Toddler branded a 'creep' for staring at teenage neighbour

A woman has questioned whether she’s a “bad mother” after a teenage girl accused her son of being a “creep”.

The mum explained that her 15-year-old neighbour accused the boy of staring at her as she mowed the lawn.

However, if you’re envisaging a sullen adolescent gawking from a window here, you’re more than a little mistaken.

The “creep” in question was a toddler – just one year and five months old.

His mortified mother, 25, said she and her son had been playing in the front yard to “get some fresh air” when their neighbour’s teenage daughter came out with her lawnmower and “[got] to work] on her yard” directly across the street from theirs.

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Writing on Reddit, she continued: “My son loves watching the world go by, he often watches the older kids play on the street and they always interact and say hi to him. So he runs to our fence with his little juice box and sits down in front of the gate so he can watch her mow the lawn.

“He wasn't always watching her sometimes he'd just start picking the dandelions and throwing them around our yard but most of the time he'd just sit and watch quietly.”

The 25-year-old said she “kept her eye on him” while she pottered around her garden but noticed the teenager “kept looking over at my son and then going back to work”.

She went on: “I watched her walk over to my fence and she started screaming how it's creepy my son [was] watching her and I need to teach him from a young age not to stare at women or else he'll grow up and be a creep.

“I got up right away and grabbed my son and apologised and tried to say he's just curious [about] what [you’re] doing, but she kept screaming at me because she doesn't like to be watched.

“I scooped my son up who was crying at this point (what baby wouldn't cry being yelled at) and hurried to the backyard so he could play there.”

The mum said she and her son had been playing in their garden before the confrontation occurred iStock

She then said that the teenager then left “while [angrily] muttering to herself about how I'm a bad mother and my son will soon be a creep.”

Ending her post, the redditor added: “I'm now feeling really bad about letting my son watch her mow the lawn and maybe we shouldn't play I'm the front yard any more,” before asking the forum if she’d been wrong to let her son “sit and watch”.

Fellow users were quick to reassure her that the teen had been acting unreasonably.

"Just sounds like she's p**sed off at having to do the lawn. You unfortunately were the person she let her frustration out at," one suggested.

"She could also just be chronically online," commented another. "I‘m 22 and the things teenagers say these days are often just regurgitated s**t they‘ve seen on IG/TikTok. They will easily hold anything against people for the sake of being 'woke', even if it doesn’t make any sense (like complaining that a 1.5yo CHILD is being a creep)."

However, a third contested this, writing: "I am a girl around that age but I wouldn't have such a reaction. Most girls my age won't. There is some other issue with her .. maybe she is experiencing some harassment or bullying that makes her conscious of staring. It is not the iNtErnEt. This is just an explanation not an excuse."

Another agreed, telling the original poster (OP): "This explanation (that the young neighbour is experiencing leering male gazes elsewhere in her life and is taking her fear and anger out on people she knows to be harmless) sounds all too likely to me.

"OP, it's not your responsibility to parent this girl, but if you're friendly with her family it might be worthwhile having a chat with her parents - both because she owes your little one an apology and because there may be something Not Good going on in her life that makes her this reactive."

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