“She’s only seven”: Daughter flashed an obscene gesture at a stranger in the grocery store, but her mother’s response is sparking a viral outrage

A video that many are seemingly taking as an example of bad parenting has gone viral. According to the Daily Dot, an elderly man appears to be getting confronted by a mother in a grocery store. She sounds displeased because the man called her 7-year-old “rude” as the child allegedly showed him a middle finger.

This video was posted on the Instagram account @emilywking_ and also made its way to X. It appears to be a point-of-view video of a mother who seems to be defending her daughter, saying, “She’s only seven.” The video doesn’t show the part where the kid made an obscene gesture, and it starts directly from the man. Though the little girl did give the reason, “Well, I wouldn’t have done that if he wasn’t being a slow a**.”

The mom replies to her daughter, “Are you serious, Amelia?” Which suggests that she wasn’t okay with her child using such words. However, during the confrontation, she said, “Whether she gave you the finger or not, then maybe you should have gotten out of her way.” In my opinion, it doesn’t sound right for a child to make such a gesture to someone older who seemed to mind their business.

Viewers seemed displeased by the woman’s behavior

The video was reposted on X by the user @EpicClipVault with the caption, “This video makes my blood boil—no accountability whatsoever.” Judging by the comments, it appears that viewers were quite displeased by the woman’s behavior towards the elderly man. Per Daily Dot, many passed comments such as, “Karen in the making,” and “It’s okay. The public will fix her.”

Some pointed towards bad parenting by criticizing the mother. A user wrote, “This woman is exactly what is wrong with the children of today!” Similarly, another sounded concerned for the child, saying, “God help that child if she [were] mine. (…) That [would have been] the last time.” These suggest that several people thought the daughter was spoiled and that her mother shouldn’t have defended her.

It’s not like everyone was taking it seriously, someone also said, “Great job, Mom…sigh.” Which appears to be written in sarcasm. I think the mother might have later talked to her daughter in private about what she did to the elderly man. Well, that seems to be all, according to the current reports. Background information and the identities of the people involved have not yet been verified, so any conclusion for either party would be speculation.