'I told you no': Free-range 8-year-old distracts a teen's medical alert dog, triggering an emergency episode, then the entitled mother justifies her daughter's poor behavior and claims he's 'overreacting'

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Nov 24, 2024 2:00 PM EST

What do you get when you cross an entitled mother with a free-range child? An emergency episode in aisle five of the supermarket. 

Medical alert dogs save lives, but if an 8-year-old feral child is sprinting towards them in public, it's hard–even for a professional pooch–to remain focused on their doggy duties. This story begins with u/Ill-Nectarine-8968, a teenager with a medical service dog by his side 24/7, who is at the store buying some household items with his grandparents. While perusing the deodorant and toothpaste section, he spotted a child dashing towards him at full speed, demanding she is allowed to pet his 'dog'. Since the canine was working, a pet would distract him from his duties so he firmly told her 'No', but this little kid wouldn't take no for an answer. 

Keep scrolling to read how the kid's entitled mother reacted when her daughter essentially triggered a kid's medical condition, sending him into a fainting spell that could have left them with far more than a stern warning not to pet other people's dogs without permission.

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    SERVICE DOG
    via 24k-Production from Getty Images
  • 02
    AITA for telling a parent to control her 8 year old? 117 m went to the store with my grandparents for a day out of the house, and I have a medical alert service dog I bring almost everywhere with me in case of medical emergencies, I had went
    via Ill-Nectarine-8968
  • 03
    to the hygiene part of Walmart and my grandparents were on the food part of the store, I was looking at soap and other things my dog was laying in front of my legs on a traffic leash in case of fainting episodes I have, I had my
    via Ill-Nectarine-8968
  • 04
    back turned and this 8 or 9 year old child yells mommy a puppy and runs up to me and tried to touch my dog and I told her no and she kept doing it and I kept telling her to stop it and that's not how you should ask and I told
    via Ill-Nectarine-8968
  • 05
    you no I mean it, and about 3 minutes later my legs gave out and my dog didn't alert on time because of this kid touching him and I'm pretty sure I passed out because I was laying on the floor with my dog licking my face I
    via Ill-Nectarine-8968
  • 06
    have bruises on my legs from it and the kids mom showed up and I told her to control her child and teach her not to pet random dogs she doesn't know because it's a good way to get attacked by a dog, and she called me a ahole
    via Ill-Nectarine-8968
  • 07
    and said I was overreacting when her daughter distracted a service dog and I told her it was illegal in the state and that it was a class c misdemeanor then she walked away. so aita for telling a mother to control her kid?
    via Ill-Nectarine-8968
  • 08
    Agitated-Response338 NTA. You were just trying to protect your dog and your health, and the mom should've handled her kid better.
    via Agitated-Response338
  • 09
    faxefff NTA. Your physical health being negatively affected justifies you telling off the mom. it is also never a smart idea to pet random dogs as not all dogs (regardless of if they're trained or not, allow strangers to pet them). 100% on the mom
    via faxefff
  • 10
    Aggressive_Cattle320 Certified Proctolog|st [27] NTA. If your dog is like most others, they wear a harness or vest that alerts people that it's a service dog and warns against petting or interfering. The dog is doing a very important job for their human.
    via Aggressive_Cattle320
  • 11
    The mother should have been watching what her child was doing, and it would have been a good opportunity to teach her daughter the respect we need to give to working service dogs. Keeping their focus is vital to their job. The mother was disrespectful and r de, and you had every right
    via Aggressive_Cattle320
  • 12
    to be upset. While children may not always understand the situation, parents do. It's their job to make sure that kids understand the rules and mind their manners. I'm a dog lover, too, and I have so much admiration for the
    via Aggressive_Cattle320
  • 13
    intelligence and skills of these amazing dogs, but I never do more than feel my heart smile in just viewing them hard at work. Hope you are feeling better and sorry you had to experience that unnecessary drama.
    via Aggressive_Cattle320
  • 14
    Fickle_Toe1724 NTA. Next time, call out for a store employee. You want an incident report, and the police called You want the mother's name and address, and the child's, because YOU were injured because your dog was distracted by a child attacking him.
    via Fickle_Toe1724
  • 15
    The mother and child should face the consequences of their behavior. For some parents, that is what it takes for them to take responsibility for their own inactions on teaching their kids. Stay safe.
    via Fickle_Toe1724
  • 16
    emtittman NTA. Not at all. A good parent teaches their kid not to run up to random dogs. She obviously didn't teach her kid that and you had to suffer the consequences. You handeled it a lot better than I would have. Hope your bruises heal quick!
    via emtittman
  • 17
    cascadia1979 Certified Proctolog|st [25] NTA. Her neglectful parenting and inability to keep her child from going up to a random dog caused you actual harm. You had every right to call her out for her poor parenting choices in that moment.
    via cascadia1979

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medical alert kid kids free range bad parenting moms service dog parenting parent mom parents children
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