If a total stranger made a comment towards your child, how would you react?
Liz, a mom-of-two, was spending the day with her 6-year-old daughter at a shop when a stranger approached her child.
The stranger, who the American woman described as a “grown man,” turned around and peered down at the 6-year-old.
“I guess your mum didn’t teach you manners…”
“My goodness, you sure are pretty,” the man reportedly told the child.
While Liz acknowledged that her daughter was “pretty,” she also noted how weird the compliment was.
“My 6-year-old is gorgeous, yes, but she is also very in tune and perceptive,” she recounted in the TikTok.
Unlike Liz, who describes herself as “pretty chill,” her 6-year-old is far more of an “introvert,” and was so scared of the man that she “grabbed my leg really tight.”
But Liz kept her cool, instead staying quiet while the man repeated himself.
“You sure are pretty,” the stranger told the 6-year-old girl. “Look at those blue eyes.”
Liz’s daughter “grabs me a little tighter”, while the American woman stood with an “awkward” smile in the hopes of getting the man to leave.
But he wasn’t going away.
“He’s a boomer and God love him,” the woman recounted. “And he said, ‘I guess your mum didn’t teach you manners.’”
Liz “let out an uncomfortable little [noise]”, letting the tension of silence try and indicate to the man that they were uncomfortable; she made it clear she wasn’t in the mood for feeling “thankful”.
“The pause was long,” she said. “It was long. And under his breath, he said, ‘Guess not’.”
The mom-of-two “knew we’re going to be here awhile”, so she mustered up the strength to send him the message in the most “nice, firm Jesus-loving way”.
“If you assume that I didn’t teach my 6-year-old daughter to say ‘thank you’ to a grown, consenting man when he compliments her appearance, then you would be correct,” she told him.
“And there was silence for five more minutes,” Liz continued. “And it was the longest silence of my life.”
“Stranger danger over obligatory politeness every time”
The video quickly went viral, with parents worldwide giving praise to Liz for her efforts to protect her daughter.
“Stranger danger over obligatory politeness every time,” someone said. “Good job, mama!” another agreed.
“I would have said, ‘My daughter or I are not obligated to respond to unsolicited comments from strangers,’” a comment read.
“I’m so happy that mums are protecting their boundaries,” wrote a fourth.
“You’re more polite than I am. I’ve just started pointing creepiness out,” a woman responded.
“Do you spend a lot of time talking to children, you don’t know?”
But not everyone was on Liz’s side, with some arguing the stranger may have just been polite.
“Sometimes it’s just people being kind,” a person reasoned.
“I often try to compliment people,” read a comment. “Never cared what reaction they had. It’s just trying to be friendly or kind. I just smile and go about my day.”
