Redditor ehhhjustlisten recently ran to her daughter’s defense after some older boys stole her toys.
The Original Poster (OP) chased after two older boys after they stole her 3-year-old’s toys.
The boys’ mother yelled at the OP for her behavior, saying she should let the boys play with the toys.
This drove the OP to subReddit “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA).
She asked:
“AITA for chasing a kid and attempting to take my child’s toy back?”
She went on to explain.
“My daughter is semi non-verbal. She is 3 and can say ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’. But she mostly says sounds like ‘ehhh’ when trying to communicate.”
“I bring her to work with me because she is very behaved and quiet (because she is semi- nonverbal). I work at outdoor events like Farmers markets or festivals.”
“I set up my stand, and I have a little table and chair for her ‘stand’ too. She puts her toys out and works her booth like me. It’s cute and other kids go to her booth and play with her.”
“This particular time, she had some busy toys and a bubble maker wand she just brought back from the beach.”
“She doesn’t mind any of the kids playing with them, but then 2 boys maybe around 8/9 came and were roughing up the toys.”
“They were banging the wand on the table and my daughter was saying ‘Mama, ehh ehh ehh’.”
“I asked them to please play nice with my daughter’s toys and they yelled No. I said okay then, I am going to put them away until they leave. They said it’s their toys now and ran.”
“I ran after them with my daughter in my arms, and a woman came out of know where and grabbed my arm.”
“She screamed ‘what the hell do I think I’m doing chasing her sons’. I told her to never touch me and her sons were stealing my daughter’s toy.”
“She said I am a grown adult and I shouldn’t chase children, and her sons can play with that toy if they want to.”
“I said I had no issue with them playing with it until they started banging it on the table and said they wouldn’t give it back.”
“She said ‘well, they can continue playing with it and will return it when they are done.’”
“I said that doesn’t work for me and I took the toy back from her son’s hands and walked away. I heard her call me a f*cking b*tch as we’re walking.”
“My sister thinks it was wrong for me to take the toy back. But I honestly was frustrated and wanted done with her and kids. We put the toys away until after we saw she left .”
“Am I the a**hole or f*cking b*tch?”
“Edit to add My ‘chasing’ consisted of me briskly walking with my daughter in one arm, with my other arm flailing in the air ‘hey give that back’ lol. They were about 20-30 feet in front of me.”
“Also my daughter was in my arms because after she said Mama, I picked her up because I saw she was holding back tears.”
Redditors weighed in by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Many Redditors didn’t see a problem with her actions.
“NTA. The mom lets them get away with murder, and I’m sure that’s not the first time that has happened.”
“However, who was watching your stand? I’d rather let them get away with the bubble wand instead of losing your product and cash.” – NotCreativeAtAll16
“NTA”
“The 8 and 9 year old know better or they wouldn’t have run away. They were being mean and you can see from their Mom’s reaction that bad behavior is allowed in their household.”
“What they did was theft/bullying and you had the right to defend your property.” – samsg1
“NTA”
“These kids know they are stealing and bullying.” – thirdtryisthecharm
“NTA wtf is wrong with people. She willingly allowed her 8/9 yo to bully a toddler. It sounds like there needs to be a larger police presence at your farmers market.” – dncrmom
“NTA. She is teaching her sons to be entitled, AHs.”
“I don’t even know of a 9yo that would take a toy with from a toddler and run away with it.”
“Then their idiot mother TELLING you they can play with whatever toy they want and return it when they’re ready. Like, F off lady.” – Ok-Context1168
“NTA.”
“My nephew is currently going through a phase of, ‘MINE!’ and my niece (his cousin) has not gone through the same phase…”
“…so when he snatches a toy from her we make him give it back, tell him to apologize, reassure her she doesn’t need to give it to him if he doesn’t ask nicely and then coach him to ask for it nicely.”
“And yeah, we encourage sharing but we put away ‘special’ toys before they hang out just to be safe.”
“It’s a slow process. He’s gonna get there.”
“He is also only 3 years old. And only just starting to understand sharing and being fair.”
“Those boys were older, and if they do not have the capacity to understand sharing or playing nicely then the mother should have supervised them better.”
“She called you a b*tch cause you were parenting better than her, lol.” – millhouse_vanhousen
“her sons can play with that toy if they want to.”
“My sister thinks it was wrong for me to take the toy back”
“NTA – who in the hell does this lady and your sister think they are?!?! It’s literally your daughter’s toys from home.”
“100% every right to dictate who gets to play with what and when it’s time to put them away. Those two adults and the little bratty boys can kick rocks.” – slap-a-frap
“NTA.”
“A good rule of thumb in a situation like this where someone is like ‘it’s just a toy, it doesn’t matter’ is to replace it with something else in the story.”
“If the boys had grabbed your purse and run off with it, would you be justified in chasing them? Of course.”
“It would be absurd for the mom to say, ‘They’ll give your purse back when they’re done with it.’ Because they took something that didn’t belong to them and that’s called stealing.”
“The only place where it matters how much the item was worth is in court. It doesn’t matter if it was a pacifier, a rare artwork, or anything else. It wasn’t theirs.” – irowells1892
“NTA while I can understand the other mom having a knee jerk reaction at first when you explained it she should have told her kids to give it back.”
“While toys are play things in the eyes of adults not all toys are created equal in the eyes of a kid.”
“A child can have a toy that was given to them by someone they were close to who passed away or as a token of comfort when going through a tough time in their life.”
“Toys like those are extremely important. Another kid running off with it and breaking the toy would break the heart of anyone, especially to those younger than the the thief who can’t keep up.”
“It is the equivalent of you seeing the woman’s wedding ring and wearing it because it matches your outfit.”
“That ring has valuable meaning to her and she alone gets to decide who wears it. If her spouse had passed away even more so.”
“It is one thing to teach kids to share when warranted but sharing isn’t always a great idea.”
“Kids have so little control and if they have a toy snack that is important to them sharing shouldn’t be forced.”
“That mother expected her kids to get everything and is quite entitled.” – Dependent_Praline_93
“NTA and then some.”
“I am autistic and remember a lot of things from age 2-3, specifically nasty incidents or incidents where things could have gotten bad stand out the most.”
“Your daughter could have ended up with a memory of two bullies stealing from her, her being unable to communicate (which feels like a damned horror movie lemmetellya)…”
“…and losing something important to her because of it.”
“Instead, she gets a memory of her parent standing up for her and listening to what she means and needs.”
“You’ve shown you can be trusted to look out for her and not let other folks take advantage. Good parenting was done that day by you, in my humble opinion.” – faeriegirl1995
“NTA. And wth is wrong with your sister? She literally thinks the boys had a right to steal and keep your daughter’s toy until they were ready to leave the market?”
“I can’t even with that sh*t. I’d have chased after the boys too for stealing my kids stuff.”
“And, if their mother was paying attention instead of letting them wreak havoc unsupervised, none of this would have happened.”
“Tell your sister that no one has a right to steal your crap and give it back when they’re done.” – stasiasmom
“NTA – people who steal get the stolen item removed from them – whether they are 3, 8, 13, 23 or 53. Age is irrelevant. They don’t get to steal from you – end of story.” – Seriouslydude-no-way
The OP’s daughter is lucky to have a mom that has her back like that 🥹.