‘Why would you say something like this to a stranger?’: Mom with 10-month-old is blown away by fellow mom’s bizarre remark

A mom eating in a restaurant with her family was taken aback by a stranger’s bizarre remark, and now she’s wondering why any fellow parent would say such a thing.

Posted to the subreddit r/Parenting, the post received over 1,000 upvotes and 220 comments.

Much like the stay-at-home mom who couldn’t believe what her husband had the audacity to say about cleaning their house, Redditors have strong opinions on the stranger’s bold remark.

Her post read: “Today I was in a restaurant with my spouse and 10-month-old baby. The baby was a bit squirmy, but overall we had a nice time. At the next table were two kids, roughly four and six years old, and their parents. The kids were quiet, playing games on their parents’ phones. We didn’t interact at all except when the baby smiled at one of their kids and the kid waved back. We all smiled at each other because it was cute.

“The other family finished before we did. The mom stopped at our table and said, ‘Just so you know, it gets a lot harder.’ She wasn’t smiling or joking.

“I actually have an older child who wasn’t with us at breakfast, so I know about the challenges of parenting older kids. But like… why bother saying something like this to a stranger?”

“Some people are just happy being miserable…”

Parents on Reddit were quick to weigh in, sharing their own bizarre encounters with opinionated strangers.

“I’m not sure what it is about parenting, but I find people tell me some random weird things when they see me with the baby. Only with the baby. When I’m alone, I don’t get this treatment, but when I’m with the baby everyone feels the need to say something. It’s so strange,” one Redditor replied.

“I think it’s the same impulse people have to warn pregnant women about how awful labor and delivery is,” one person said. “Like ok cool, I’ll just cancel it then?” another commented in response.

“It’s the same thing when you’re pregnant and everyone loves to try and scare you or tell you the hard things that are coming. I’m not sure what’s behind it, probably insecurity or something. But I find it very annoying. If someone is expecting I will only tell them the great things about being a parent. Even my single friends, I refuse to participate in the ‘being a parent is miserable’ trope that feels like some hacky 80s stand up routine,” one Redditor shared.

“Some people are just happy being miserable and they want everyone else to be miserable too,” another observed.

However, some Redditors tried to play devil’s advocate for the woman by considering her remark from a different perspective.

“She probably wishes someone had warned her about the difficulty of raising kids in general. And then probably thought she was helping to set your expectations,” suggested one Redditor.

“Did she feel like you were judging her in some way? Maybe she said this in defense to her kids using screens for example? It doesn’t sound like you did anything but, as a parent, it’s so easy to think everyone around you is judging,” another suggested.

“Eh, she may have just been trying to connect. Sometimes we just have awkward moments,” wrote another.

Since we’ll never know what exactly the stranger meant, perhaps it’s best to err on the side of positivity and assume she simply misspoke.

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If you enjoyed this story, check out this Labor and delivery nurse overhears dads’ “inappropriate comments” during birth and transforms them into “inspirational quotes.”

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