(you're out for a lovely walk with your significant other through a
gorgeous park. While walking, you hear a mother and child. The child is in
tears and screaming it's head off. All you see is the mother striking the
child in a vain attempt to get it to shut up.)

(do you interfere at all?)

20 responses total.

no it would be no different then if they were at home, in most cases. If you
see the mother violently shaking the child, or smacking it with something large
like a big tree branch then you interfere

I would feel very guilty about not interfering, but whether I actually
would would depend on how brave I was feeling.  A lot of the time I
wouldn't, just because I wouldn't have the guts.  But I would also feel
very guilty about it later, knowint that I had let the child suffer
needlessly.  Then again, the times when I don't feel confident enough to
interfere it might be better not to, because done wrong, an interference
in that situation might make the situation worse.

 find a phone and call the cops.  There is no reason for any parent to
hit a child. Hitting is abuse, and the child is better off in a foster
family, than in a situation where he/she is being smacked for expressing
emotion. I would also see to it that the parent was prosecuted to the 
fullest limits of the law.

no, i wouldn't interere.  it's their business.  now if the mother was 
actually hurting the child, that would be a different matter...

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This is a perfect example of how out of hand this type of situation is right
now.  Some children deserve (and need) a small spank or slap of the wrist!
If I felt the child was not in any severe danger, no I would not interfere.

I was in this situation a number of years ago.  I was with my parents,
and none of us did anything, but we were all horrified, and have never
returned to the place where it happened.  It has stuck with me as a very
painful memory.

I might try to think of something to say to the mother, 
expressing sympathy with her feelings (especially if it's a
toddler or preschool-age child).  Both parties are probably 
very frustrated, and a brief interlude might help to give 
somebody's thoughts a different direction. 

If I thought the child was being seriously hurt, I'd call
the authorities .... if i didn't think the child was being
hurt a lot physically, I would just maybe say something to
the parent about alternative ways to enforce things...

yes

I do not believe I would interfere unless I saw the mother strike the child
with anything other than her open hand. If I saw her strike the child with her
fist, or I noticed that the child had bruises or seemed to be battered, then I
would have no moral choice than to interefere. Sometimes new mothers become
frustrated when a child screams in public, and perhaps she had lost her wits.
But then the question arises, does anyone have a right or a justifiable reason
to strike a child?

I would call the police and follow the women until they came.
There is no reason for child abuse.

I agree. Child abuse is unexcusable.
And I would absolutely interfere. It *is* my business when a
defenseless child is being beaten in front of me.

How about if it was one little smack on the butt?  Would you intere
fere then?
Two smacks?  Three?
How about just an insult... "You're such a loser, why can't you do anything
right...?"

And why can't i get up the courage to interfere in those situations where
I probably should?  :(

As for the little smack on the butt,I probably wouldn't interfere, but
repeated beating is a different story.
And as for the "just an insult" I would interfere. There's no reason to
say something like that to a child.

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Well, I would have to agree that being shot would be a definite down side.

Interfere tactfully, ask questions about childs condition and/or health, make
known that ambulance or police may be called if needed. Then make decision
about 911

I would walk up to the parent and stare at them with an unkind look on my
face. If they asked me to stop glaring at them, I would tell them I have as
much right to get close to someone and glare at them as they have to hit their
child. If they ignored me, and continued hitting their child, I would cough
very loudly, until they stopped hitting their child and started paying
attention to me.

I would casually walk in the direct of the mother, probably smiling. Then I
would say something like "Crying kids can really taz your patients, can't
they?" and smile again. Then I would look at the child and say "what's the
matter bubu? having a bad day?" and look to see if the kid is hurt. Going from
there the main hope is to get mom out of her narrow vision, to take a breath
if you will and to give the kid some other imput to think over. Tends to work
most of the time. If mom gets lippy, then I usually chew her a new asshole
and tell her what a sickness abuse is. That's a lot of fun, geeze...

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