Would you care?

How do you feel about perfect strangers touching your child? You’re either in one of two camps when it comes to this, either you’re cool with it or you’re not.

Is this though, a world gone mad when a lovely old lady in the supermarket aisle can no longer admire your child and interact with them or is it simply, completely out of line to make contact?

It would appear, after US woman Melissa Willet penned the following open letter which was later posted on the BabyCentre website, that the overwhelming majority are very much on her side when it comes to interaction with children from a stranger in public.

Have a read:

Commenters were mainly supportive although some less so. Here’s a selection…

Emily says:

Billy says:

Erlinda says:

John says:

Is this innocent gesture being taken the wrong way?

Personally, all I know is that my own 74-year-old mother was a bandit for doing this sort of thing, so maybe I’m coming at it from a different angle.

If she came across a child on her weekly shopping trip, she’d grab their little hand and dance a little jig with them if they smiled at her. She didn’t accost them, she simply loved that lifeline they gave her to the beauty that is childhood.

If it brings joy to an otherwise joyless world, is it so bad? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about anything inappropriate, I’m talking about someone, innocently wanting to connect with a child, if just for a moment.

As for the hygiene issue, come ON, when your kid hits daycare or preschool, a pensioner’s hygiene habits are going to be the LEAST of your problems. Plus, this letter, to me, just felt a little bit grinchy.

But that’s just me.

How about you? Do you have a problem with this? If so, why?