Kids behaving badly (in public)

[Kitsa]

I almost saw a toddler off himself yesterday.

I was behind them going into a hospital to pick something up, and you could see how it was going to be from the beginning. Kid was running around wildly, a good 10-15 feet from the mom at all times, and she wasn't paying a damn bit of attention. In front of the hospital, the kid actually darted into the street, and the valet had to shout and call him back. The mom just kept on walking.

So inside the hospital, the mom is still just moseying around and the kid is going berzerk, jumping on chairs and running into people and climbing into the registration ladies' cubbyholes to snatch stuff off their desks. He'd grab files and throw them on the floor and laugh. Everyone waited for the mom to say something and she never did. You could see people looking at each other like, "Should I?" A couple of patients told him to stop and get off the chairs, but he'd just laugh and do it more. Then the employees started on the mom, telling her she couldn't just let him run around like that. She only responded once, lifting him by one arm and swatting him on the ass, saying he couldn't "go bye-byes" with her "no more". He kept on, and soon employees and random old ladies were chasing him around.

The area we were in was on the second floor and the layout is kind of like a shopping mall. There's a cutaway with a short glass-bottomed railing, then a shelf with plants, then a good 20-25 foot drop to the marble floor below. Of course this kid climbs the railing and balances by his waist, head down, trying to reach the plants. There was a collective gasp. It was like one of those "Amazing Videos" clips about to happen. Now everyone is up and at the railing, even people who were hobbling, wheeling, or dragging themselves over. Everyone except the mom, of course, who is asking the registration woman questions like nothing is happening. A cleaning lady is shouting at the kid, trying to talk him down. People are trying to reach for his leg without knocking him over. People are running for the elevator and stairs.

The registration woman finally gets the mother's attention off herself and points. The mom just sighs, grabs the kid by the leg, drags him back and plops him in the chair at the registration desk. "You sit here while momma goes to the bathroom or else we won't go bye-byes no more."

No one could believe it.

Best part....she was about 7 months pregnant with another one.

What would you have done?

[Grislygus]

Let the little hellspawn die, that would be my decision. With any luck the mother would have gotten severe depression, eventually drowned her NEW baby and offed herself. Nice, tidy, and non-genocidal cleansing of the gene pool.

[The Leader]

Pushed him over.

[Grislygus]

I mean, some people have bad parenting instincts and some people have good instincts, but it's amazing how many moms you see in public that have NO instincts. I remember one of my old girlfriends coming with me to pick up supplies at a local art supply place; when we got to the check register we were stuck behind two people; an older woman trying to pay a $125 with a slew of coupons (and being told no, repeat process) and a young mother and her four year old child.

While we waited for the old woman to stop being a wrinkletard (for fifteen minutes) we got to watch the four year old boy go batshit crazy while it's mother laughed nervously. It was sniveling and being cranky, and we accepted the mother's initial diagnosis of "needs his naptime". Until he started pulling magazines out and throwing them. The mother continued to laugh as she repaired the carnage. Then the kid calmed down and began laughing. Then he got excited again and started running in circles. Then he saw the candy and grabbed several, bringing them over to Mommy. SHe said no. Cue the screeching temper tantrum and throwing of candy bars. Mommy laughs and looks at us, expecting the reaction to be "how ADORABLE." I smile weakly, desperate for her to stop looking at me, my girlfriend at the time is glaring, mommy continues to laugh.

Kid calms down for the next ten minutes, chattering happily. Mommy finishes at the register. Mommy says that they get to go home now.

Suddenly, without warning, Hellspawned Thing's face goes into purple-black storm mode and is bawling and screaming (in that one particular level of severe toddler-rage) "NO! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! NO!" then the scream-pitch intensifies with the bellow of "YOU IDIOT!"

I wanted to slap it, I wasn't ready to have that reaction. It actually shocked me that I wanted to crack a four-year old upside the head; I've never felt anything like it before. It was the combination of screaming IDIOT at it's mom and that ugly tone that kids get when they are completely beyond control. My girlfriend was shooting poison daggers out of her eyes and Mommy laughed.

Then the kid calmed down immediately and left the store with Mommy.

[Chojin]

yeah, i hope it isn't illegal to put kids in submission maneuvers by the time i have one.

[Kitsa]

My kid does now and will always sit on my lap in waiting rooms. Running around is not going to be an option. When my kid starts to act up somewhere, we go outside until it's out of her system. Nothing fun happens while we're outside.

When I was a kid, we lived in perpetual fear of being taken to THE CAR. Everyone knew what happened when you got taken to THE CAR. No one wanted any part of THAT particular shit.

My brother, as an elementary schooler, once ran away from my mom in an apartment store and she had him overhead-paged, by full name, to the bra department.

[Dimnos]

Thrown a piece of candy over the side?

[Chojin]

the shitty thing about the story in the OP is that if the kid did take a tumble, the mother would inevitably have sued the hospital and possibly anyone in proximity to him.

[Kitsa]

That's what I was thinking, too.

[Tadao]

Leash laws.

