Children can occasionally say or do inappropriate things with people they don’t know, frequently without realising it. In this story a mother recently shared that her 6-year-old inadvertently misidentified a stranger at the grocery store, and the stranger was furious. Read the story to know what happened and how would you handle the situation.
Source: Reddit
My 6 year old said “Yes Ma’am” to someone at the grocery store because they asked him if he was ready for school. The minute it came out of his mouth this person’s mouth dropped and they looked disgusted.
They then turned to me and said “oh great! You’re teaching your kid to misgender people based on physical appearance…Mother of the Year!” They then turned to my son and said “I am NOT A MA’AM” relatively loudly.
My son looked at me in horror and I stepped in front of him, turned my back to the other person, hugged my son and told him not to be upset, some people can be really ugly but all we can do is be polite and move on.
Now I’m all for people identifying as whatever they want. I respect and accept everyone as long as they show me and my family the same respect. I’ve spoken to my son and explained the situation the best i could in language that he would understand, but then he asked me “So what do I say if I want to be polite if I dont know if they are a ma’am or sir?” I dont know how to answer that.
Here are a few comments on the story where it was originally posted:
