have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

im in payless today and this woman and her two lil girls (id say they were 2 and 4) were in the back aisle, and i hear one of the lil girls whining alittle, (what 4 year old lil girl doesnt whine?) so the mother starts screaming at her..SCREAMING.."what are you an actress mandi? Whats your encore gonna be you little brat? why dont you stop your crying and just cooperate before i call daddy and tell him what an evil little girl you are!"
at this point, the lil girl is being held on the floor by the mother who is trying to squeeze shoes on her, she is kicking and screaming and crying by now, and the mother who is obviously a lunatic is not only yelling and cursing and embarassing her, but shes now holding her down and telling her little sister, "look what a bad girl mandi is"
this is going on about 5-7 minutes..im the only one in the aisle, but lil by lil the aisle starts filling with other woman (a customer and two cashiers) who hear this woman and no one is saying anything, just shaking their heads at her..im in the aisle with my dd and im shaking and sweating i am so mad..so im waiting for her to say one last thing to send me over the edge enough to tell her off..

she realizes she lost her wallet (im sure during her ranting and raving) so her kid at this point have no socks and shoes on, and shes screaming at them "I lost my wallet now because of you two idiots! Get your F*CKING shoes on and lets go! I have to go to the car and see where it is!"
She starts pulling them off the floor by their arms with no shoes and socks on and tells them to go outside barefoot because their not being fast enough..

I now have had enough, AND I HAVE A BIG MOUTH TO BEGIN WITH LOL...

so i say to her, "excuse me, miss, if youd stop yelling at them like that maybe they could hear you better and theyd listen to you?" so she looks at me, grabs her kids and tells them, "this lady is threatening your life, mommys gonna call the cops on her, stay away from her"..now im PIZZZZED, so i say to her, "listen lady, the entire store has listened to you abuse your children for long enough, why dont you speak to them properly, people like you shouldnt even have kids!" Shes now tryin to find the lil girls socks..she says "ive never hit my kids in my life, and my children arent your business.." so i tell her, "actually your kids ARE my business, theyre EVERYONES business when youre abusing them that way"
she ends up picking them both up and storming off..

everyone in the store (about 6 people) agreed with me, but no one said a word, just stood there...
WWYD..was i wrong?
cause id do it again in a heartbeat!

btw, i just wanna add that i STILL feel sick to my stomach for those two lil cutie pies..i hope someone takes them away from her!
i also wanna add, that i hope people would start to see that these kids of ours, are EVERYONES responsibility, if my kid got hurt, id want you or someone else to help him or her, if my kid was lost id want one of you to help them, if my kid was hungry id want one of you to feed them...shouldnt we ALL be responsible for protecting these kids?!?

Message edited 4/2/2009 3:36:42 PM.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

GOOD for you!!! i would have def said something. I don't care if it was my biz or not. and btw to that lady verbal abuse is ABUSE !!! what an idiot !!!

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

oh man... those poor little girls...

i don't know what i would have done, because i'm a scaredy-cat but good for you for speaking up on their behalf.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Posted by headoverheels

oh man... those poor little girls...

i don't know what i would have done, because i'm a scaredy-cat but good for you for speaking up on their behalf.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Bravo!!!! I wish more people would get involved like this. It won't stop the abusive behavior, and I feel bad for these kids, but there's no way I could've held my tongue with what you describe.!!!!

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

once upon a time - i don't think i would've said anything, but i've found through being pregnant that my 'cohones' have grown!

we went to see Saw 5 - yes, SAW 5 people....and there was a couple with a 1.5 or 2 year old behind us - in a stroller. the baby freaked out SEVERAL times during the movie (can you blame him/her - within the first 5 minutes of the movie, the opening torture scene, the guy used the f bomb more than 20 times???????) and after the movie - i told the woman off so hardcore Dave had to pull me away. i wanted to talk to a manager and punch the person who sold them a ticket, but as my dad and Dave kept saying, they are the parents, the theater has no right to say no to them. i cried several times during the movie - i was so upset for the baby behind me.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Good for you !! I would have done the same exact thing !!! Those poor kids !! And I wouldn't be surprised if CPS has already been called on her abusive arse
I am going to definately say a prayer for them

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Her response to what you said was so random...you spoke to her about speaking to her kids with respect, and she came back with, "I never hit my kids"?

Those poor little ones. It must be awful to live with such awful verbal abuse, I'd believe it's ten times worse than physical abuse.

Good for you for saying something. I admit that I probably wouldn't have...I avoid confrontation at all costs, but if I had been there I would have !

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

You were completely right. There is NO reason to talk to a child like that. I would have done the same thing and I have many times. I look at the kids sad faces as if they are calling me for help. You just sometimes hope that the parent realizes how they are scaring their child and that just because they aren't HITTING their child, they are verbally abusing them.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Posted by davenjess

once upon a time - i don't think i would've said anything, but i've found through being pregnant that my 'cohones' have grown!

we went to see Saw 5 - yes, SAW 5 people....and there was a couple with a 1.5 or 2 year old behind us - in a stroller. the baby freaked out SEVERAL times during the movie (can you blame him/her - within the first 5 minutes of the movie, the opening torture scene, the guy used the f bomb more than 20 times???????) and after the movie - i told the woman off so hardcore Dave had to pull me away. i wanted to talk to a manager and punch the person who sold them a ticket, but as my dad and Dave kept saying, they are the parents, the theater has no right to say no to them. i cried several times during the movie - i was so upset for the baby behind me.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

No I haven't called out a stranger. I don't know that I would do that. I would intervene & have intervened with someone that was freaking out on their kid - twice.

