A concerned mum penned a debate-sparking letter to the paper, seeking advice for some ongoing drama on the playground.
She had arranged for regular, all-girl play dates for her daughter when another mum brought her boy to the same park and allowed him to play with the girls.
And the girl's mother was not happy with what she saw as a clear intrusion.
Writing to The Washington Post, she said: “I have a daughter, and some other moms of daughters and I have started getting together at a local playground at a set time each week.
“Recently a mom of a boy brought her son to the playground at the same time we were there.
“I asked her (nicely, I thought) if she would mind leaving because we had wanted it to be a girls-only time. She refused and seemed angry at me.
“If she comes back, is there a better way I can approach her?
“This has been such a sweet time for moms and daughters, and having a boy there is naturally going to change things.
“We live in a world where boys get everything and girls are left with the crumbs, and I would think this mom would realize that, but she seems to think her son is entitled to crash this girls-only time.
“I know I can't legally keep her from a public park, but can I appeal to her better nature?”
The column, Ask Caroline, was quick to respond by calling the mum’s actions inappropriate.
“Shooing off the mom and her boy was terrible. And justifying it as a cosmic correction, for which an innocent child bears the weight?” Carolyn replied.
“That kid is a human being — not with privileged little man feelings, either, but with feelings, period.
“And the adult you shooed off is a mom, possessor of the same crumbs you’ve been fed, no? So don’t you think she would have just liked to hang with some fellow moms in the park?"
She went on to say that the unnamed mum 'boy-shamed' a child for playing with girls and that an exclusive gathering should be held on private property.
Many mums seem to have sided with Caroline’s view on the subject.
One suggested the mother to “think of it this way. You are perpetuating the exclusion of one sex over the other in society.
“Kids are kids. Adults teach them that one sex is different from the other, or only gets to do certain things. You are doing the same, but at the expense of a little boy who wanted to play on a playground.”