She Told a Little Girl to Watch Where She Was Going in a Crowded Mall. The Girl’s Dad Chased Her Down and Said She’d Have to Be Autistic to Talk to His Daughter That Way
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Sometimes, a quick comment comes across a lot harsher than you meant it to.
That seems to be what happened to one woman after a trip to the mall to meet a friend.
She’s autistic, and between the crowds, the lights, and the noise, malls are already a lot for her. So when she had trouble getting around a little girl who was looking down as she walked, she told her to look where she was going and kept walking.
But then a man ran to catch up with her and asked if she was on the spectrum. She said yes, though she had no idea why he was asking.
It turned out he was the girl’s father, and he didn’t think she had any business speaking to his five-year-old that way.
Read on to see how it all played out.
AITA: Telling a 5 year old to look where they’re going
I (62F) am autistic. I used to call it Asperger’s before I found out what a monster Hans Asperger was.
I can’t read body language and have a lot of trouble with social cues.
I can be brusque or sharp in my verbal communications. I don’t mean anything by it. That’s just the way I am.
It all started when a child was blocking her way.
Yesterday, I was at the mall to meet a friend. Malls are tough for me because of all the people, bright lights, and noise.
I was walking through the crowd when a mother and child approached me. The child had their eyes downcast and was pouting. I had trouble getting around the child due to the crowd. I said, “Look where you’re going,” and walked on.
Then a man ran up to me. He had to run about 20 meters to catch up to me.
Then, he said something that was pretty shocking.
“Are you on the spectrum?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. I thought it was a strange question to ask, but I saw no reason not to be honest.
“You’d have to be autistic to talk to a 5-year-old like that,” he said.
Still a bit confused as to what was going on, I said, “I just told you that I am on the spectrum.”
She tried to reason with him, but he stormed off.
“It’s not okay to tell a 5-year-old to look where she’s going!” he said.
I finally realized that A) this was the father of the child I’d spoken to; B) he was quite mad at me; and C) he thought calling someone autistic was an insult.
“It’s reasonable to expect a 5-year-old to look where they’re going,” I said.
He walked off in what I assume was a huff. I talked to my friend, who said it was alarming that a man chased a woman through a mall to verbally confront her. That honestly hadn’t occurred to me.
AITA?
Eek! That guy sounds like something else.
Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about this whole thing.
Here’s advice from a woman who’s a mother and teacher.
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According to this comment, it’s up to the parents to teach kids respect.
This person takes a nicer approach.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who sees the chance for revenge after a neighbor who refuses to share wifi needs help with a parking issue.
And this person doesn’t think she did anything wrong.
For starters, she could’ve said “excuse me,” but this didn’t need to turn into a whole thing.
At the same time, it’s easy to see why a dad might get upset when a stranger speaks sharply to his five-year-old.
But if he wanted to show his daughter how people should talk to each other, running after a woman and using autism as an insult was a pretty lousy way to do it.
Next time, he can remind his daughter to look up and keep walking, which is all that needed to happen in the first place.
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