[Fathom Zero]

I wore a leash. Worked, too, until I was old enough to undo the thing. But at that point, I wasn't really running around the store. If I did, we left for a while. To go outside.

[Dimnos]

My grandmother threatened to beat us with a yardstick. They were not empty threats either.

[Fathom Zero]

I haven't seen many leashes lately, though. In fact, I saw one some months ago and I was amazed. Not because I find them cruel or something, but I think that everyone else thinks they are. My mum was with me and she was just as surprised. And while I can't imagine that they'd be illegal any time soon, I know people personally that would be aghast or some shit that they would treat a child that way.

[Kitsa]

With this particular mother, I can't see her being arsed to even hold one end of the leash. Everyone in the waiting area (well, except for one asshole who just sat back and laughed like the kid was hilarious) was stunned that the kid was acting so fantastically bad and the mom was doing absolutely nothing about it. I mean, I have never seen a kid behave this badly in public EVER, and I worked 8 years in an ER.

Usually, a kid will have a boundary and will sit up and take notice when the right person tells them they've crossed it. Sometimes it takes the mom snapping at them, sometimes if a stranger says something it'll scare the shit out of the kid and get them to behave. This kid had noooo boundaries whatsoever. It was almost as if he hadn't been socialized the slightest bit. Even a kid who's being bratty won't jump up on a registration person's desk, grab her papers, throw them into the waiting room and laugh, or sneer at a stranger who's telling him to get down off the chair before he hurts himself.

[Colonel Flagg]

About how old was the little monster? because she sure was talking to him like one would a yapping poodle.

I'd always found that if you treat the children like adults, they start responding like adults a lot sooner. It helps with the 2-4 year range.

It's been working so far ....

Then again, in this case, it sounds lik you would have had a better chance of seeing God himself.

[kahljorn]

Makes you wonder what happens to those old dudes who smack bratty little shitheaded children, doesn't it?
prolly nothing.

maybe you guys could've called the police for child endangerment and for there being an unattended child?

[Pentegarn]

Once upon a time parents were legally allowed to beat their kids and it was a golden age

[Colonel Flagg]

I remember getting spanked on my bare ass in a department store once. Whatever I did, I'm sure I deserved it.

[Kitsa]

I'm not exactly sure of the kid's age, I'm just estimating from babysitting/au pair experience. He was a little guy who was just at that stage where he's stomprunning like hell and laughing all the way. I'd say maybe 2, 2 1/2.

I think that the abandoned child thing was never thought of because the mother...physically, at least...was there. Why she chose to ignore him, I'm not sure. She seemed very practiced at tuning him out. She seemed like the kind of mom who would forget him at a gas station, realize it 50 miles down the road, shrug and keep driving.

I'm not saying she should have beaten the kid. I'm saying she should have KEPT HOLD of the kid and told him to stay with her, don't run away, be good, stop that. Even a pregnant woman in (what looked like) her late forties can overpower a 2 year old.

[Zhukov]

Is it illegal to hit your child in the US? It's not here, not yet anyway, and I honestly think it can be a positive thing if used correctly.

My dad used to hit my sister and I probably to levels that would register child abuse now, but it certainly kept us in line. The main form was a clip around the ear, or a slap across the cheek for mistakes, but if you did something wrong on purpose you were taken out to the cow shed and taken to with a leather strap.

I don't think levels like that are necessary to teach discipline, but until children reach a certain age where you have taught them to understand the meaning of right and wrong, a small, non damaging (bruises show up to social services ) whack across the thighs or something can certainly teach a child that whatever they did was wrong. How are you meant to reason with a two year old that throwing papers around and yelling is wrong, if not giving them an deterrent that they can understand?

I'm sure everyone has seen situations where there is some pathetic mother begging with her child to stop rampaging and to be good. I think a firm hand, both literally and figuratively is needed to curb this blight that is menacing our American way of l... uh. I think it can be used effectively.

[Kitsa]

How did this turn into some sort of expansionism debate? I think there are misbehaving children just about everywhere, and the ones who aren't are living in fear of authority and just biding their time.

I know that the whack across the ass that this kid received did nothing.

[Zhukov]

You're telling me that a good thrashing wouldn't have stopped you? You must have been a pretty brave kid.

[Kitsa]

My childhood was slightly different due to physical condition and hospital stints. I did call my mother's bluff once when I threw a fit about leaving a public pool and she threatened to drop me off and leave me there....apparently I exited the car quite happily, convinced that I could set up some sort of camp in the wilderness area adjoining the pool. I had to be dragged back to the car.

[Zhukov]

Yeah, I know that feeling. Ran away a few times with a rucksack full of bananas and vegemite sandwiches. It's funny how they always seemed to last about 30 seconds before I'd get bored of myself and go back home so I could sit in my room by myself.

[TheCoolinator]

Children need more beatings......I would have instructed this oblivious little strumpet on how to teach a child how to listen by intense physical abuse. Canes, shoes, crowbars, anvils, sledgehammers, and sharpened bamboo rods.

Worked on me.