Okay I’ll try to keep it short but concise. I feel justified in what I said but I could have said it in a more professional(???) manner.

My(25f) son (8) is playing at the park with a few other kids. I’m watching closely bc my son is very adhd and has a hard time with social interactions with other kids and I want to make sure I am there if anything happens really. They’re playing tag. You can only be tagged when you’re on the play ground not on the structures. Their rules they came up with. Everyone’s mostly playing fine by the rules, kids are kids. But there’s this one kid. Who’s a little younger maybe 6/7 I really am not sure. He’s running around and kept getting tagged and yelling “NO” and saying he isn’t tagged. I’m like.. okay. The other kids are like.. “I tagged you so you’re it” and whatever. So it happens for like the 5th time and he says “I’m not getting tagged I’m just a runner” and he refuses to be the tagger each time and so I say with a confused tone “so why are you playing tag?” Kinda with a laugh, but not pissy or rude just confused. I don’t even think he heard me bc he didn’t acknowledge what I said and I’m a good 10 feet away. I was mostly saying it out loud without thinking bc I was confused. His mom waits like 3 minutes before coming over and asks me if I’m arguing with her son. I said no, and she said “I heard you say so why are you playing, why are you talking to someone else’s kid like that. Are you his(my kid) mom?” Me- “yes and bc he wasn’t playing by the rules and the kids seemed confused” she said “would you want another parent talking to your kid weird like that?” Frankly I said “it wouldn’t bother me if my kid was not playing by the rules and im sorry I wasn’t trying to be weird” she just kept talking for a few minutes all huffing and puffing saying he doesn’t know the rules of tag and I just said okay I apologize (again), and then she went up to my kid and said “he doesn’t really know the rules maybe you could teach him” my son said “I don’t really like teaching..” and she just walked away muttering “okay you don’t like teaching”. Her kid keeps running with the other kids and getting tagged and yelling no saying he’s not tagged. The other kids keep getting frustrated while she just watches and doesn’t intervene. My kid then tells him the rules and he still doesn’t follow them so ultimately my son is getting upset at this point and I tell him to just leave it be and not let it bother him and to tag the other kids instead. My son tells the other kid to not play since he isn’t following the rules but the other kid just keeps on running around doing the same thing and ends with me walking my son over to our area away from the others to help him calm down and regulate his emotions because he’s getting teary eyes and obviously frustrated. Anyway I’m horrible with confrontation and I never know what to say in the moment and I definitely never want to cause a scene. I guess I know I shouldn’t have said that but it didn’t feel appropriate for the other mom to approach me that way with hostility and then not even try to explain to her kid the rules and encourage him to follow them if he wants to play with the others.

Maybe this is more of a vent but was that really such a bad thing to say? I know she is just looking out for her kid but I don’t understand why she didn’t even try to talk to her own and explain that he should play fairly if he wants to play with them or go find something else to play. That’s what I tell my son ..