I tend to avoid big discount stores because it seems like whenever I'm there, I see and hear parents being cruel to their children.
Yesterday I had a really terrible experience at Target. I was shopping by myself and from several aisles away I could hear a little kid crying as her mother kept telling her to "shut up," and then following up by telling her that if she didn't stop crying, she was going to "whup" her. It was awful.
Feeling powerless, I started to leave that area of the store but in doing so, I happened to walk right by their aisle just as the woman proceeded to belt her kid in the head three times.
I literally gasped out loud. It was totally involuntary. I stopped dead and said very loudly, "What in the world do you think you're doing hitting her like that?!"
She looked shocked and told me to mind my own business - that she was just disciplining her. I told her that hitting someone in the head over and over isn't "discipline."
By this time two other people had stopped their carts and were listening to the exchange. And although they had not seen what the woman had done and didn't know her or me from Adam, they both piped up and told me that I should butt out.
"Good for her, making her child behave," opined one of the two women. "I'll bet your kids are little brats!"
(I am not making this up)
Then the other woman chimed in with basically the same comment.
I told the woman who had hit her daughter that I was going to go get security, which I did. I told them what I had seen and that they needed to call the police. They refused. So I asked what they would do if I told them that I had just seen a man hit his wife in the head several times while shopping in their store. They told me they would immediately take the man to the security office until the cops arrived.
So I called 911 and told them that there was a woman in the store walloping her kid in the head. They told me that this was a "private family matter," and nothing they could or would look into.
:::sigh:::
I've heard the argument that you should reach out a hand of compassion to people you see abusing their kids in stores, but honestly, I just couldn't do or say anything but what I did. And now maybe in some small way that little girl has had the seed planted that she doesn't deserve to be treated that way, no matter who it is that's doing the hitting.
Yesterday I had a really terrible experience at Target. I was shopping by myself and from several aisles away I could hear a little kid crying as her mother kept telling her to "shut up," and then following up by telling her that if she didn't stop crying, she was going to "whup" her. It was awful.
Feeling powerless, I started to leave that area of the store but in doing so, I happened to walk right by their aisle just as the woman proceeded to belt her kid in the head three times.
I literally gasped out loud. It was totally involuntary. I stopped dead and said very loudly, "What in the world do you think you're doing hitting her like that?!"
She looked shocked and told me to mind my own business - that she was just disciplining her. I told her that hitting someone in the head over and over isn't "discipline."
By this time two other people had stopped their carts and were listening to the exchange. And although they had not seen what the woman had done and didn't know her or me from Adam, they both piped up and told me that I should butt out.
"Good for her, making her child behave," opined one of the two women. "I'll bet your kids are little brats!"
(I am not making this up)
Then the other woman chimed in with basically the same comment.
I told the woman who had hit her daughter that I was going to go get security, which I did. I told them what I had seen and that they needed to call the police. They refused. So I asked what they would do if I told them that I had just seen a man hit his wife in the head several times while shopping in their store. They told me they would immediately take the man to the security office until the cops arrived.
So I called 911 and told them that there was a woman in the store walloping her kid in the head. They told me that this was a "private family matter," and nothing they could or would look into.
:::sigh:::
I've heard the argument that you should reach out a hand of compassion to people you see abusing their kids in stores, but honestly, I just couldn't do or say anything but what I did. And now maybe in some small way that little girl has had the seed planted that she doesn't deserve to be treated that way, no matter who it is that's doing the hitting.
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