Parents in need of parenting...

I do not regard a smack as being a bad thing. I was raised with the occasional smack, it does not hurt but it does grab your attention and stop you doing whatever it is you were doing. Then the parent explains what was wrong about it. I find that modern families lack discipline. When I was training to be a teacher I was shocked by the lack of discipline in modern schools. In my youth teachers were respected and detention was a serious punishment, now it is something they just do not go to and they give cheek back when you give them one. We were told that you must not touch a child in anger or in praise and instead of respect all you get is verbal abuse and jeers.

I will be very sad to present parents treating their children with a less laudable action especially with a very little kid. Moreover, if parents made such ugly action in public places, it will make the children feeling insulted and also could damage the psychology of their children when too often. It will help us to persuade or direct our children in a more communicative way rather than grab, smack them.

If I saw actual abuse, then I would step in. But if a kid is screaming and claiming to be hurt? That's just normal behavior, and kids soon learn that if they do that in public they can get away with anything. Children need to learn that they cannot always have their way. They cannot always behave as they please and expect to get rewarded. I am a parent, and I know the situations your kids can put you in. To have a stranger interfere would not be helpful. That's my thought.

I think that there is too much interference on how children are treated nowadays. And there is a confusion between abuse and teaching a child manners. I would have to see exactly the whole situation, and maybe even then, I would not call a guard for what you say. The words "you are hurting me" do not mean torture. Having a social worker take the child away and place him at a foster home is ALWAYS torture. We have to be careful not to be too nosy and to think that our values are the only ones that are right.

Well I try not to tell parents how to treat their kids, because many people will get mad if you say something. But I have neighbors that let their kids run the streets until 10 pm at night and these kids are under 10 years old, and they have school the next day. Mine are always in bed at 8pm but some parents don't care and don't even go check to see what their kids are doing. Its these types of kids that when they are 19 and 20 think they can be in gangs and are usually in trouble with the law.