This weekend Owen had a baseball tournament, two games on Saturday and two on Sunday. Mr. Fixit and I went to have lunch at a fast food place between the Sunday games.
We were second in line and had a bit of a wait. In the other line the young lady taking orders was apparently new. She had someone with her explaining each step so it was taking her longer to get the order of a woman and a little girl about 6 years old. The little girl became bored I suppose so she was leaning forward and catching herself on the counter. My first thought was, "I hope her hands don't slip." If she had fallen she would have hit her face on the counter. The woman (I later found out that she was the grandmother) told the girl to stop. The girl proceeded to do again. Again the grandmother told her not to do it again. Finally, she did it one more time and the grandmother said, "I told you more than once to stop" and she smacked the child on the arm. The child didn't cry, and I saw no mark on her arm.
Someone behind me invaded my personal space to say into my ear, "If she hits that child one more time, I'm calling the police." I didn't acknowledge her except to take a step forward. She then said to the everyone and the grandmother, "That's child abuse and I'm going to call the police if you (the grandmother) do that again."
The grandmother said, "Please don't tell me how to discipline my child."
The complaining woman offered that she was a guardian ad litem and she knew child abuse when she saw it and once again threatened to call the police. The grandmother said, "You have no right to butt in, but I'll call the police if you want me to. Please don't speak to me again." She finally received her order and headed to the play area with her happy-looking granddaughter.
The "guardian ad litem" continued to carry on loudly that she was a guardian ad litem and that child abuse offends her.
I held my tongue, but I was wondering how she would have felt if the little girl had fallen and hurt herself. She would probably have harangued the woman for not watching the child. My only other thought was that if she thought that a little smack on the arm was child abuse, she has never seen child abuse. In my opinion, she overreacted and was enjoying making a scene. I think I remember something about power corrupting. . .
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2 comments:
well, I'll probably get some haters for this....but that's what's wrong with most of the young adults of today. Most were raised without consequences for their actions. Not because their parents were necessarily bad, but because they were afraid to touch their own child. The system has deemed even a small smack on the arm to be "abuse" and therefore discipline is extremely difficult especially on a child that doesn't respond well to "time outs". Once again, they've taken a problem and went over and above what is needed. I was raised during an era where we got spanked and sometimes it was given by the teachers. We respected authority and didn't try to defy it. That woman was too full of herself and her actions may have shown the little girl that she didn't HAVE to mind her grandma. If real abuse is suspected....and we all know REAL abuse happens....there are better ways to handle it. I remember when my two year old grandson fell into the coffee table and got a black eye, my daughter had to carry a note from the doctor stating that no abuse was suspected just to protect her from busy bodies like her. Yes, we do need some "watch dogs" in certain circumstances, but some people take it to the extreme.
I think you should have turned to the "guardian ad litem" and punched her square in the face and then said, "No, THAT'S abuse", and proceed to order your Big Mac and fries.
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