That’s a really good question, and one I thought of, as well. Mom is definitely an attention whore.
A few years back I was at the grocery store (okay Wal-Mart), while I was checking out my 7 year old son walked to the front of the store and starting pushing buttons on the ATM machine, at the same time a 60 something old man and his wife walked by and told my son that the ATM machine was not a toy. I didn’t pay much attention at first, but he kept on looking back at my son with a grumpy old look on his face. That’s when my Papa Bear response came out and I made sure the man saw me. The old man then had a scared look on his face. For an old man he was walking really fast to the first exit.