Hi! I don't join this forum very often, but here I go. I need to vent.
This afternoon it was hot, so I took my kids to a local mall to play inside. There were these two little girls there, both holding half filled bottles of soda. They were about 5. When my kids got inside the play area, the girls started beating my kids with their bottles! At first I was a little shocked, looked over at the moms, and they are watching the situation passively, like no big deal. I am sure they were thinking "Ah, yes, my kids often beat the crap out of other kids with bottles. What's your problem?"
I must have had a horrified look on my face, because a woman (who looked like one tough grandma) came up to me and asked what was going on. I told her, and she marched over there and gave them what for. She turned around and looked at me and said "how's that?" and took off with her kids.
That didn't subdue the girls, because they started hitting my kids with the bottles again! At this point, I saw a security guard, flagged him down, and told him what was going on. The women were like "They weren't hitting her kids. They were hitting the playground equipement".
The guard looked at them and was like "Bottles filled with liquid are not appropriate toys for a playground".
Can you believe some parents? I was seething and left, but now, it just seems funny!

This comes as no surprise to me.

People breed kids all the time, then don't give a damn what they do. It's no wonder there are killings every single week here where I live, child against child. It's no wonder they happen every day in big cities and their metro areas.

I would love to see legislation passed where the parent is held accountable for the actions of their children.

Do you have a cell phone with a camera in it? If not, get one which takes both photos and video. You never know when it will come in handy.

Theresa

That's what my DH said! He said I should have pulled out my phone and taken photos of it while it was happening.

You know, I get beyond embarrassed when my kids do something like that-hitting, whatever. But these moms didn't care, and even flat out said I wasn't being truthful.

It's so bad that it's funny!

I don't think the word parent is what I would have called those two. What I would have called those two should not be said in front of children. Would love to have a time machine and be able to go a few years into the future when they are teenagers and see how their "parents" handle them then.

What the heck?!?! I swear, some people have strange ideas of appropriate behavior.

Here's an example, not to hijack: last night I was in the rice cake area of my local Walmart, and a woman gave her 2 yo a box of indiv. packs to hold. Of course, he was a kid and started ripping into the box. She screamed at him, calling him a "sneaky little bastard". He was 2, or less! Jeez. That kid's gonna be an ax murderer. PA peeps-look out!

Yeah, I hate seeing people saying nasty stuff to their kids. I'll admit that I've snapped at mine before in public, but calling them names is awful.

A couple years ago my sister had trouble at her local pool not long after they moved in.

A kid who was about 7 at the time would come and grab toys from kids, he does have Down's but still. His mother would sit and just watch him do it, if someone said something she'd say that he couldn't understand and wouldn't even take the toy back. He did it to all the kids there.

Now my sister's little girl just turned 5 a couple months ago so she was LITTLE at the time. The first time the kid took a bucket from my niece my sister said something to the mother and she used her excuse so my sister went to the lifeguard.

The lifeguard tells the mother that she has to control her child or she isn't welcome back.

Then the mom starts making loud comments about my sister not understanding the problems with children who have Down's. She shut up after my sister told her that our brother has a little boy with Down's who got corrected when he did something wrong and he was only two at the time. It isn't like a child with Down's can't learn things like behavior.

Other mothers went and thanked my sister after because their kids were much happier after.

My sister says that to this day the mother glares at her every time they're at the pool together but the boy knows how to behave now.

You know if it were my kids that were being hit and the mother wouldn't do anything, I would have gone over there and yelled at the kids myself. It is completely unacceptable for anything like that to happen! I bet if you threatened to hit the mother with a bottle she would have gotten all in an uproar. Maybe someone needs to. Knock some sense into her. I have 3 children all under the age of 9. I understand kids will hit and act up. That's what they do. But you have to nip it in the bud or else it will get worse. Kids need to have rules and boundries in order to grow up to be responsible adults. I just don't understand why some parents don't seem to care anymore.

