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Is it ever ok for a stranger to touch your child?

Hi everyone,

We’ve just been discussing in the MFM office, a story we read about a mum who complained after a fairground worker tickled her little boy around his waist, while in the queue for a ride.

This had us wondering, is it ever ok for a stranger to touch your child? Be it a warm pinch of the cheek in a ‘isn’t he/she cute’ kind of way, or someone carefully moving your child out of the way in a shop, do let us know what you think by replying to this thread. We’d be interested to hear when you think it is or isn’t acceptable for a stranger to touch your child.

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Replies

  • I don't like it. when my daughter was a few weeks old I was in a supermarket and had turned round for a few seconds to get something from a shelf and a lady was holding my baby's hand and stroking her face. 

    its fine to admire, but from a distance, I don't think there is any need to touch someone else's child

  • Bug91 i had a similar experience when i went with my son to the mall but this lady took it a notch higher. he was about a month old. This lady was admiring him in the pram and decided to put her finger in my baby's mouth so he could suck it. i was so pissed. She took me by surprise and i didn't know how to react. After i walked away i wished i had told her off. I couldn't help thinking if her finger was really clean or dirty and decided i will never ever allow anyone to such a disgusting thing to my baby.

  • When my daughter was a few months old  (she was 8 weeks prem so very tiny) an elderly lady asked her name in a cafe. I told her it and she informed me it wasn't a proper name and what was her real name.  I was already taken aback and repeated it was her real name and she proceeded to stick her finger into my daughters mouth!! 

    Couldn't grab her away quick enough and my husband shouted at her but she was totally oblivious !!

    Another elderly lady a couple of weeks ago (daughter is now 2.5yrs) tried to take her hand and show her a doggy that she was commenting on. Luckily my daughter point blank refused and looked at her like she was an alien whilst I politely declined and ushered my daughter away !

  • The exact same thing happend yesterday with my little boy, and I pulled the pram away straight away, I think it's wrong in my opinion too touch baby's faces if you don't know them. They could have all sorts of germs on there hands. Just made me cringe. :(image

  • That's really shocking! I don't have children, but I would never even think of doing something like that! I wouldn't touch a baby I didn't know, let alone stick my potentially germy finger into their mouth! Regarding slightly older kids, there have been a couple of occasions where I sort of have. Once, I was talking to a lady who lived on my road (I didn't know her but we'd been talking there for like ten mins) and her daughter came out (she was maybe 3) and took an interest in my wheelchair footplate. She climbed on it and was about to fall so I took her hand. Her mum didn't seem to mind, and I only did it to stop her falling. Another time though, there was a group of kids about 9 or 10 playing near where I live, and one of them took a slightly unhealthy interest in my wheelchair joystick. He thought it would be funny to spin me round and round until I was dizzy, not realising that that would be more dangerous than funny. When I told him to stop, he wouldn't, so I tried to remove his hand from my joystick, but couldn't. Eventually I had to unplug the power cord to get him to stop :/ do you guys think I did the right thing? 

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  • No, I don't think it ok to touch other people's children. I hate it when someone touches my child, he hates it for starters and secondly you don't know what germs are been passed around. 

  • I'm not a mother, but I would never touch a stranger's child. I don't know where their hands have been and I wouldn't want any germs or illnesses on my child. I take personal space very seriously, and I wouldn't want to annoy or bother anyone else.

  • Hello,

    I've noticed the thread and I decided to comment on it. I think it's okay if they are friendly and it's not done aggressively. I mean if they approach a kid with care and decide to shake his/her hand or just stroke its head in a friendly way, that's ok with me. I have a small kid myself and I don't think isolating it from strangers is good. It's both mentality and physical health issue - when the kids go to school they will encounter many stranger bacterias or other microorganisms, it is not stupid to introduce them to other "environments" even if they are small. I've never isolated my boy from people and he is neither shy nor afraid of them

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