Walking DD 3.5 to nursery this morning we were walking near a mother and 2 older boys about 6 and 4. My DD likes other kids so was trying to engage the boys until the 6 year old started to try to bar her way on the pavement. I intervened and carried on past the boy encouraging DD to carry on too. I could see she was worried but didn't want to make it an issue and acted as if the boy was just playing. The mother told the boy off but only as a passing comment rather than explaining that it was actually rude to behave this way. As we walked he continued to flick his slinky toy at us and he was repeatedly told to stop by his mother who threatened to take it away but never did. The rest of the walk was spent with this boy actively trying to get close to DD to torment her until fortunately we parted ways.
My question is what would you do in this situation? I felt really angry towards the mother who obviously had very little control over this boy and who didn't carry out any of her threats. I have real issues with confrontation due to a childhood history of violence and intimidation so really hate this kind of situation. Also I am really wary of overreacting and causing a fuss when it isn't required. However I do believe this boy was trying to bully DD and was not worried by me being an adult or the threats of his mother.
Would you/have you been in this situation and what would an assertive person do?
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Other people and bad behaviour
13 replies
redbunnyfruitcake · 11/02/2013 16:10
OP posts:
ArtexMonkey ·
11/02/2013 20:53
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