Kids (at least the school age ones) will listen to anyone who does the mom-voice, at least temporarily. I've babysat enough that I will tell other people's kids to stop doing something, without even thinking twice. Sometimes I'll do it to other people too without thinking...once I snapped at a man to get off the glass case that the mummy's in at the museum and he got right down and apologized. So I wouldn't have hesitated to tell them to put the bottles down, and they probably would have been surprised enough to do it

I've also taught my kids to stand up for themselves. My older one will tell other people to leave her sister alone. She usually won't stand up for herself unless it's something really bad...for example, we had a little playmate for Sophia who bit Valerie on the butt and Valerie told us, just because her butt was bleeding and she wanted a bandaid...but the little girl hit Sophia with a toy and Valerie went over and opened the front door and told the little girl and her mom that people who hit her sister weren't welcome in her house anymore. It was so much like something her daddy would have done that it was a real struggle not to laugh until they were gone (yes, I let Valerie kick them out, mostly because of the bitten butt)

Sometimes too you have to know when to just pick up your kids and go...I mean, if it seems like the moms would get violent if you told them something, then a lot of the time it's better just to take your kids out of the bad situation.

Well, the lady who interviened (sp?) actually yelled at the kids, not the moms. The kids did not respond!

The thing that sucks about this world sometimes is that you get in trouble for defending yourself, because it might escalate the fight. My son had just gotten a plush toy at the Disney Store and started swinging it at them, and they told the security guard that my kid was hitting their kid back. Um, stuffed animal versus bottle of liquid. Hmmmm. Which one do you think hurts more?

That's mostly why I had to leave. I could feel myself getting really upset, and just had to remove us all from that situation before I had a hissy fit, lol.

First off, I would've went straight to the moms and gave them the business. How your children act in public or anywhere for that matter is a reflection on you and how you raise them. Sorry to hijack ur thread...

There is this big boy across the street from where I live, he would just hit any kid knowing they won't hit him back. So one day he hit my son, tried to tell his mom and she just makes excuses for him. So the next time i saw him I told him if he ever puts his hands on my son or any child in my family I will break him in half...i know what u all are thinking and I don't care because when it comes to my child I'm not holding anything back. I feel like if your bad enough to pass a lick you sure as hell can take one. My cousin who is 18 now just all of sudden started picking on my son...now my son is very quiet and timid and sensitive so he couldn't understand why he was bothering him. One day my son was on the computer at my grandmothers house and my cousin started to bother my son for no reason...so i let it slide but later on that day he started to pick on him again and he told my son to shut up...so my son told him to shut up. He told my son that he was going to slap him in the mouth. I said "oh no the hell u won't...I will not have some 300lb 18 year old putting his hands on my baby. That will never happen. And u better think twice before u even think about touching him. If he don't f@%k with u, u don't f@%k with him and even if he was bothering u, you are too old to be going back and forth with a 7 year old." I told his mom that she better buy a black dress because if he touches my son I swear on everything I will kill him. Ever since then I will not let my son spend the night to her house (she has another son who is 4 that my son plays with). We had another episode last Saturday with him saying he was going to hit my son and i told him "u will not be putting ur hands on this little boy, we've already had that discussion" After that he was extremely nice to my son it was ridiculous. Bullying now has gotten worse and if i can help it my son will not be subjected to it from anyone especially someone in his own family. Its sad because this is not the first time he picks on my son and my son will take the crap from him just so he could spend the night to my aunts house to play with her other son. Alot of times I think that he tries to bully my son because he was always bullied by my other cousins.

Kivia - I agree totally with you. Anybody bullies my kid and gets physical about it, they're going to become a chalk outline on the floor. Unfortunately, there are no consequences any more for people who bully like this, which is why they keep doing it. There's only consequences for the adult who tries to protect their child or someone else's from people like this, which is unfortunate.
I've taught my sons, now 20 and 10, not to hit anybody, but if someone is picking on them and hits them, then all bets are off and they have my permission to defend themselves. They shouldn't start it, but they can finish it to protect themselves. Sorry to rant, but it gets so frustrating when you're trying to teach your kids right from wrong, and you see SO MANY kids who haven't been taught proper behavior. You almost have to feel sorry for them because they're being raised by people who have no clue, and the kids suffer in the end. Okay, off my podium.

Sueco-yes, it is so frustrating!
When my son was 2, he wanted to go swimming one afternoon. My daughter was really little, not even crawling yet, so I had so hold on to her every single second. Anyways, we get to the pool, and the 6 year old kid shoves my son into the deep end! I was holding an infant, and a man came to my rescue and leapt in right away and scooped him out. That time, I did flip out and yell at the kid. You know what happened? The other moms at the pool yelled back at ME. WTF?
I just don't understand why people aren't raising their kids to be kind people....or at least have some common sense!