To think this was inappropriate?

[NoCoat]

We’ve just had someone come up to us as we’re getting our 2 year old into the car to be told that we need to think of our child as it is -5 degrees (it’s actually 3 degrees but not really the point) and they’re not wearing a coat or socks and she is a social worker and couldn’t not say something… we have literally just come out of a warm shopping centre and their shoes and coat are clearly under the pram and they had a blanket that they have put behind them. I thought you were supposed to put children in the car seat without coats on anyway??

No socks?????? Surely not

Well yes if that’s the case then OP is totally in the right. Now my DS has shoes on most of the time I forget the days of losing sock after sock when we went out 🤣

It was a 15 second walk to the car out of a warm shopping centre and my child will not keep socks on!! If we’re we’re parked further away and/or they wanted to walk they he would have been put back in coat and shoes 🤷‍♀️

My DS used to pull his socks off all the time 😄. Refused to wear a coat in any weather and went to school in shorts all year round. Amazingly he survived to adulthood 😄

Also, it’s not actually -5

@NoCoat we have the same problem, we put a sleep suit under clothes so can't be pulled off.

Fuck em OP…

I’m sure your child isn’t going to catch hypothermia in 15 seconds. You know your kid, and that she’d probably have kicked them off within the time it took to get to the car probably resulting in longer in the cold…

People like this have nothing better to do.

Re the socks, try tights!

We used to put them under DSs trousers so he couldn't pull them off.

Also just ignore her and those on this thread whose kids never stripped in the freezing cold weather

My daughter has asd and it's usually an issue to get her to keep her shoes on. Yes even in this weather. As others have said, I think this is a case of saying "fine, thanks" and going on your way.

She's no social worker, just a loonbag. Don't give her another thought.

I've literally taken the bin out barefoot today I haven't died

Ds stripped as soon as he left school and waited till he "felt cold" to put his coat on because his school is hot it took longer than I thought

I remember being told off when my son was one and it was freezing. I was holding him and he had no socks. What the woman failed to realise is that I had put socks on him several times that day and he'd pulled them off! We were only outside for 5 seconds, going from warm cafe to car.

I think I would have said "Kindly go away, Madam" in a very high-handed tone, and then quietly fretted all afternoon in case she really was a social worker. I handle confrontation very badly.

i think she was right

no shopping centre is that hot on day like today that a kid wouldn’t need a coat and shoes

if you walk round shopping centre now most adults would have coat on

if your schedule wont wear socks then id force the wearing of shoes so they can’t take them off

it’s absolutely freezing outside

Why don't you put her in the pram and at least put her coat over her until you get to the car? That way you don't have to faff with putting it on for a 30 second walk. I'd have put her socks on before leaving the shop too

Why? The woman could have left OP alone instead of making a snap judgement.

A criteria on the graded care profile is a child wearing suitable clothing for the weather conditions but I doubt she really was a social worker. She didn't need to say anything to
You, probably just a busy body .

My kid was always ripping off her socks regardless of the weather. It's not possible to keep socks permanently attached to a 2 year old who keeps removing them. I'm not sure I would have picked that battle if she was being moved from pram to car under a warm blanket.

PS she is still alive

DC3 used to continually pull his socks off, so I put him in tights under his trousers when it was too cold to be barefoot.
He couldn’t get the tights off.

OP's child or the bogus social worker?

The no socks bit is worrying tbh. Unless the child took them off?

The coat bit though you are right they shouldn’t have them in the car seat.

No socks? outside??!!! for a whole 15-30seconds?! Oh the horror!
honestly op, if you’d been out for a walk like that, fair enough. But no, 15 seconds outdoors while getting lo in the car is no biggy. I’d have told her to mind her own business, and that lo would have been in the warm much quicker if she’d not felt the need to rudely interrupt your dash to the car. I seriously doubt she’s a social worker. Probably someone who’s done a basic safeguarding class and thinks that makes them the oracle on parenting. Mine would never keep socks on either, still won’t at age 9! And you’re right about coats in the car seat. Don’t let some busy body question yourself x

i wouldn’t worry about it, sounds like she was bored and wanted to feel important. It’s none of her business if your child wasn’t wearing socks for a 30 second stint outside. I wonder if she went round the whole place commenting on everyone’s parenting choices..

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a Mumsnet post from someone who has been approached by someone in the street expressing concern over nothing and saying “I’m a social worker”.

I guarantee you that in every single incident, they were absolutely not a social worker. Social workers don’t patrol the streets warning people about tiny parenting errors, like some kind of child welfare version of a fucking traffic warden. Absolute bollocks.

She was either a mad fantasist playing Let’s Pretend, or an equally mad busybody who thought saying she was a social worker would stop you from telling her to fuck off.

There used to be a young woman in my hometown when I was a kid who used to wander up to anyone with a baby and tell them she was a midwife. She wasn’t a midwife. She was just obsessed with other people’s babies and very invasive and weird about it. She was known to everyone back then as Midwife Mary. Anyway. Basically your lady was your area’s Social Worker Suzy.