babsi

To cut a long story short, was in the park today, Kai gave a girl an aggressive hug and the woman broke it up and slapped Kai on the face.

I remembered that there was some police nearby as there was a problem with the traffic, so they came back with me and I didn't see it but the woman was running away with the pushchair from the park.

Caught up with her, asked what I wanted to, leave it but she has a record or it could go to court. Couldn't go through with a court case so left it.

She obviously denied it said she couldn't speak English which was a lie...and then was gesturing that it was ok to hit later on to the police and politely told her to shut up. The police said that they knew she was guilty with the way she ran off and the way she acted.

A bit shaken up to be honest about it all.

mclauchlan35

You probably did the right thing, my wife would have knocked her head off......not the right thing. Although if you had no witnesses then your right, she probably would have denied it.

Elaine B.

That's awful is your little man okay? There really are some crazy people around.

babsi

Thanks, Kai is fine. He is VERY tough luckily. Still just very annoyed, phoned up my husband and he thinks I should have pressed charges and now is speaking to a lawyer at work.

Just wish it never happened to be honest, couldn't believe that someone could that to a child

mclauchlan35

Sorry should have asked if the little fella was ok. Were there any witnesses?

babsi

the way the police said it was that I was a witness and Kai was a victim. As the weather is cold here, the parks are very empty so one one else. If the police wasn't there I wouldn't have been able to do anything as my the battery in my phone was dead. Just don't know what to do for the best.

Almost Canadian

Put it down to experience and move on.

It will be your word against her's and you will be cross examined heavily about the incident. I am sure she will say that she was protecting her child from Kai's "aggressive hug" (to use your own words) and that, as she broke them up, she may have inadvertantly struck Kai. It may be rubbish but that is how she will present it and her's is a story that doesn't sound too incredible.

I doubt very much that this will be a jury trial and so you are likely to have a sole judge sitting. Unless you come across as a total upstanding member of the community and she comes across as a lying, child beater, I cannot see a conviction here.

Linda P

What an awful thing to happen.....he's not much more than a toddler is he...I was trying to look through....but I seem to remember him being 3 or 4?
I cannot believe a grown woman would hit a child like that. If he was being rough.....why the hell didn't she just remove her child.

When my son was little, he always played rough (still does!) he also had very little speech so got into the habbit of growling at the other kids...they would laugh and run....he would chase. This was how he communicated. The kids had no problem with this and he never hurt them, but some parent's would freak out! I lost count of how many told me he should be on Ritalin.

It will be harder for you, kids just shrug things off thankfully.

I don't think I could have been as sensible as you....I'm sure I would have swung for her!

I don't blame you for seeking legal advice, but would be cautious about paying out a fortune, for something that Kai has taken in his stride.

Good luck

Linda

dingbat

^^^^ What he said. One of my kids was "aggressively hugged" by an older child when she was eighteen months old. My daughter was really tiny. The kid really hurt her, she screamed for the kid to get off, I had to prize the child off my daughter while the other kid's mother looked on. The mother was really pissed when I called her on her lack of supervision and not teaching her child to keep his hands off other kids. Think how that type of argument might be presented in court......

babsi

I totally try my best with Kai, I am not a perfect mother but I see something underlying in some people's posts that it is my fault. Maybe I am too emotional to reply to this but it isn't easy and he has been getting better and he was supervised and he always is and he is told always to keep his hands to himself but he can't help himself, he is punished eg.time-outs, things taken away or things not happening if he doesn't behave. He only turned 3 last month, and is not some kind of devil child and he has been seen by a psychologist who says there is nothing wrong with him

So in the space of a week he was shouted at by a woman because he took a toy of his son and now he has been slapped across the face and all afternoon since coming back he has been very withdrawn, wanting to be on his own and not playing, great for his self-confidence.

If there had been another witness then I would be going to court as there isn't we won't be.

Almost Canadian

I wasn't trying to be judgmental, so if you got that impression from me, I apologise.

I was just trying to explain to you what is likely to happen if you went to Court. As you know, there are always two sides to every story (imagine what this other woman will be saying about Kai) and that you will need to prepare yourself for what will happen in Court.

If you took offence at what I said, then don't even contemplate being a witness in this matter, cross examination will be rather more severe than what I said above, as defence counsel is likely to want to try and paint a picture that Kai was so out of control and such a danger to the other child that the woman had no option other than to try and break the scuffle up, during which, Kai was "accidently" touched. Whether that represents what actually happened is, to a large extent, irrelevant.

MB-Realtor

I dont think it is right that another person hit your child, and I dont know enough about you or your child to coment on your parenting, so dont take this the wrong way.

I do know a bit about lawyers and courts.

The other mothers lawyer could easily spin what you said in your post above to:-

In the space a few days your child stole a toy, and then attacked another child and had to be forcibly removed from that child, and that this was obviously a problem you knew about, as you were so concerned about your child behaviour that you had allready consulted with a psychologist about it.

These things are best not discussed on a board like this, especially when there is enough information scattered among your posts to reasonably identify you. Lawyers turn to google very quickly these days, and these posts will stay available for years.

Mistress Miggins

I hate agreeing with lawyers, but what he said

Auld Yin

No matter what your child did, no one other than you is entitled to hit him and even you, on the bum only probably. The woman who did so has some serious anger management problems herself. It isn't for us here to pass judgment on your parenting style/skills. Suffice to say it is probably best that you put the incident behind you and move on.

Almost Canadian

I am no lawyer (not yet anyway) so you can feel better about yourself