The first was a woman who was punching a little girl (maybe about 3-4 years old) for whatever she did in IHOP. I was in my 20s, and saw the mom hitting & hitting that little girl & I couldn't walk away. So I walked over, picked up the little girl's barette that fell out of her hair as the mom was yanking her to grass where she was punching her. I said "Excuse me. Your little girl dropped this." She stopped, got the little girl in the car, took the barette from me & took off. Her husband was trying to get her to stop punching her because "people were coming over". I still feel ashamed when I think that I didn't get that license plate.

The second time was at a kid's musical in the park. I took Joseph & left Maddie at home. This mom was screaming at her son, calling him names, yanking him along & holding a baby. Everyone was turning to look at her. I said "You look like you need a break. Do you want to join us?" She plopped down next to me & started crying. She said "I know people must think I'm a lunatic. He just doesn't listen & I can't handle both of them." I told her I had a hard time with it too which is why I only brought one to the show. Then I held her baby as she cleaned her son off, shared my snacks & we watched the show together. She had just moved to the area with 2 little ones, hadn't unpacked, didn't know a soul & her husband was working crazy hours at his new job. She said "I'm sure you have reservations about getting together with me but I'm normally not like this.", then gave me her email address in case I wanted to get together. When I emailed her it came back as undeliverable.

She seemed like a really nice person - just completely overwhelmed.

Message edited 4/2/2009 3:50:33 PM.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

no i meant the 2nd situation, im sorry

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

You did excatly what I would of done!
for sayng something!

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Good for you for speaking up! It takes A LOT! I don't think I'd be able to just stand there and listen to this woman curse her kids out but there are a lot of crazy people out there and a lot of people are just scared to speak up.

This is a little different, but my mom was telling me a story once when she was going to work, a group of loud mouth girls were screaming and yellling on the train (mind you they were with a teacher or something), sitting on seats with their feet up. Next to them was an elderly man with a cane, who was quiet and kept to himself the entire time UNTIL a pregnant lady got on the train and was looking to sit down. The one girl who had her feet up did not budge. So the elderly man asked here politely to move so that the pregnant lady could sit down, nothing. So he took his cane and gently "moved" her leg off the seat. Well, to make a long story short, the whole ordeal turned into that he "assaulted" her and the poor old man was taken off the train in HANDCUFFS!!!!!!!!! My mother was so upset byt this whole thing that she called me hysterically crying once she got off the train.

My point is, there are crazy people out there...yes, our job is to protect young kids but its such a hard thing to do when you are delaing with a crazy lunatic mother like you described.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

TOTALLY WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME EXACT THING...short of taking trying to stop here ther and call Childrens Services on her!!!!

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

See I don't know what I would have done. My first instinct would be to protect the child but I would be nervous to. If it was a situation that a child was being hit I would call 911. In this situation my fear is what would happen to the child after they left. If they treat the child like that in front of people I would be scared the child might get beat for the mom "getting in trouble".

I've never been in a situation like this though so I can't really say for sure.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Good for you for speaking up! It's sad there aren't more people in the world willing to do the same

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

I can understand many things but adult's verbal abuse on a child is not one of it.

I did the same on our HM with DH. A couple had brought their 4-5 year old with them. They put him in the kiddie pool by himself with an inflatable dolphin and left him while hugging and kissing in the adult pool. I heard them instructing the kid not to get out. The kid was playing at first but like a yound child, they can't "entertain" themself while the parents are "making out" in the adult pool 30 feet away. The kid started to get mad and hit the inflatable. I felt so frustrated for that kid. He did it for a little bit only to see the dad come out and scream at him. Telling him how bad he was. OF COURSE! He had "disturbed" the parents from their "cozy" time. I am watching the whole thing from my beach lounge chair. Then the dad decided he is going to punish the kid. He takes the inflatable and opens the valve. Telling him all along how bad of a little boy he is. The boy is crying. AND I SCREAMED at the dad!!!! I told him to stop this cruelty immediately. The mom and dad looked at me in total shock. Asked me what I said. I repeated in a non screaming way that I was done with the cruelty they were inflincting on this kid. They told me it was none of my business. Oh man!! I told them about the rules of the resort... no kids had to be left unattended, they left their kid by himself and because he was a "nuisance" to them they were going to make him "pay". I told them I watched them making out in the pool. They told me they could see the kid. I told them it was not possible (which was true). And what he is slipped in the pool and broke his head on the side of the pool. They asked me if I had kids because THEY took their kid with them. I told them not to do so next time so everybody would enjoy themselves, especially the little boy. DH interfered and told them that kids do disappear on the Islands with child molesters. They got scared. Then they just shut up! But I did hear the dad said to the little boy in a lower voice that it was his fault. HE was causing trouble for the guests as the result. How do you give a 4 year a guilt trip like that when it was THEM to blame? Of course, it could not be the dad's fault all along.

The next day I saw her again at the pool. She stayed with her kid along the kiddie pool.

I would do it again!

So good for you! Make she will think twice next time. Screaming and being mean is a form of abuse.

Message edited 4/2/2009 10:45:18 PM.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

I want to go hug those kids.



I haven't had a reason to call anyone out but if faced with any of the above situations, I would. Awful...

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG

That story breaks my heart....I think that you were a good person for stepping in. I honestly fear confrontation so much that I would have had to leave. That situation would have given me a panic attack.

Re: have you ever called a stranger out in public for the way they treated their kid? LONG