'Don't you dare!': Mum's urgent warning after disturbing encounter in Kmart

While out shopping with her three kids, the Aussie mum noticed a strange man behind them. What he did next was truly shocking. 

An Aussie mum-of-three has an urgent message for parents after she was left furious after a disturbing encounter at Kmart. 

Anueta Madison-Vanderbuilt said she was out shopping with her kids when a male stranger tried to touch and tickle her son while gesturing to her to be quiet. 

"A grown ass man tried to touch my child in Kmart yesterday with me right next to him," she began the now-viral clip.

"So this is your reminder to teach your children that anybody touching them without consent is inappropriate."

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Image: TikTok

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"Don't you dare"

She goes on to explain that the man in his 20s walked up to the family and stood right behind her eight-year-old son. "I turned around and he looked me dead in the eye and goes, 'Shh'," she said, holding her finger to her mouth. 

"He then went to try and tickle him, so I loudly said, 'What the f**k are you doing?'  and he goes, 'I'm just tickling him,' and I said, 'Don't you dare touch my child'."

The mum then pulled her kids, who are aged 13, eight and seven, close to her, and then the man said, "I didn't hurt him."

"And this is the most important. Do not just tell your kids, 'That guy's just creepy, walk away, just leave' or anything like that. You need to call it out," the mum urged.

"A bad touch or inappropriate touch is anything that a stranger or a person that has not asked for your consent to do so, does. It can be a grandparent, it can be a friend, it can be a teacher or a complete stranger."

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The 32-year-old emphasised, "I get that tickling isn't menacing or aggressive to do, but it doesn't matter - no one has the right to touch you or any part of you without consent."

She also said it was important that she was as "loud" and "crazy" as possible when confronting the man so that her kids knew what to say if it was ever to happen to them again and she wasn't there. She also made sure to talk to her kids about the encounter at home and make sure they were all okay.

The mum made a point of saying that the man was coherent and looked to have cognitive function, so he was not a person with special needs. 

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"So scary"

Commenters echoed the mum's anger, with one user admitting they were "actually in tears" hearing the story.

"I really with I had someone, a role model, to teach me those lessons when I was young," that person added.

"Tickling is horrible!" wrote a second. "I have flashbacks as a kid being tickled and not feeling in control and hating it."

"That is so scary," someone else said. 

"This has happened twice to my child," a different TikToker wrote. "I need to work on calling it out, as I have frozen both times."

Someone else agreed, "It’s disgusting. It's not just tickling. How do you think pedophiles start grooming young kids? 'Oh, it’s just tickling' - you have every right to do what you did!"

"Downright creepy," another claimed. "Good for you for defending your child. 

Originally published as 'Don't you dare!': Mum's urgent warning after disturbing encounter in Kmart