AITA for yelling at a little girl to get out of my face?

A Reddit user shared a heated encounter at their newborn’s pediatrician’s office, where a crowded waiting room and an inattentive mom created chaos. The mom’s kindergarten-aged daughter repeatedly invaded the user’s personal space, disrupted their belongings, and even spilled formula while they were trying to care for their sick baby.

After numerous polite attempts to redirect the child, the user snapped and yelled at the girl to stay away. The incident caused a scene, with others in the waiting room criticizing the user for their reaction. For the full story and context, read below.

‘ AITA for yelling at a little girl to get out of my face?’

My newborn’s pediatrician is always so crowded in terms of size of waiting room versus number of people waiting. It requires a certain amount of etiquette re: controlling your f**k kid, because there are no toys, no play area, no real space for shenanigans. Enter lady with four kids: A newborn, two toddlers, and a kindergarten aged kid (little girl in question here).

She really really should have brought an iPad or a second adult or something because her kids were literally running around this tiny ass space, yelling and screeching. The mom was oblivious to all of her kids except the newborn, who was quietly breastfeeding while mom was glued to her phone screen.

Accordingly, other people were put in the awkward position of having to discipline her kids. Several people had previously tried to put her kids back in line for whatever issue (harassing their kids, being loud, whatever). Her kindergarten aged daughter, who clearly had some kind of special needs, was absolutely enamored with my newborn and his stroller.

She was asking me if she could push it around (no) she was getting super close to my newborn (stop) and was generally just being annoying. Ffs at one point when I wasn’t looking and was preoccupied with my own kid, she went digging in my diaper bag and throwing my stuff onto the chair and the floor.

My newborn was really fussy because we were there for a sick visit and he wasn’t feeling well, and I DID NOT feel like entertaining some strange kid. I tried being polite about it “Sweetie where’s your mommy?” -points to mom- “Ma’am!” -points to kid- The lady would call her kid back, but the kid just kept coming back to me. Rinse and repeat.

I told her she needed to stay with her mom. Little punk deadass says “I don’t wanna” and keeps trying to touch my son, my stroller, our stuff. Finally, I’m trying to fix a bottle of formula while holding a screaming baby and listening to this little girl like a broken record “why is your baby crying? Why is your baby crying! make him stop!

I don’t like that” And her and her annoying self knocks my bottle of formula off the table and into my stroller. So now I’m out formula, kid still screaming, and I have a huge mess that I don’t have a great way to clean up. I’m at my wits end. I raise my voice at this kid. “LOOK WHAT YOU DID. I AM NOT YOUR MOM, I AM NOT YOUR BABYSITTER.

YOU ARE BOTHERING ME. GET OUT OF MY FACE!!” People looked at me like I was the biggest b**ch on earth. A lady speaking Spanish actually did call me a b**ch. The little girl starts crying. I’m not apologizing. The mom confronts me, I tell her she should have been watching her kid and that’s the hill I’m prepared to die on.. So reddit, AITA?

Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:

amaraame −  NTA. Some kids just don’t get the point until you raise your voice because their parents have never enforced boundaries.

esdietz33 −  NTA (the other mother is) you shouldn’t have to watch her kid in a waiting room. She should have kept the kids with her and they shouldn’t be touching your stuff. Maybe could have said something directly to the mom but obviously sending her back she should have taken the hint.

Letsgo_321 −  NTA. The fact that the child practically harassed you and then made it so you couldn’t feed your child would probably drive many people to yelling. The mother is definitely the biggest a**hole. For evidently not being able to control her offsprings. The child isn’t exactly an a**hole if they have issues.

TiKi_Effect −  NTA. I say this because if it was your kid doing that everyone would be calling you the a**hole. You are not that kids parent, or the kid help, so that kids parent should step up if she wants all the damn kids.

Archon__X −  NTA, normally I’d say you overreacted by yelling at the girl but **she was endangering your newborn** so f**k her feelings. She’ll get over it.

thiscouldbemassive −  ESH I get you are on your last nerve. I’ve been there with a fussy baby, but you can’t take it out on little kids. You got to be the adult in the room.

takoyakifiend −  ESH. Obviously the mom sucks ass. She should have definitely brought entertainment. I know it’s hard to take care of four kids, especially if one has a disability like you said but god damn, watch your kid.

I personally can’t see how yelling at a disabled kid would help you in that situation. Remember, adults talk to adults. I wouldn’t have said you were an a**hole if you took that energy to the mom.

TwoBeanAndCheese −  NTA ..people need to care for their children if they are going to take them in public.

lefkoz −  ESH Yeah that situation sound awful. The little girl sounds like a demon. And the mom was apathetic. You screamed in the face of a 4-6 year old who you think had special needs. I understand why you lost it. But that doesn’t make it okay. You’re also TA here.

AreyoutheA −  NTA while you could of handled the situation better, the difference between how you handle an annoying kid vs an annoying adult is thus. You immediately or quickly yell at the adult. For a kid, you are polite, then get their guardian, and if their guardian doesn’t discipline them you try to gently discipline them,

but it gets to a point when you have no choice but to yell at them. You didn’t curse or use overly offensive language, so I fail to see the problem. You can’t be excepted to sit there while being tormented by a kid.