Would you be annoyed if a total stranger grabbed your child in the park?
Me and my children (boy aged 2, girl aged 1) were in the park in the snow where we live. My son is going through a bit of a jealous phase where he pretends that he can’t do something by himself in order to take my attention away from his baby sister. I was putting her on the swings when he started shouting that he couldn’t walk on the snow to reach us just a few yards away. I said “OK, let me just get your sister in the swing then I’ll come back and get you”. Cue full-blown tantrum. A woman who was nearby who had heard everything I’d said then came marching over. I said “Please just leave him, he doesn’t like being touch—-” but before I could finish my sentence she grabbed him, picked him up (quite roughly) and sort of dragged him across the snow to me. As I tried to tell her, he hates being touched by strangers so he went absolutely apeshit crying his eyes out. I was so angry but I didn’t say anything. I feel like this woman suddenly decided she knew how to deal with the situation better than me, his mother, and chose to override my parenting decision and ignore what I said to her, thereby making everything 100x worse.
Just interested in what other people would have done in this situation. Is it ever OK to pick up someone else’s child when they’re not actually hurt or in danger? Especially during Covid times? Or am I just making a big deal over nothing? Should I have said something?