to be outraged about judgemental mum in the supermarket

[mmrred]

My DD is 14 (but looks older)and my DS is 2. In the supermarket yesterday she was looking after him and letting him have a wander as I sorted out a DVD purchase. He played her up, as little brothers do, and walked in front of a woman's trolley. DD apologised and this woman said 'Can't you learn to control your child?'

How dare she? My DD isn't a teenage Mum but even if she were, it's not as if her brother was causing havoc whilst she was on her mobile phone or something. How unbelievably judgemental.

My DD is humilaited and hurt. Apparently this woman had twin babies in her trolley - perhaps she will show a bit more tolerance when they are toddling.

so YANBU to feel a bit annoyed at a snappy woman in a supermarket

YABVU to be outraged and to the assume that she said it because she thought she was talking to a teenage mum.

Best course of action is to laugh it off with your dd and gently explain that she'll probably be a bit snappy too when she has a young baby one day.

Trust me, there are worse mistakes to make than assuming that someone is a teenage mother.
That you can recover from.
Worse is to assume that the elderly person picking up the infant is a grandparent and then find out that they are not.
You never get forgiven for that one!

twins=sleep deprevation= tiredness =moodyness! chances are she was having a bad day!

im a nanny and on more then 1 occasion the middle child of the family i work for (shes 8) has been mistaken for my child,we doo look alike, got into a convo with a woman who asked how old she was the said "o. wow you must've been young to have her,really young, havent seen many young mums round here. bet you found it hard to look after her" (im 21 but dont quite look it!!!)...no way was i humiliated or hurt, just laughed it off, the woman who said it was FAR more embarrassed then i was

why is it such a big deal for her to assume he was your daughters son? if someone can assume an 8 year old is my child when i BARELY look 20, i think its safe to say if your daughter looks 16 and your ds iis 2 people will assume! its just what people do

have you NEVER assumed anything?

i think you are being unreasionable to make a big deal out of this!

What Rindercella said. I have two rather 'lively' toddlers myself and I know they can piss people off sometimes with their energetic behaviour. So if they annoyed/upset someone enough to make them snap, then I'd apologise and move on. I certainly wouldn't be outraged by someone commenting on their behaviour.

Perhaps that woman is a Daily Mail reader and consequently believes that all teenage girls are feckless, dole-bludging, irresponsible single parents

No, I know the answer to this one! She's a Daily Mail reader, and wanted to read about herself in t'paper and could somehow tell that you were an MNer, so seized her moment. She's ambitious and clever, I'll give her that.