto his peak

I am now visualising something along these lines...

Some elderly folk are very superstitious and touching a newborn brings good luck.
Please don’t be over precious with your baby... no one wants to harm your baby.
It’s an elderly/cultural thing.
Many older folk just naturally react to babies anyway. I love seeing newborns, I’m 55, and I often ask if I can touch their hands. ( I love the grip of a newborn!) I don’t think I’m a creep and I always ask.
You might need to chill a bit. For most folk over a certain age, newborns just take them back to their own days with newborns.. their own newborns have left home, moved away and have families of their own.

You were right not to. It sounds really weird and tbf I had a bad experience when I worked in retail when a man with dementia came in, said similar, and then slapped a customer’s baby. You never know a stranger’s intentions.

YANBU. I had 1 woman come up to me in Tescos carpark while I was loading up the shopping saying how lovely (8 week) baby was. He was sleeping in his carseat which was covered by a large muslin so how she knew that I'm not sure.
She then yanked the muslin aside so she could have a look/stroke. I was livid coz he was such a light sleeper!!

With dc1 I hated strangers interacting with or touching him. I really hated it, but I was incredibly anxious and he was a poorly newborn. Plus my first outing post dcs surgery at a few weeks old a lady ripped my pram hood back and tried to pick him up whilst he still had healing stitches from open surgery. I went nuclear and was always way ott following this, thinking everyone wanted to do the same from then on!

However now...another dc later I’m really open to encouraging interaction with people and get them talking to them. It made an old man’s day recently when we had a lovely brief chat in the supermarket and my 17 month old reached out to high five him mid conversation. He was beaming afterwards. I still think the lady’s ott reaction in your situation is weird and I wouldn’t have liked her insistence.
However to sum my lengthy post up, I do think human interaction is important for children’s development.

user32564567, I take it you're one of the baby maulers then?

I'm not completely against her interacting with strangers but I'm not sure why this has to be physical. however, to of not even struck up a conversation with me beforehand nor was I actually asked - I was told that I "must". if I'm honest I just had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing, and no it wasnt because of her age or the fact she was a witch

Yes I maul babies all the time. Rip them out of their prams and everything.