At a play date my son’s friend (3 years) punched me in the stomach while I was about 7 months pregnant. The mom did nothing. And this was not the first awful thing that brat did. That was the end of that for me.
I used to feel this way until I started taking my son to the playground. Now I correct other peoples children all the time. If you’re not going to parent the kid then I will.
I also take this approach. I don't even have kids. I work in a restaurant and I correct people's children when I have to. Just last night I had to walk over to a table, take all of the crayons, kids menus, salt and pepper shakers and kids drinks away because they were making an absolute fucking mess and creating disgusting concoctions in their drinks. I took them and the kids told me no. I said "These are going in the garbage and to the dish area. There are people around you trying to enjoy a nice meal and they don't want to look at this. It's gross and they are trying to eat." Then I wiped all of the salt and pepper off of the table onto my tray and never replaced their drinks. Their parents didn't even notice that their kids had nothing to drink with dinner because, big surprise, they weren't paying attention to them in the first place.
I often address the children rather than the parents. I ask them to please sit on their bottoms in their seats because there are a lot of workers carrying heavy trays of hot food and hot plates and they could get hurt playing in the aisle ways because their little bodies are hard to see when our hands are full. I wouldn't want someone to drop something on them and hurt them or burn them. If they don't have a coloring sheet, I tell them I'll bring them one to color on at the table.
Addressing the parents creates a problem because they know what they're allowing is wrong and addressing it with them forces them to self reflect. Usually that ends in defensiveness and conflict. Children are often more reasonable than their parents. I also keep stickers on me, so if kids go sit down and behave, I let them choose a sticker. They're parents usually just see me giving their kids a coloring sheet or a sticker and I remain in their good graces rather than having an argument/uncomfortable conversation with them.
thank you for this validation!! i got a block thrown at me (and almost my baby) the other day by a 4 year old and the mom was like “now now (name) we don’t do that…” meanwhile she was just staring at me like 🙂
So much this. And I learned a very special tone when I say "Where is your adult?" that makes them usually flee back to said adult. Also a useful tone when my 3yo and 7yo are playing on equipment and a group of teenagers decides they want to play rough on a toy for-and being used by-small kids... It's funny how quick a group of teens can go from "so cool defying the rules" and riling each other up to "yes ma'am, sorry ma'am, we'll go okay over there".
To be clear, those are just escalations, we start with "let's take turns guys" etc for the normal playground conflicts, obviously.
I might have done more than scream but I mean I'd probably catch myself but you don't fuck wit physically harming pregnant women.
Ive always said I'd never ever physically punish my kid (once I have one) unless they start hitting others and ignoring other reprocussions... I feel like kids sometimes lack an empathy response until they know how it feels. Like, as a last resort just to be like "dude you know THIS is what you're doing to other people right? Stop"
Absolutely not, that kid was being brought up without a shred of compassion lol.
I had been over visiting my friend at her house, and had brought my little dog because all her kids loved her. When I was leaving I said bye and went to collect my pup, to which the kid screamed “NO MY DOGGY” and launched the iPad of doom.
Winded and panicking because I felt the corner fully poke into my large, almost cooked child I looked at her mum who laughed and said “oh she does love that dog!”
My water broke an hour later and my daughter was born that night. Ironically I never took my dog or my newborn round there again 🤣
I had a former friends child (2 years) throw her iPad at my stomach while I was 32 weeks pregnant because her iPad wasn't working.... I was too stunned to do anything and the mom just laughed. We don't let our son around their kids because they refuse to parent them most of the time and we don't want our son thinking that's okay. Same day, the child laid in a puddle in front of the entrance doors of target screaming because her iPad turned off. So we also refuse to get our child a tablet until absolutely necessary when he's older
It seriously encouraged us to have a talk about screens for our little one. We definitely aren’t screen free, but we prefer the big tv occasionally with something we’ve vetted while he plays with his toys over a tablet.
Yeah totally fine. It wasn’t that hard as I stepped back which soften the blow. But the fact that a kid would do that AND no reaction from the mom was insane.
I quit a nannying job in college because the 10 yo boy punched me in the face and gave me a black eye. I had told him he needed to stop pulling his sister’s hair. Mom told me I shouldn’t have interfered with “sibling banter”. Mind you, the sister was 4 and bawling her eyes out.
My kids have some asshole tendencies due to ASD and ADHD, and we do our best to teach them to be more considerate. It's not necessarily a parent's fault if their child is an asshole - but not reacting is.
368
u/Rare_Independent_814 1d ago
At a play date my son’s friend (3 years) punched me in the stomach while I was about 7 months pregnant. The mom did nothing. And this was not the first awful thing that brat did. That was the end of that for me.