Sister angry I “yanked” my nephew’s arm and told him off

I think you were a tad OTT, probably because you were hungover.
But, you did right to step in, as the Dad was being so fucking useless.
I wouldn't apologise if you genuinely feel you weren't in the wrong.

I didn’t want to write this ….. but if this saves one child.
a friends adult son had 15 stitches in his head from a black lab.
different circumstances granted , but just to emphasise how much damage a friendly big dog can do.
op was protectiving her nephew from the dog as much as protecting dog from the newphew.

@AthWat You are very invested in this thread, you don't need to reply to disagree with every post. A nod at your phone or an emoji is okay.

That was not what you were asked - you were asked about a specific situation which involved imminent danger to your child.

No point trying to backtrack now. Just start your own thread asking for advice on how to handle these situations that apparently keep occurring.

Actually yes you're right. The sister did do the best she could I suppose. I would still be annoyed though, if my sister had reacted like that to be honest. Maybe her sister needs to explain to her how to deal with young dc for any future occasions and tell the husband to buck up his parenting. Despite doing the best she could I don't think her reaction was appropriate toward a 2 year old. There have been 2 occasions where people have done "the best they could" or reacted as they thought appropriate, and I've have been very very angry. Just because it's their best, doesn't mean I'm going to accept my children being treated how they were treated.

And then he went whining to his dw.
What an idiot

There have been instances where they’ve intervened in something or other. Not necessarily the bashing of a sleeping dog. But other nonsense that toddlers get up to. And they’ve always been kind about it.

That’s it, really.

You’re the one who responded ‘yes’ to a direct question asking you if there have been many instances when your sisters have had to intervene to prevent your child bashing a sleeping animal with an object.

You were asked a specific question about a urgent danger to your child and you responded that yes, there have been many such instances.

I was fully expecting you to say ‘no, of course not’. But you confirmed this is something that happens to you so here we are.

Yeah she was hungover. She’s already said that. And was unkind to her two year old nephew as a result of that.

Sure I’ve been impatient but no I don’t think I’ve ever done that.

If I left a non-horse experienced person to deal with one of my horses while I sat passively and watched, I’d be a bit of an arse to then slag the person off for not knowing how to handle the horse/handling it wrongly.

🙄 yes this is exactly what I meant. My toddler sees a sleeping animal, she simply must bash it.

Maybe she was having a bad day. Are you 100% patient with everyone all the time?

I definitely think animals need constant supervision around young kids - I’d never leave either alone together. In this case, OP supervised and reacted to a developing hazard.

The parents didn’t like her approach, including the one who did nothing in the actual moment but roused himself enough to snitch to his wife after the fact.

If OP’s nephew had been bitten, guaranteed she’d cop the blame for that too.

All of this!

Dogs are wonderful but NEVER ever expect a dog not to react especially if it’s sleeping and woken suddenly - even if it caught the child be accident by jumping with its mouth open - it could nick the kid’s face.

It is foolhardy to not be vigilant however soft your dog is. My dogs are incredible but I watch them like hawks around youngsters as they’re more used to teens and if they did do something I could not bear the consequences for my dogs or the kid.

This.

If it hadn’t been an elderly golden retriever this could’ve ended really badly. You’d pull your child away from a busy road, you pull your child away from a fire; you should pull your child away from tormenting a big dog.

Schrödinger's 'toddler'. Simultaneously too young to understand not to hit the dog, while also being old enough to feel threatened by being asked how it would feel to be hit.

This is the problem with having dogs around small children.

The debate becomes so polarised - "my dog wouldn't hurt a fly", "my child is more important" - that people ignore the blinking obvious.

Which is that dogs and young children need constant supervision when around each other. It doesn't matter if the dog is sleeping. It doesn't matter if the child is usually fine with dogs.

Some parents are that twatty. Especially lazy ones like the father in this scenario.

I’ve read it all now. The parent sat on his arse reading and ignoring his 2 year old in the presence of a dog is less to blame than the aunt who was looking out for her dog? And then the useless tosser snitched to his wife and made it sound worse than it was,because he didn’t want his wife to think he hadn’t been properly supervising? OP I’d have done the same as you.

It’s quite concerning that you ADMIT you’ve experience many situations in which your children have been bashing a sleeping animal with an object. 😬

Maybe you need your own thread?

I think you're just making things up for your own amusement. Weird.

It is clearly a family dog bought by parents. I am assuming…. And yes I know I am assuming - but sounds like if it’s 12 and a golden retriever (ie a dog you get as a puppy) that it was bought by parents when their children were younger. I called our family dog ‘my’ dog

Oh please. If she was a consistently involved and loving auntie her sister wouldn’t be reacting so strongly to this.