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Original poster

Two adults cornered and scolded my 7yo

381 replies

Rosie5832 · 29/09/2025 13:31

At a classmate’s birthday party, my child was cornered by the parents of another classmate. They accused him of bullying their son and told him to stop it. He said he wasn’t doing that and they kept on shouting at him that he was.
After this, he was very upset and was crying inconsolably.
Another parent - the mum of the birthday child - went to his assistance and messaged me telling me to return to the party as my son needed me, and that she couldn’t settle him at all (I had left for an hour). While she was messaging me, these two parents came over to her and told her my son was a bully - he was right there and still crying. She told them to back off. When I arrived, they rushed straight over to me and told me that my son was bullying their son etc. No acknowledgment from them that they had cornered him alone and shouted at him. It was only later at home that he told me what had happened, I called the other mum and she confirmed it, describing the way they approached me as an ‘ambush’. She said the whole party turned into a ‘sh*tshow’ because of the way these parents were behaving, and all the other parents - and probably some of the kids - could see what had happened.
I’m in shock over this. I’m meeting with the school teacher today to alert her to this incident and to make sure my son is kept safe in school.
I want to say something to these parents about their behaviour. Imo they were completely out of line, and all the other mums I’ve spoken to since agree that you never confront a child alone like that, regardless of what issue you have with them.
On the way in to school this morning, my son stopped dead just before the door and said, “why didn’t you stay at the party?”. He was clearly thinking about the whole incident and probably concerned that he would encounter these parents at the school.
Has anyone any experience of this kind of behaviour from other parents?

OP posts:
BoredZelda · 29/09/2025 17:02

Notagain75 · 29/09/2025 13:54

That is irrelevant. Whatever the circumstances the parents were wrong to bully a 7 year old child!

Show quote history

It isn’t irrelevant. Two things can be true. The parents are out of order, and the child is a bully. Both of those need to be addressed.

I’d certainly be asking the parents to take a breath and not act how they were, but at the very least, I’d be asking what my child was accused of.

Sunbeam01 · 29/09/2025 17:01

I'd be very very upset if this happened to my DC.

It is not the adults place to confront or bully a 7 year old. The fact that they did would make me question their child's home life.

Your poor DC must be traumatised.

MyHeartyCoralSnail · 29/09/2025 17:00

I suspect we’re not getting the full picture at all here.

XelaM · 29/09/2025 16:59

Bullies often dish it out by cry indignant tears when they are being confronted about their behaviour. 🤷‍♀️

TeddySchnauzer · 29/09/2025 16:55

Trentdarkmore · 29/09/2025 13:33

Has your son been bullying the other boy?

Out of everything mentioned in the OP, THAT is what you’re commenting????? Even if OP’s son was, it doesn’t justify what these parents did!!! JFC

FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 29/09/2025 16:55

Thewitchsong · 29/09/2025 16:14

I had the exact same thing hapoen to my dd (I'm going back a few years)

The mother thought the sun shone out of her dds arse and cornered my dd to shout at her to stop bullying her dd

I shot into school and demanded something was done/to tell me if my dd was the bully

The school said mine wasn't but acted like they where shit scared of the mother and where useless (so where the police-I think this woman's surname was 'known' and carried some weight)

They all moved up to secondary and both the mother and dd had a shock as that head wasn't scared of the family name and dealt with the child and her bullying

They are grown up now and she will spend the best part of her years in prison for attempted manslaughter (along with her brothers who are in for attempted murder)

But not their/her fault according to their mother who has 3 out of 4 of her dc in prison

Show quote history

WTF is attempted manslaughter?

Slightyamusedandsilly · 29/09/2025 16:51

getsomehelp · 29/09/2025 13:34

I would also be asking the school whether your son is in fact a bully. This has to have come out of somewhere.

Obviously, the mum needs to check the bullying allegation.

But TWO adults bullying a 7 year old is borderline abusive, never mind just bullying. I would consider getting the police involved.

How cruel do you have to be to abuse your adult power, to abuse a child while he doesn't have a parent with him? The very height of disgusting.

ChangingWeight · 29/09/2025 16:50

To be honest I think you’re playing the victim significantly. I don’t think adults should be shouting at children but the way you feel in terms of wanting to keep your son safe, that’s exactly how these other parents felt. I would be wanting to get to the bottom of these bullying allegations and see why the other classmate has accused your son of bullying and what has triggered that. Don’t be blinded by your son being an angel in your eyes - both incidents could be true - your son could have bullied the other person, and their parents might have overreacted.

