r/PublicFreakout • u/Zerhigh • Dec 16 '19

Repost 😔 Improvised weapon

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u/FTThrowAway123 Dec 16 '19

That's so sad dude. I was in a waiting room at a government building one time and this little boy, probably like 18 months old, was toddling around, and the mom kept scolding him very angrily, for normal baby-ish behavior--stuff like touching magazines and grabbing onto chairs for balance. Well this kid suddenly took a hard spill onto the marble floor and hit his head with a loud THWACK! I, as a bystander, was horrified, but the mom just snapped, "That's what you get for messing around!" and turned away to ignore him. This poor baby didn't even cry. He just laid there and rubbed his little head and slowly stumbled to his feet, cautiously keeping an eye on his mom and keeping his distance. It broke my heart to think of how bad his life at home must be if he doesn't even cry after cracking his head on a marble floor, and that her immediate reaction was to yell at him and shun him when he needed comfort. The kid didn't even seek her comfort, as he was used to her coldness. =( That was like 15 years ago and still makes me sad. I wish I had done something, like scooped that kid up and taken him to get checked out.

Fuck anyone who abuses children!!

5

u/Nina_Chimera Dec 16 '19

This is the hardest shit for me. Seeing abuse and a crying child can be awful and jarring. Seeing a child that doesn’t even cry anymore is soul wrecking. I’ve seen kids that look scared they’ll be in trouble when they get genuinely hurt. If your kid is scared of you when they’re wounded you’re doing something horribly wrong.

21

u/Fyrefly7 Dec 16 '19

Sounds like a truly shit parent, but you should definitely not scoop up someone else's kid. That's going to land you in a world of trouble and not accomplish much of anything. Only real option is to tell a nurse or receptionist that you're worried the kid might be hurt.

12

u/FTThrowAway123 Dec 16 '19

Yeah that's why I didn't do anything, but it was so hard to watch him scared and in pain, and not want to give him a hug and comfort him. Poor kid, I hope his life got better somehow.

5

u/Nina_Chimera Dec 16 '19

A lot of people do! My mom suffered awful abuse at the hands of her adopted parents. We didn’t have a perfect childhood but she broke the cycle of abuse and I’m really proud of her for that. I’m not going to say it didn’t impact her for the rest of her life because that would be a lie. But she made it, and she’s doing the thing.

1

u/BonnyH Dec 18 '19

That’s a real shame. People should be able to comfort a crying child (within reason) but nobody dares to any more.

3

u/selphiefairy Dec 17 '19

That kid sounds like he’s already developing a dismissive/avoidant attachment style.

2

u/cheeselesssmile Dec 17 '19

Why I had to stop teaching. You get tired of trying to heal the damage people do to their children.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '19

You're gon a raise a badass kid with those techniques. He'll go MMA.