Going Too Far?

I think most of us have been in public and had to endure screaming and crying children.

Nothing ruins an outing like strange children running around and screaming loud enough for people on the moon to hear them, right?

So, imagine you're at Walmart and some brat decides it is time to try to break the sound barrier. Do you say anything to the child's parent? Make a comment loud enough for them to hear it?

Or would you do what Georgia-resident Roger Stephens did in the same situation ... smack the child.

That's right. The 61-year-old man asked the mother of the 2-year-old crying child to get the toddle to knock off the racket. According to the police report, the man approached her and said, "If you don't shut that baby up, I will shut her up for you."

So, he did. He smacked the child at least FOUR times!

He has been charged with felony cruelty to children.

Ironically, the baby started screaming when he struck her.

Who in their right mind would think it is okay to strike someone else's child??

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 03, 2009 and is filed under , . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .

3 comments

"Who in their right mind would think it is okay to strike someone else's child??"

Thats easy....a crazy old man.

But in all honesty, why didnt the parent remove the child from the store.

I know when my little one was having a tantrum in the store, we would just leave the cart and go.

If not so much for the other shoppers, but children need to learn that no means no...(thats usually why they started in the first place, they wanted something)

No excuse for the old man, as if he went near my child I would have his ass on the ground so fast, but I do find it annyoning when parents don't remove their screaming child.

Karen  

I really hate to say this but I've found myself in this mans situation. My children were not angels by any means but they knew that if they were to throw a tantrum like this child was, I would have disciplined them myself. I will not tolerate this behavior from my children but then again, I wasn't the normal parent either. I never hit them but I let them know with a look or a whisper that if they didn't stop embarrassing me, I would embarrass them and that would stop the tantrum. They both knew I'd do it. So I guess I used humor instead of violence to keep mine under control. To this day, they both are commended for their public manners so I guess it wasn't all bad.

LisaW  

The nerve of that man!!! He's the one who needed smacked! But I do believe the child should have been silenced by the parents or they should have left. But that still didn't give the crazy man any right to do that.