My DD is extremely active and she will not take no for an answer. So when I use a harness to stop her running into traffic, I can feel myself judged by people who have very placid children who walk by their side, hand-in-hand. They have obviously never experienced a toddler who would run in front of a car in a blink of an eye.
When I read the op it also reminded me of something like this.

When DH came back to pick me up from the hospital 4 hours after I had Phoebe, he had to put the baby seat back in because we havent got the extra seat put in the car yet. I was outside the car with baby and the kids and Harry went to the top of a driveway and called out that he was coming down - it was fair steep. I saw a car coming down the road and called out to him to stop. Naturally he didnt listen - so with baby in my arms I got up and run to intercept him at the bottom of the driveway, just as the car was about to drive past the driveway. He would have been under it if I hadn't moved. DH came over to grab Harry and put him in the back of the jackaroo to keep him safe while he finished putting the baby seat in, I look up and there is this guy across the road shaking his head at me..... For what I will never know. I simply can't understand what he saw. From my perspective, there was a toddler being a toddler and a mum who was doing exactly what she needs to as a mum - protecting him from danger. Apparently he saw something horrible. O.o

That however is the clincher, isnt it? What is so normal and simple to us is distorted to them. Their own little cynical worlds dream up a more horrible version of the event that just played out in front of them... and for that, I pity them. If they can't see the true joy, harmony and beauty of situations, then they are the ones that have a problem... No - "What a good mum for being alert and quick" - its "Bad mum for having a kid running around".

So don't let them get you down SJL, they are just dragging you into their misery and cynical existence. Live your own life the way you want to - because from what they display on the outside, their grass is brown!