Woman refuses to 'play along' to help neighbor calm her child in the elevator. AITA?

"AITA for not playing along with my neighbor to help her calm down her child?"

So I get into my building and I’m waiting the elevator when I see a woman and her child – a kid no older than 5 – coming down the hallway. She was carrying some bags and managing the kid, so I – trying to be nice – asked them what floor they were going to and pushed the button for her.

And then all hell broke loose: the kid immediately falls to his knees and starts to scream and cry because he was the one who wanted to push the button to their floor. And I was thinking to myself “why did his mother tell me their floor if she knew that's his thing?”

It was obvious I was asking for this purpose and not a mere curiosity. And there I was in this tiny elevator watching it all unfold. The mother tried to calm him down all like “don’t cry little one, the lady was just trying to be nice."

I don’t have kids, and I’m not one to judge parents for how they deal with their children’s silly tantrums in front of strangers, but I also don’t entertain this if I get myself involved somehow. And then the mother said: “look, she’s sorry she pushed the button, aren’t you sorry?”

And she looked at me like waiting I’d apologize to the child. And I said: No, I’m not, keep me out of this. And then she forgets the crying kid and her priority was to come at me all like ‘what’s wrong with you, can’t you see they're a child?”

And then we argued back and forth until I got to my floor and left the elevator. My flatmate thinks I came off as if I was reprimanding the mother when I refused to play along and that’s an AH behavior. I don’t know what to think.

Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:

sweetcharmed said:

The mother is actually teaching her child terrible emotional regulation by treating his tantrum as a legitimate response. By expecting a stranger to apologize for a minor disruption, she's reinforcing victimhood and entitlement.

Children need to learn that the world won't always bend to their immediate emotional outbursts, and this was a perfect teachable moment about resilience and handling disappointment, which she completely missed...

childishbambina said:

NTA. As a parent I would never entertain my child behaving in anyway like this. By the age of 5 children are able to understand how to be polite when things don’t go their way. Also if it was so routine that her kid has to press the button the mom should have said that when you asked what floor.

Clearly this isn’t a habit for the kid and to then ask you to stupidly apologize for pushing the button does nothing to teach the child how interacting with neighbours works. Totally NTA you were just dealing with a mom who clearly just wanted to get home and put away her shopping when her kid decided to act out so she took it out on you.

LowBalance4404 said:

NTA and I love you! That is hilarious. "Sorry, but do not pull me into your reindeer games. I'm just trying to get home!" haha Love it.

Strange-Courage said:

NTA. Perfect time for mom to teach the big life lesson of “you can’t always get what you want." It took my mom’s side eye to never act like that in public even at a very very young age.

crescentgaia said:

NTA. "I'm only sorry I'm stuck in an elevator with a parent who won't parent their child."

pup_groomer said:

NTA. That mother is raising a spoiled brat of a child. Good lord, he's going to have a tough life.