Should you ever discipline someone else’s child? Blogger pens post illustrating why it’s the ultimate parenting dilemma
Is it ever ok to tell off someone else’s child? [Photo: skitterphoto.com via Pexels]
She’s not usually afraid to voice her opinions on all things parenting, and it’s her refreshingly honest attitude that’s won the Perth-based blogger an army of fans (or as she calls them ‘Queens’), but Constance Hall’s latest blog post ‘When To Step In’ has seen her sit somewhat on the fence. But then again, she was discussing the thorny topic of disciplining other people’s children.
Though she admits she doesn’t like telling kids off, the parenting blogger also believes there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to the decision to reprimand someone else’s little one.
“My main gripe with disciplining kids who aren’t yours is that you don’t know their story,” she writes.
“You don’t know if this is something they do all the time or something that was a pure accident. You don’t know if that little girl has spent the day crying for her dead Poppy, or if she purposely hits toddlers in parks on her bike every weekend.”
The blogger illustrates how trick the topic is to navigate with two personal anecdotes about instances that have happened with her own children.
Constance Hall has tackled the tricky topic of disciplining other people’s children [Photo: Facebook/Constance Hall]
In the first experience Constance discusses a time when she stepped in to ask a child to behave in the absence of finding her parent. The little girl had first kicked her son, then thrown sand into his eyes, before slapping her son’s friend and Constance felt she had no choice but to intervene.
“Hi sweetie, do you think that you could chill on the kicking and sand throwing? My kids are all a bit sad coz they really wanted to play up here with you,” Constance recalled saying.
“Her eyes narrowed, She responded with a poised statement. “Fine… the boys can play there,” and she pointed to a tiny patch of mud. The boys were happy with that and I felt like the negotiator of the year,” she wrote.
However, the second occasion where the mummy blogger found herself pondering the subject matter didn’t have quite such a positive outcome.
When her daughter was yelled at by a dad, who shouted: “You’re a stupid little girl, you shouldn’t be riding [her bike] around here!”, Constance describes feeling enraged.
“My blood boiled. Fierce warrior mum kicked in. I gave him a mouthful about yelling at kids you don’t know.”
How long before the smiles turn to frowns? [Photo: unsplash.com via Pexels]
Constance ends the post by saying that for her, the best way to deal with the situation in hand is to try and sort it out with the child’s parent first.
“Obviously, there isn’t a cut and dry answer,” she wrote. “When someone is hurting your kid it doesn’t matter who, a child or a grown man, the first thing you need to do is stop that shit,” she continues.
“Now it isn’t a do or don’t type of conversation, everyone handles situations differently. But I do know that the words that come out of adults who aren’t your parents cut children a lot deeper than those of your own folks.”
“So for me? Going to extreme measures to sort it out with the kids parents before even thinking of approaching the kid is the only way.”
And Constance’s view seems to have kicked off a debate about the rights and wrongs of telling off other people’s children.
“I think it can be a positive thing when other parents discipline children,” one mother wrote. “I want my children to know that I am not the only person they have to listen to.”
“This is something that I really struggled with. It used to send me into a frenzy of anxiety, the thought of taking my son somewhere, another kid upsetting him and that kids Mum not being around to sort it,” added another.
And one fan believed we should all live and let live when it comes to navigating the delicate subject. “At the end of they day we all have our own way of disciplining our children and we should all respect each other’s way!”
Do you think parents have the right to discipline other people’s children? Let us know what you think @YahooStyleUK
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