Allswellthatendswelll · 29/09/2025 16:47

SatsumaDog · 29/09/2025 16:20

It seems strange they cornered him at the party if the bullying is allegedly happening on school. Did they think your son was bullying theirs during the party? Of course you need to investigate what has gone on with the school and go from there.

Whoever suggested involving the police, what on earth do you expect them to do? Arrest the parents for telling off someone’s child? Completely over the top.

Bullying is protracted and over time so it could hardly be just at the party. If it was relating to school they should have gone to the school.

Itstheshowgirl · 29/09/2025 16:46

Silvertulips · 29/09/2025 16:15

My DS was bullied, the bullied child cries, loses self esteem, doesn’t want to go to school.

If OPs son has indeed bullied this other boy- then i’m sure the parents are at their wits end.

oP needs to say what happened before the parents cornered her child - had they asked him to stop? Had they spoke to him nicely about it? Did he run? Not the best way of dealing with things but sometimes the only way - OP doesn’t seem to be able to step up - not even mentioned what her DS had actually done - she must have asked? She is deflecting his bad behaviour as so often bully parents do.

Why do we assume when adults are mean to a child the child must have somehow deserved it. Some adults are just arseholes.

Frankly I wouldn’t give a shit what my child had done the minute an adult choose to approach and intimidate my child then their argument has lost all credibility. They might feel very confident to pick on a small child but they would have a whole bigger problem on their hands when I found out. People who approach the child and not the parent are cowards through and through.

Allswellthatendswelll · 29/09/2025 16:44

Silvertulips · 29/09/2025 16:15

My DS was bullied, the bullied child cries, loses self esteem, doesn’t want to go to school.

If OPs son has indeed bullied this other boy- then i’m sure the parents are at their wits end.

oP needs to say what happened before the parents cornered her child - had they asked him to stop? Had they spoke to him nicely about it? Did he run? Not the best way of dealing with things but sometimes the only way - OP doesn’t seem to be able to step up - not even mentioned what her DS had actually done - she must have asked? She is deflecting his bad behaviour as so often bully parents do.

Did he run? What on earth? Are they now OK to go around chasing a random child?

Goldbar · 29/09/2025 16:44

Balloonhearts · 29/09/2025 16:17

What on earth do you expect the police to do? Telling off a child they were left in charge of, even shouting at them, is not a crime. You would rightly be told not to waste police time with this rubbish.

Show quote history

They weren't left in charge of the OP's child. It was the birthday child's mum who was in charge.

kerstina · 29/09/2025 16:43

An instagram by AngryMum caught my attention last night it showed her shrieking and absolutely losing the plot as apparently the child was bullying an autistic boy according to her. Turns out she was reprimanding her own son and the boy he was bullying was his autistic brother. And they wonder what creates bullies….

mummysmagicmedicine · 29/09/2025 16:42

Regardless to what a child does and I say this as someone who was bullied as a child that sort of behaviour from an adult is scummy and unacceptable. Bullying or not this is not how you deal with a child. I worry about the children of people who think this is acceptable parenting.

Whyyesohwhy · 29/09/2025 16:39

I've been the child in this situation and it still affects me to this day. I must of been around 8 years old, early 2000s.

It was early morning and myself and my friends were playing in the playground before school. I had been getting severely bullied by a particular girl. The school were well aware what was going on. When I was in a more secluded area of the playground the bully's mum approached me and stood over me, pointed at me and accused me of bullying her child. I hadn't even been anywhere near the bully that morning. I was extremely tearful, scared and upset I froze on the spot. Eventually the bell went but I was still frozen and my mother eventually found me with this particular parent and my mother went nuts at her. A meeting was called by the headteacher with both parents and the bully's parents got a massive bollocking for doing that to me.

Thankfully the child left at the end of that school year but it affected me for a very long time. I suffered with anxiety a lot after that surrounding school and I was never able to fully trust another parent as a child after that.

ChristmasTreasure · 29/09/2025 16:28

ClawedButler · 29/09/2025 14:13

There is nothing a 7-year old can do that justifies 2 grown adults cornering them at someone else's party and frightening them to tears.

If it ended there, I might understand.

But waiting until OP arrived, child is already in tears, and continuing in the same manner is seriously overkill, even if he was being mean to another child.

SatsumaDog · 29/09/2025 16:20

It seems strange they cornered him at the party if the bullying is allegedly happening on school. Did they think your son was bullying theirs during the party? Of course you need to investigate what has gone on with the school and go from there.

Whoever suggested involving the police, what on earth do you expect them to do? Arrest the parents for telling off someone’s child? Completely over the top.

