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Strangers assuming they have rights?

44 replies

BethanyC · 07/09/2012 17:21

Me and the hubby had a baby boy last November and we just adore him. One thing that crops up from one time to another is random people assuming they have some right over him. When he was about two months old we took him with us to our shopping centre to stock up on some stuff, he was dozing in his car seat so I sat with him whilst my husband bobbed into a shop. When we were sat there, a little girl about five and her father came up and the father said: "Can she hold the baby?" I said: "Sorry, honey, he's just fallen asleep," The father replied: "And? Just a quick hold, she likes babies," I replied. "I normally would but he's been cranky lately because he's not sleeping well," This went on for a couple more times before the father. WHO I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE IN MY LIFE said to his daughter. "Just pick him up," To which I grab the car seat and stand up saying. "C'mon Joey, let's go and find daddy," He then says. "She just wanted to hold him, who the do you think you are?" ... His mother, you cretin?

I could go on and on, but I'd be here all day. Is it just me who had strangers come up or has anyone else encountered some wierdos in their time?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
MoaningMingeWhingesAgain · 07/09/2012 17:23

Cretin ? Hmm

ImNotCrazyMyMotherHadMeTested · 07/09/2012 17:24

Your baby wasn't in a furry sleepsuit that made him look like a pet, was he?

That's the only reason I can think of that a stranger would assume they could pick up the baby without your permission! I wouldn't even bring a 5 yr old to SEE a sleeping baby of a stranger in case they were noisy and woke them up!

hillyhilly · 07/09/2012 17:25

That's never happened to me

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kdiddy · 07/09/2012 17:25

WTAF? Honestly I've never had anything like that. How weird!! Maybe you have an approachable face - I'm forever getting told to cheer up even though I am perfectly content!

ZiaMaria · 07/09/2012 17:25

"Which part of NO do you not understand?" would have been my response. Cheeky begger.

ginmakesitallok · 07/09/2012 17:26

That is really weird - and not typical behaviour at all.

CalamityKate · 07/09/2012 17:27

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PebblePots · 07/09/2012 17:28

how strange, no I have not had this happen. I think I look unapproachable though. Maybe you need to cultivate a menacing look ;)

OddGoldBoots · 07/09/2012 17:30

Not something I have ever encountered before although a mum did tell me off once for playing peek-a-boo with her baby as we queued in the supermarket, she told me to leave her baby alone and that I should get my own if I wanted to play with a baby - I hadn't even got within 2ft of him.

ZuleikaD · 07/09/2012 17:30

I'm with Calamity on calling this one.

BethanyC · 07/09/2012 17:32

@CalamityKate We live in a small town where people coming up is not out of the ordinary, this was the worst instant but I've had some old woman come up and offer to babysit him for free and a woman accuse me of taking her trolley in the supermarket with her baby in it... it turns out hers was behind her. Her excuse? Small babies all look the same... her baby was a girl. And unfortunately, no this was not exaggerated.

OP posts:
JessePinkman · 07/09/2012 17:32

Are you in China with a blond baby? This has never happened to me with strangers. Family maybe.

EchoBitch · 07/09/2012 17:34

How very odd.

Floggingmolly · 07/09/2012 17:42
Biscuit
RaisinDEtre · 07/09/2012 17:51

how unusual and disconcerting

welcome to MN, by the way; we're not keen on disablist terms used as insults

valiumredhead · 07/09/2012 17:54

I think that is very odd behaviour indeed.

I had no idea that cretin was offensive - glad I do now, every day's a school day on MN!

GoldPlatedNineDoors · 07/09/2012 17:58

Jesse - is there something specific about chinese people and blonde babies?? Onoy asking as I regularly get random chinese passers by stroke dds hand as we pass. I thought it was just totally random people but noticed it was only Chinese.

numbertaker · 07/09/2012 18:00

I had some guy come up and say to me, can I borrow your son (11) to help me load some things into the car outside the shop. I said 'sorry but I don't let my son go with strangers, but I will be more than happy to help you myself' at which point he just muttered and walked off. So I do believe the OP, some folks are just weird.

RabidCarrot · 07/09/2012 18:08

According to DP people were always asking to hold him and tourist from Japan loved him because he has red hair Hmm

nailak · 07/09/2012 18:13

i didnt know that about cretin too, normally when i say i didnt know words were offensive on mnet i get insulted for it...

JessePinkman · 07/09/2012 18:23

GoldPlatedNineDoors I don't know about Overseas Chinese but in China a lot of people had never seen a real life blonde baby and stopped to take photos and just touched her without asking me. Or told me that she was cold.

I thought it was blond for a boy and blonde for a girl. Just off to check.

combinearvester · 07/09/2012 19:47

I don't believe you sorry.

ChoccyJules · 07/09/2012 19:53

Yeah, cretin means someone with hypothyroidism. And it's true notalotofpeople knowthat!

Pumpster · 07/09/2012 20:00

Well I never knew that, they say it in monsters inc!

JessePinkman · 07/09/2012 20:06

I noticed cretin, but it was 'me and the hubby' that offended me.