know this isn’t probably going to be a popular comment, but I will waiver from what others are saying and offer some understanding to this lady. It is more than likely that she is a Momma who misses that magical time in her life when her babies were babies and not grown adults who never call.
These ladies grew up in a time that was very different than ours, where it was socially acceptable to pick up other people’s babies in a store and give them the love they feel inside.
It was far more common when she was raising babies for moms to help each other by playing with or cuddling a baby while mom paid for groceries or dealt with a tantruming toddler- it was how Moms helped each other when they were usually going it alone most times. It’s not malicious. It’s not knowing that these times are different- that we are all terrified of germs and communicable diseases that her era never ever even heard of or discussed. It was a time when people weren’t terrified of a stranger kidnapping their baby in the parking lot while we loaded our groceries.
She would probably give anything to be reliving the Mom Life you’re enjoying now.
Going forward, be aware and take measures in advance when people are coming toward you and baby, that some people don’t know it isn’t ok to do those things anymore, or at minimum that it isn’t ok with you. You can say and do things in advance of them touching your baby to discourage it, or pick your baby up so you have more control over the situation.
I learned pretty early on in my Momma life out in public that people may want to touch and even hold my baby- and that comes from kindness, longing, love. If you don’t want them to, be ahead of it before it happens. One very elderly lady asked to hold my baby while I was burping her at the mall - she was sitting right beside me and I said ok. She was probably in her late 80s. She just held her with the most loving smile and tears streaming down her face. It did no harm to my baby or I and this woman probably hadn’t held a baby in ages- she was overwhelmed with emotion and memories. You could just see it.
If they do something you don’t like before you have a chance to stop them, you can gently lend them a little Momma knowledge that today’s Mom doesn’t do that so she isn’t mortified when one of the commenters before me drop kicks her for adoring a baby without knowing what she is doing isn’t ok anymore.
We are all Moms.
Be kind.