I go to the shopping centre every week day before work. I go to have a coffee and do the crossword quietly before the work day begins. This morning's peace and quiet were shattered before I'd even completed half of my crossword by a very frazzled mother. She was screaming at her 3 or 4 year old daughter, calling her some ugly names while the grandmother looked on. I watched the interchange for a while. The little girl was reduced to sobs from her mother's tirade. Grandma tried to placate both mother and daughter and looked a little embarrassed about her daughter's behaviour.
And why was the mother so upset? Her little girl didn't make up her mind quickly enough about what she wanted to eat and when she finally decided it was at another stall a few meters away. How inconvenient for the mother!
What that woman did really upset me. Her little girl did nothing terribly wrong and certainly nothing awful enough to cause such a scene. The mother's reaction was little short of child abuse. Screaming at such a young child and letting them know how worthless they are will leave scars that may never heal. We parents are charged with such an important role and it's essential that we act like the adults and provide good role models for impressionable minds.
I wish I'd had the balls to walk up to that woman and tell her to grow up and start acting like a mother.
Grandma should have put mom over her knee...
ReplyDeleteI still remember one time from years ago when I wish I had intervened. It is hard. What an awful scene to witness.
ReplyDeleteBack to my cat/fox. Our neighbors called maybe 6 months ago because our cat was "standing up" to a fox. Don't know if it was the same one but suspect it may be.
Just reading this upset me, I can't imagine witnessing it. It is so difficult to know what to do...there's always the chance that if we intervene, it'll make things worse as the mother starts yelling at strangers in front of her child. Some parents have more trouble controlling their own behavior than their kids!
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder something like that happened in the mother's childhood to make her the way she is.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I HATE seeing this. A parent like that is changing who her daughter is by treating her that way. And not for the better.
ReplyDeleteVery ugly adult behavior, for sure. We all wish we could have the nerve to say something in those situations, but probably 99.9 percent of us never will, so you're not alone.
ReplyDeleteHi Char,
ReplyDeleteMy hubby was actually in new Caledonia for work for 4 weeks and had a layover in Sydney, hence the shopping. :)
So sad. So bad. :( Hope the little one can break the cycle when she's older.
ReplyDelete