If you know they're going to be hostile, do you approach them?

We went out to dinner last night. As I was getting my 4yo and 2yo out of their rfing Marathons, a big SUV pulled up to me, loaded with people, and in the middle row, driver's side, was a young woman with a small infant on her lap. I didn't say anything, as I was too taken aback and trying to keep my 4yo from running in the street anyway. The SUV was full of people, all adults except for the baby. I could tell it was like a big family gathering, and they were waiting around for another group to join them. I was preoccupied, and too intimidated to approach them. I told myself it must be a rare occasion for them and they didn't usually travel without a carseat, etc. etc...

I wrangled my kids up, headed into the restaurant, and stood around waiting for a table and my dh to show up. The SUV people came in too, just as my husband did. And that's when I very nearly lost it. These people walked in carrying a very nice infant carseat! They brought it in to seat the baby while they ate! This was too much for me and I started to approach them, but my dh stopped me. He said they would just get angry with me, there was no use talking to them. It was a very large, noisy family group, yk? I knew he was right but I could hardly eat.

They left the same time we did. I caught up with them. Young mom carrying the baby, older lady carrying the carseat. I complimented them on the cute baby, and then on the fancy carseat. I asked if it was easy to install. They showed it off to me, even showing me how easy it was to install. (Thank God!!!) They drove away with baby safely buckled. I'm not sure where the rest of the group went, but it was only those 2 women and the baby in the SUV then. I joked with them "what a pain" carseats can be, taking up so much room in cars these days... I shared with them that we make our family use taxis when they come to visit, just because I refuse to drive without my kids safely buckled in. I hope I made an impression on them.

I just don't know, I still feel funny about it a day later. I KNOW it was good not to push the issue, as they would have just seen me as pushy and blown me off-- maybe even purposely driving without a carseat to prove how crazy I was. But it feels weird not to be pushy about such an important issue. How should I feel? What would you have done? I'm not a CPS tech or anything, just an "overzealous" mom.

Hi XmasEve,
I like how you handled the situation and probably avoided a confrontation, hopefully some of it sticks with them.

I think you did the right thing and the baby was in the seat when they left that is a good thing

i think you did the right thing...definately...i probably wouldnt have approached them while they were eating dinner (even though i wouldve had a hard time eating too) and waited until we got outside...you did a great job

fwiw, i approached a lady in sams club the other day and told her that her chest clip was much to much too low...she thanked me and acted genuinely appreciative...i told her i used to do the same thing and that i would have apprecaited it if someone told me

I think you handled that VERY well!

At the movies once I met a nice family with biracial kids like mine -- I thought we had enough of a "relationship" to approach them in the parking lot later when I saw their infant FF.... They had their own idea. I was walking Leila home & they followed me in the car. It was totally harrassment & I don't approach anyone like that anymore.