This Lady Told Me To Leash My Child

Over the weekend my husband and I took our son to a community get together with trucks, inflatables, food vendors and live music. It was a pretty neat little event.

We let our son run around near the playground area and wild out, like a kid should. After he got tired of the swings and slide, we headed over to the big truck displays. We were trying to pose him for photos, but he wasn't having it. He wanted to run around and be free like a free range chicken. So, we figured we'd let him run around and wear himself out before his bedtime.

I was talking to a woman who gave him a sticker. He said 'thank you' and ran over to my husband to play on the playground. I stuck around making small talk with the woman (I won't say what organization she was with) and she told me she thought I needed to put him on a leash so I could keep up with him better. I thought I misunderstood what she said at first. Then, she said it again. She told me a leash would stop him from running around.

I was confused because he wasn't running away from me. He was running around by the playground area with my husband, playing. It seemed like such a weird comment to make. I figured she was joking, but I quickly realized she wasn't. She was dead serious. I started making my way over to my husband and son at the park, thinking about how to take what she said to me.

I told my husband what the woman had said and the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. He was just a little kid having fun at the park with his dad. I felt like I should have said something sassy to her, but I didn't. We decided to move on with our day.

Do you think I should have said something to this lady, or is it best that I didn't?