Hi all - need some input. Today, my husband and I took our 3 year old son to a fall festival - with a petting zoo, bounce house, apple picking, etc.

While standing in line at the bounce house, a moth landed next to my son and he stepped on it. I’m not really sure why and I told him “no buddy, don’t step on bugs.” He was otherwise behaving perfectly fine and waiting patiently in the line. A little girl in front of us (probably like 5 or 6 years old) told her Grandma that he killed it. This woman then begins to hug and loudly comfort her granddaughter (who wasn’t crying or super upset) by saying “I’m so, so sorry that happened hunny. That was a TERRIBLE thing for him to do.” I ignored it at first but she kept going and going. She finally says “There are good people in the world like us who plant flowers for the butterflies. And then there are BAD people in the world like that little boy who kill butterflies.”

WTF? At this point I said something like “excuse me, ma’am, but you’re being over the top and very rude. I think you need to calm down. He’s a 3 year old boy.” She then starts berating me saying that I’m a terrible parent and my son is a terrible kid.

The way she was talking about him felt very performative like she obviously wanted us, and the others around us, to hear it. What kind of person demonizes and shames a 3 year old like that? It was so bizarre and upsetting and I can’t stop replaying it in my mind. Look, I don’t love that he stepped on the moth. But he’s a sweet, well mannered, gentle kid 99.9% of the time who loves animals and other children.

How would you have handled this situation? Is my kid some kind of budding psychopath and I just don’t realize it?