There is always something you’re looking forward to. The end of a long workday, the end of a lousy movie, the end of this article, or the sweet delight just inches away from your face. An ice cream—a gift from the gods! You feel the cold air against your lips, the scent of vanilla, the promise of the crunch of the cone, and then…

A child. Looking straight at your morsel of happiness, reaching their tiny hands toward it as if they’re drawn to it. The child, a mere stranger, may not be your worst enemy though; it’s their very entitled mother who believes that the ice cream is now the toddler’s rightful possession. This is the situation one person dealt with, describing it all in the subreddit r/AmIthe[Jerk].

A story full of twists, turns, satisfaction, and confusion. When Bored Panda reached out to cheesesandwitch96, who shared this story, the one thing she said about it all: “Be kind and civil but stand your ground if someone tries to cross your boundaries.”

Dear reader, I encourage you to stick around to the very end, leaving your opinions and potential ways to have solved this situation in the comments below. If by any chance you’re craving more afterward, here’s another article for you, sure to tickle your tastebuds. Now let’s get into it!

There’s nothing better than a cone of your favorite ice cream after a long and arduous day—that is until a toddler sets its gaze upon it

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

Vanilla. Chocolate. Orange. Cookie Dough. Cherry Swirl. Mint Choco Chip. These are some of the potential flavors that we’ve all grown up with. They’re nostalgic, they’re refreshing, they’re comforting after a breakup, or after a sad movie, or just in any situation of life that is challenging. The last thing we want to happen to this morsel is for it to be stolen by none other than a stranger.

You’re gonna prevent that from happening at all costs, especially when that bit of joy was something you’d been looking forward to for most of the day. One Redditor named cheesesandwitch96 detailed this sort of situation in the r/AmIthe[Jerk] subreddit, where she wondered whether she was in the wrong for how she acted.

One woman was unexpectedly placed under harsh scrutiny for not submitting her ice cream to a fussy toddler by the child’s mother. Here is the full story:

Although one is always taught to never take candy (or in this case ice cream) from a stranger, this didn’t seem to stop the mom demanding it from the woman

Image credits: Mahalaxmi Silwal (not the actual photo)

“Give it to my son and buy yourself a new one” are fighting words in my book. No one threatens my dessert and gets away with it! Now, to be the devil’s advocate, being a mother is no easy task. You will do anything it takes for your child to be healthy, happy, and content, even if that means asking strangers for their snacks.

The pressure and the social stigma, especially when it comes to the child crying in public, could drive the best of us to make some interesting choices in our lives. However, there is asking for help and there is demanding it.

Had the mother asked the stranger with some kindness if she could go to the shop and get her child a similar treat that she’d pay for afterward, I’m sure the original poster (OP) would have complied and we would not be speaking about this at all. You’d be off looking at a list of cats or something… But that ain’t the case now, is it?

Knowing what to do in said situations isn’t as ingrained in our minds as the fact that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. Are you to do all it takes to fulfill the toddler’s wishes and help out a mother? They say that it takes a village for a reason… Or should you act the same way as this woman did? Let’s continue with the story.

Image credits: cheesesandwitch96

The mother didn’t continue to berate the woman for the rest of their trip; however, it did leave her wondering whether she was in the wrong for her actions

Image credits: Liana_Kyle (not the actual photo)

One should strive to lead their life with kindness and grace, yet one can also argue that being allowed to be spoken down to and reduced to a mere pawn of entertainment and wish-fulfillment to a random child is an unkind act to oneself. We should never allow disrespectful people to make us act in ways that only benefit them.

In my eyes, the OP did nothing wrong in this situation. The child should not be blamed for wanting the ice cream, yet the mother, if she ever gets the chance to look at this situation from the side and take it as a learning experience, should never have approached a stranger with a demanding and entitled attitude, let alone berate them when she wasn’t getting her way.

It’s understandable that she wanted to prevent a temper tantrum from her child. According to KidsHealth, tantrums are a normal part of child development and they’re how young children show that they’re upset or frustrated, most often over not getting something they want. Learning to deal with frustration is a skill that children gain over time.

Dr. Linda Rubinowitz, a marriage and family therapist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, argues that the worst thing a parent can do when their child is having a tantrum is to react as violently as the child by yelling or through acts of physical violence.

Tactics such as bribing, begging, and giving in aren’t great either. “If you give in, you are rewarding the tantrum and ensuring that it will happen again and again,” says Dr. Rubinowitz. Kids need to know that “no” means “no,” even if they are upset about it. However, it is important to make it clear that while their feelings are OK, hurting others or themselves is not.

So, getting back to this situation, one thing is for certain—parenting is hard. Although the mother may have been tired from wandering the city for the full day and didn’t want another thing to add to her plate, shoving her problems onto another in such a rude way was definitely uncalled for, and it’s good that the OP decided to ignore the berating comments, rather than lashing back.

But let us know your thoughts on this! Do you agree with what happened? What would you have done differently? Write all your opinions down in the comments section below, and I shall wish you a much more calm day or evening than this person had to deal with. Adios!

People online have unequivocally agreed that she was right to have acted the way she did. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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