Woman furious as stranger tells her son to ‘sit quietly’ in the doctor’s waiting room

The woman had taken her son to the doctor because she thought he had an ear infection, but he was babbling to himself in the waiting room when one woman snapped

When you went to the doctor when you were younger, you probably remember amusing yourself in the waiting room. Some people may have played with the minimal toys available, some may have busied themselves with magazines and others may have aimlessly wandered around trying to make themselves feel a bit better whilst they waited.

One woman took to Reddit’s ‘am I the a**hole’ forum to vent that a stranger had complained about her two-year-old son walking around and naming shapes on the walls, acting ‘irritated’ and ‘huffing’ about the fact that her son was babbling to himself whilst waiting to see somebody for a suspected ear infection. Needless to say, the mum was not happy with the woman confronting her.

She wrote: “My son is two. We are at the doctor’s because I’m about 98 percent sure he has an ear infection.

“We go to a doctor’s office that doesn’t have any sort of play area or anywhere for kids to kind of hang around. We go here pretty frequently so my kids have the same sort of routine: you’re allowed to roam the room without bothering other people or yelling.

“They like to do typical kid things like walking in circles around empty chairs or looking at the art on the wall and tell me what shapes are there.

“There was only one other woman in the waiting room, she was probably about 50 years old. So while we are waiting my little son is doing his typical thing. Now let me add that when there have been other people as long as he follows my rules they don’t seem to be bothered by it. So I thought it was going to be the same thing with this woman.

“My two-year-old is walking around an empty chair near me and babbling (I promise it wasn’t loud, it is unacceptable behaviour to be loud in a quiet setting) and telling me things like ‘star’ and ‘circle’.

“This woman begins to huff and sigh and seem very irritated. I thought maybe it was the wait time since it was taking a good minute for either of us to be called back. Then the woman kind of hissed ‘I can’t believe people let their kids act like that.’

“I asked her if she was annoyed by my kid and she said ‘Yes, he’s so loud! He should be sitting quietly!’ I told her ‘Ma’am he’s two, he’s not hurting anything or screaming, he isn’t near you’. She got all huffy and told me ‘You need to be a better mum and control your son!’

“I was floored. About that time we got called back so I just got his bag and him and went back. I’m not going to lie, I really felt like crying. But it may be rude and out of line to let him walk around and talk about everything instead of trying to keep him in place. Am I the a**hole?”

People had mixed thoughts about what they believed the little boy should be doing, but many sympathised with the mum who was just trying her best.

One wrote: “Give me a break, he’s a little one. I clearly remember visiting a doctors office and kids would be roaming and playing with that wooden bead maze. He wasn’t screaming or being close to anyone. Gosh, adults are becoming so cruel to children these days.”

Someone else disagreed saying that they thought the little boy should’ve been seated. They commented: “Little germ factory. If they are sick they can infect everyone in that room. They can infect someone with a compromised immune system and get very sick. Sit the kid down with an iPad or a phone.”

Another defended the woman, writing: “She could have had a migraine, she could have also had a variety of other illnesses and just wanted quiet.

“I too get snippy when I’m feeling like s***.”

One Redditor was reasonable to the mum, commenting: “Letting him roam was probably not the best under those circumstances, but we all make mistakes.

“That said, I think the woman criticising him for his behaviour was being dramatic. Or if I’m being generous, maybe extra cranky. If your son was acting as you say, that seems pretty well behaved for that age.”

Who do you think was being unreasonable here? Let us know in the comments.