A woman has sparked a lengthy debate after she scolded a stranger’s child in a public restaurant because he played with her belongings without permission.

The 23-year-old woman was having a meal wither family when a 9-year-old boy started running up and down the aisles, screaming and doing cartwheels.

“It was annoying but we just ignored him and carried on with our meal. His mother was sat at their table talking to the adults she was with and completely ignoring her son apart from occasionally telling him to come and finish his food,” she wrote on Reddit.

“We were sat in a booth and I had my stuff on the bench next to me, including a hat. One of the many times he ran past our table, he stopped, picked up my hat and put it on,” she continued.

When the boy was about to run off with her hat, she immediately scolded him and said: “get that back right now,” and the child obeyed with an embarrassed look on his face.

The woman then said: “It is extremely rude to take other people’s things without asking, don’t do that again.”

The boy then looked at his mother, who came over to see what was happening.

“His mum heard part of what I was saying as she came up to us and angrily told me to leave her son alone; I explained that he had taken my things and I was telling him not to,” she said.

“She told me I shouldn’t stick my nose in and that as he’s ‘just a kid’ and that I should have just let him play with the hat, or asked for it back nicely without scolding him.”

The woman took to Reddit and asked other people whether it was right to scold the boy, and she was met with messages of support.

One Reddit user said: “Kid needs to learn some manners somehow and it seems like his mum isn’t going to be the one teaching him how to act properly in public.”

Another wrote: “I have four kids and I would be absolutely appalled if they acted this way in public.”

A third added: “Kids shouldn’t be allowed to run around inside a restaurant for any reason, let alone do cartwheels. They could knock someone’s food over, hurt themselves or someone who’s just trying to do their job or enjoy a meal out. Mum needs to learn to teach her kids to behave or someone else will.”

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