Seeing Other Parents Be Horrible To Their Children

[bednobs]

What would you do?
i was at the hospital on friday waiting for a prescription and the lady in front of me had twins in a pushchair, probably about 18 months to 2 years old. one of them was crying (a lot!) and all she said to him was "it's your effing fault we are here so shut up" The other one climbed out of the pushchair and went toddling off then laid on the floor crying. She picked him up by one arm, dragged him accross the floor, lifted him by the arm into the pushchair, slammed him down 3 times, the held his arms down roughly while she strapped him in. Both of them continued crying with her completey ignoring them till they got their prescription and left.
what would you have done, or would you have been like me and just sat there quietly fuming? I thought about talking to the boys, but they were crying so loudly, i didn't want to sit near them lest i be deafened permanently

[ummmm]

I wouldn't have done anything.

That was just a tiny snippet of her life. She might be a perfect mother 95% of the time.

[bednobs]

it's true ummmm

[Sharingan]

I might have offered her a hand saying how difficult it must be dealing with twins as I think critisising would only get her back up. She sounds stressed to the max. It's never good to swear at little kids and lose your temper it just rubs off on them and makes them worse, I have twin brothers and twin sisters. The one little girl Kalina is a little beast but it never helps to lose your temper, she just needs calmness at all costs and not be allowed to manipulate you.

[ummmm]

My uncle used to eff and blind at his kids and come across as really aggressive but he was a really good dad and all his kids (5) adore him.

[lcg]

sorry....i would have gobbed off and threatened to smack her one if she didn't pack it in. no-one is perfect, but that is just disgusting. and believe me, i've had my say over other people's parenting quite a few times. if they think that that is acceptable to do in public....what do they do a home?

[lcg]

i swore in front of my child - but never at him. that's different.

[mrs_overall]

I'm with sharigan on this one

[lcg]

what bednobs describes is physical abuse - and i just couldn't be polite and say 'could i offer you a hand?'. i'd offer my hand....but not in that way. as someone who was physically abused (sometimes in public with no-one lifting a finger to help) i am quite happy to tell someone to stop before i punch their lights out.

[magsmay]

Are people not usually on the 'better' behaviour when in public? It would worry me that if she did that in public what is she doing in private? I can't believe a normally paragon of motherhood would actually use the 'F' word to her children in public. I see this a lot - one mother shouted to her toddler daughter that she was a waste of space and stupid -the poor little thing was about 3 - another dragged her child by one arm down a supermarket shouting I hate you you little C**t. What can you do? -nothing -plain and simple -because you will just end up getting into a slagging match with some low-life and the behaviour will continue -in fact the mother is likely to take it out on the child .

[Sqad]

Probably, no husband or OH (as it is called now) and those children have no chance in life and intervening would make no difference to their parenting or hope for a better existence.
I would not have intervened as i probably would have got a mouthful of abuse or worse a mouthful of knuckle.

Winners and losers in life....always has been and always will be.

[ummmm]

It's also not fair on the children to confront their parent.

[magsmay]

I think sharigan lives in a bubble -a nice bubble - but perhaps has never come into contact with -let me say - the chavvier end of humanity -should you have offered help sharigan you probably would have got something like 'mind your effing business you stuck up effing cow' .

[ummmm]

Errrrr....it's not just chavvy people that abuse their children!

[lcg]

i think it's perfectly fair to stick up for the child, ummmm....we'll have to agree to disagree. who else will?

[starone]

It is a bit like interfering when a man is beating his wife, and the wife then turns on you and tells you to mind your own business. You could find yourself in a similar situation with the woman venting her frustration on you. I think what sharingan has said is very true, but still does not tell you what to do in a similar situation. Very difficult I think. Dirty looks and muttered threats might do it if you are prepared for the same back.

[Sharingan]

I can assure you that 'Sharingan does not live in a nice bubble' at all Magsmay, my father is from west Belfast and my Irish family are very different probably to anything you will have ever encountered, in fact I can almost guarantee that. As part of his philanthropic work my father mentors ex offenders, employs people specifically because they have alcohol or drug issues and helps his tenants many of whom are single parents and on benefits or low incomes. We are quite well off, but my father insists that we are socially aware in a very hands on way and I am annything but unaqainted with chavvie, undesireable behaviour and as Ummm says child abuse is across all social classes.

[magsmay]

Thankyou for that Ummmmmm - I could have avoided 7 years at Uni doing Behavioural Sciences had I come on here all those years ago. ;-) - then again -it did teach me to conjugate verbs correctly - I digress -all classes of people have the capacity to abuse their children - its just the chavs tend to do it in public more so than others.

[magsmay]

Sharingan - you are very young and your little outburst does you no justice. You have no idea what anyone on here has experience of, and from what you have just said about yourself you sound like you have come from a very nice well balanced well to do family with good social awareness. The chav would still *** you off.

[Sharingan]

I have had no 'outburst' Magsmay, I have simply answered some of your incorrect assumptions about myself and my family as well as my life experience. You appear to have an issue with my age, you have now mentioned it several times and it appears that my father was correct when he advised me that if I posted on here I would do well to have a different account where my age was kept secret as some members would seek to denigrate or use my age against me. I will not do that as I feel that my opinions are a valid as yours or anyone else's. It is a fact that most stressed people do not take well to critisism, they soemtimes take well to offers of help and sometimes tell you to f uck off. The quesiton was what would you have done. I answered. I find it pretty irritating that my age is your only means oof countering my opinion. You made lots of patronising, sweeping incorrect assumptions about my family and I and I simply corrected you. That is not an outburst.

[Zacs-Master]

Outburst???