A mum of three young children was left taken aback when a stranger made a rude comment about her daughter in the supermarket, and feels the remark was completely unjustified
An innocent interaction in a supermarket promoted a furious reaction – much to one baffled mum’s astonishment.
The mother-of-three has a set of three-year-old twins -a boy and a girl – and a tiny ten-week-old baby. After taking her little ones to a doctor’s appointment, the mother-of-three stopped off at the supermarket for some groceries. While ‘chit-chatting’ away as they browsed the aisles, her curious twins fired questions about the items on the shelves and discussed all the fun they planned to have at the park afterwards.
As they turned down one aisle, they came across a service dog – the first one the twins had ever seen. The sight naturally sparked great excitement from her animal-loving daughter, who ‘immediately shouted ‘PUPPY MUMMY PUPPY LOOK’ and pointed towards the dog’.
The mum reminded her little girl to ‘use her inside voice’, and when she asked if she could pet the dog, she explained that ‘the puppy was working and we couldn’t distract it’. Taking to Reddit, she wrote: “I made it clear to them they could look at the dog but we were NOT going to call the dog, pet the dog, speak to the dog, or try and play with the dog. The dog is not like our dog at home, this dog has an important job and we don’t want to distract him. They are three but did a really good job of respecting the dog’s space. I was so proud.”
Having never before encountered a service dog, the twins were a little confused and bombarded their mother with sweet questions about the dog’s career path, asking everything from ‘Is the dog working like daddy?’ to ‘Why can’t we pet puppies with jobs?’ They also wondered aloud why their own dog at home wasn’t in employment, hilariously concluding that it was too ‘lazy’.
Their mother answered all their questions patiently as they continued with their shopping trip. She recalled: “We walked right past the dog and the twins did a really good job of respecting the dog’s space and not distracting him by shouting or reaching for him. (again so proud we have been working on respecting others’ space).”
Just as the family exited the aisle, however, an older woman tapped the mother on the shoulder and declared that her ‘daughter was poorly behaved because she shouted when she saw the service dog’. Rushing to defend her brood, the indignant mum said: “I informed her my child was three and three-year-olds do that sometimes. The older lady just looked at me and said that HER kids never shouted in stores THEY were ALWAYS quiet or asleep. I said okay thank you bye now and walked off.
“For two three-year-olds hopped up on the one piece of candy each the doctor gave them AND were super excited to go to the park later. They were shockingly well-mannered in the store. Besides the initial shout when they saw the service dog they didn’t scream, cry, try to pet, talk to, call, or do anything besides just watch the dog and ask me questions.”
Reflecting on the ‘odd and kinda funny’ experience, she continued: “I am so proud of them. My husband and I have been laughing about this story all night. The kids weren’t even behaving badly they’ve definitely behaved much worse than shouting once in public (I’m not afraid to admit they have had complete meltdowns in public over the smallest things).
“Maybe that lady had a stick up her butt or something. I thought they were being incredibly well-behaved sweet children today.”
A number of fellow Reddit users empathised with her bewilderment and reassured her the fault was with the woman, not her parenting. One person commented: “I love the quote ‘don’t take criticism from someone you’d never go to for advice’. She’s a mean spitfire woman. Don’t give her a second more of your thoughts.”
Another remarked: “I swear parents with adult children have no memory of what their kids were truly like. They’re all the same! Throughout time and around the world.”
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