Woman asks to pet stranger's dog, yelled at for ignoring their baby. AITA?
Dog people are not always baby people.
One woman saw a precious puppy when jogging and was elated when the owners said she could pet the furry friend. She was apparently too focused on the dog baby to notice they also had their newborn child with them. This was apparently incredibly insulting to the mother.
AITA for not saying anything about a couple’s baby while petting their dog?
Yesterday, when I (24F) went for a morning jog in the park, I saw a couple walking one of the most adorable puppies I have ever seen in my life!
The puppy locked eyes with me, and that was it—wagging her tail, tongue out, smiling, trying to pull the husband in my direction. I paused my jog and ran over to ask if I could say hello, and they said of course, the puppy wouldn’t have allowed me not to lol
I love dogs, so I was in heaven. I spent several minutes on the ground with her getting all kinds of love and affection and asking her owners her name, how old, etc. She also happened to be the same breed as the dog I grew up with who passed away a few weeks ago, a golden retriever who was my best friend, so this was especially comforting for me.
A few minutes into talking (to clarify: about two minutes, and I was probably with them for about 4 total: 2 with the dog, 2 the wife being mad and the husband getting her to leave), I noticed the wife starting to look irritated.
At first, I figured I might’ve overstayed my welcome, so I decided to back off. I got up and said something like “I’ll let you get back to your walk now, but thank you so much, that was the highlight of my day!”
As the husband was saying goodbye to me, the wife interrupts him and goes “Really?” I was pretty confused, so I asked her if something was wrong. See, the couple also had a baby with them, a little girl sleeping in a stroller.
I’m bad with ages, but if I had to guess she was probably around a month-ish old. The wife said I was “beyond rude” for spending all this time “cooing over the damn dog” but not saying anything about her newborn.
I have absolutely nothing against babies or children in the slightest, including this woman’s daughter. I see them as other human beings just like me. But I won’t lie—babies and kids have never elicited the same… instant warm feelings that dogs and all animals do for me.
This is to say, I’ve never really been the type to coo at babies. I don’t hate or dislike them at all, I just regard them in the same way I regard all strangers regardless of age.
Anyway, before I could get a word in, the husband began ushering her away and told me to have a good day, though I could still hear her muttering things about me under her breath as they left. I didn’t mean to be rude, but I’m wondering now if I actually was. AITA?
I think we can all guess what the overall response was. Here are the top comments:
Obviously NTA, there's a reason the husband ushered her away
She should have said, 'Oh, I'm sorry. Can I pet your newborn too?'
NTA. Babies have never and will never be as cute as dogs. Good to see she already has her new parent entitlement down. I don't care about anyone's kids at all. Never have, never will. But I will love all of the fur babies.
It might not be that. A lot of women get PPD and act unusually after a birth. It’s very possible that she might be having trouble bonding with the child (very common in PPD, and a deep source of shame), so it might be confusing that OP also isn’t bonding with the child, since that’s what one is “supposed” to do. Give people a wide berth, there’s a lot we don’t know about this woman.
NTA but to be fair if the baby is only a month old, that mom is enduring some really hard hormonal changes and is probably sleep deprived.