'AITA for assuming the gender of a screaming child?' 'I felt TERRIBLE.'

"AITA for assuming the gender of a screaming child?"

I 48F am staying a campground on vacation and a group of children were running around playing. They were not causing any harm just playing. I kept hearing a very high pitched screeching squeal indicative of a small little girl. It wasn’t a distressed squeal just a squeal.

Later while sitting at the laundry area 3 boys I would say of the ages of 14, 10 and 7 came up to buy ice. I recognized one as one of the playing children. A conversation started and I asked if they had a little sister. I told them I thought I heard a little girl with them playing.

They said no that the squealing was coming from the 10 year old boy. Of course the other two boys laughed like crazy. I felt terrible. Just terrible. I apologized profusely. Later, the mother of the 3 approached me and said I had called her son a girl. I explained and apologized to her as well.

I told her I felt bad for it but it was just an honest mistake. She left in a huff and now has been side eyeing me every time I am around them. AITA? I apologized. I feel bad. I’m not sure what I else I can do. I have 5 more days left of this trip and it’s become so uncomfortable.

I didn’t start the conversation with the kids. They asked me some campground questions while I was sitting alone. The questions turned into them talking about a local fishing spot and their campsite.

More small talk was made and this is when I mentioned I had saw them playing and asked the question I shouldn’t have asked. I honestly was just making conversation back and didn’t think a thing about it at the time. I didn’t want to appear to be a grouchy old campground witch that hates children.

Here's what people had to say to OP:

Usual-Owl9395 said:

Omg, why are people so obsessed with gender roles, especially for kids? NTA.

macearoni said:

NTA. The mother should never have come up. She's acting like you called her child a slur when the reality is you mistook her child's vocal noise as female. Being a girl is not a bad thing and it should not be considered an insult to be mistaken for one.

Character-Twist-1409 said:

NTA. Probably she didn't even get the correct story. The other boys were laughing and most likely said you called him a girl. So even when you explain that's what she believes. Stop apologizing so profusely. It makes it seem like you actually did that. Just act like it was the accident it was. It's not that big of a deal.

im-gwen-stacy said:

NTA. I’m sure the kids told a wildly different version of events to the mother that upset her greatly. These things happen and it wasn’t malicious on your part at all.

not-my-real-name12 said:

Soft YTA, only because why did you feel the need to approach them to ask if they had a sister that was squealing? Even after seeing they were boys it didn’t occur to you that one of them could’ve made a high-pitched squeal.

jsrsquared said:

NTA, but I would maybe take this as a lesson in not asking these kinds of questions in general. I feel like it wasn’t necessary or important to inquire whether they had another sibling, particularly when you were basing that question on your own gender assumptions...

(I.e., you expected to see a girl because of your assumption from what you heard, so when you didn’t see a girl you needed to find out where the girl you imagined was rather than just leaving it be).

AccomplishedMango651 said:

Lol, NTA this is the dumbest thing ever. I wouldn’t waste my time giving this another thought. Enjoy your trip and pretend like that family doesn’t exist.