JadziaD · 29/09/2025 16:19

@Thewitchsong Yes, sadly, I'm not very optimistic for this boy's chances longer term. DS tells me he's still a bit of a twat but doesn't have the same influence he used to any more. But I know he also doesn't do very well at school so I do wonder what his chances are. And this mother clearly doesn't model good behaviour. sigh.

Balloonhearts · 29/09/2025 16:17

itsraining2024 · 29/09/2025 13:36

I’d tell the school and honestly speaking- report it to the police. They can’t do that again.

What on earth do you expect the police to do? Telling off a child they were left in charge of, even shouting at them, is not a crime. You would rightly be told not to waste police time with this rubbish.

Silvertulips · 29/09/2025 16:15

My DS was bullied, the bullied child cries, loses self esteem, doesn’t want to go to school.

If OPs son has indeed bullied this other boy- then i’m sure the parents are at their wits end.

oP needs to say what happened before the parents cornered her child - had they asked him to stop? Had they spoke to him nicely about it? Did he run? Not the best way of dealing with things but sometimes the only way - OP doesn’t seem to be able to step up - not even mentioned what her DS had actually done - she must have asked? She is deflecting his bad behaviour as so often bully parents do.

Thewitchsong · 29/09/2025 16:14

JadziaD · 29/09/2025 13:52

We had a similar situation. And of course, as it turns out, in fact, the other parent's child was the bully and trouble maker.

Interestingly, when DS and this child went to high school, the child attempted the same behaviours. He'd got away with it at primary school of course, and in fact, his mum had come out screaming and yellig and calling my DS names, so he clearly thought this was a strategy that worked.....

..... hahahahahahahahaha. Let's just say it didn't end well for this child.

Bizarrely, even after this, on another occassion, this woman cornered my DS again. There had been an issue and this other child had come up to DS to try and incite him into doing somthing stupid. DS did NOT do something stupid, and the other child and his friend landed up being the ones who did. It was all caught on camera and the school investigated thoroughly. And yet she STILL tried to corner DS. So weird. That didn't go well for her either.

I had the exact same thing hapoen to my dd (I'm going back a few years)

The mother thought the sun shone out of her dds arse and cornered my dd to shout at her to stop bullying her dd

I shot into school and demanded something was done/to tell me if my dd was the bully

The school said mine wasn't but acted like they where shit scared of the mother and where useless (so where the police-I think this woman's surname was 'known' and carried some weight)

They all moved up to secondary and both the mother and dd had a shock as that head wasn't scared of the family name and dealt with the child and her bullying

They are grown up now and she will spend the best part of her years in prison for attempted manslaughter (along with her brothers who are in for attempted murder)

But not their/her fault according to their mother who has 3 out of 4 of her dc in prison

usedtobeaylis · 29/09/2025 16:13

Adults cannot 'corner' children within even attempting to speak to the parent first. Come on.

Allthatshines1992 · 29/09/2025 16:13

Rosie5832 · 29/09/2025 13:31

At a classmate’s birthday party, my child was cornered by the parents of another classmate. They accused him of bullying their son and told him to stop it. He said he wasn’t doing that and they kept on shouting at him that he was.
After this, he was very upset and was crying inconsolably.
Another parent - the mum of the birthday child - went to his assistance and messaged me telling me to return to the party as my son needed me, and that she couldn’t settle him at all (I had left for an hour). While she was messaging me, these two parents came over to her and told her my son was a bully - he was right there and still crying. She told them to back off. When I arrived, they rushed straight over to me and told me that my son was bullying their son etc. No acknowledgment from them that they had cornered him alone and shouted at him. It was only later at home that he told me what had happened, I called the other mum and she confirmed it, describing the way they approached me as an ‘ambush’. She said the whole party turned into a ‘sh*tshow’ because of the way these parents were behaving, and all the other parents - and probably some of the kids - could see what had happened.
I’m in shock over this. I’m meeting with the school teacher today to alert her to this incident and to make sure my son is kept safe in school.
I want to say something to these parents about their behaviour. Imo they were completely out of line, and all the other mums I’ve spoken to since agree that you never confront a child alone like that, regardless of what issue you have with them.
On the way in to school this morning, my son stopped dead just before the door and said, “why didn’t you stay at the party?”. He was clearly thinking about the whole incident and probably concerned that he would encounter these parents at the school.
Has anyone any experience of this kind of behaviour from other parents?

Let's say your child did bully theirs, they told your child off and stuck up for their child. If someone did this to my child I'd do the same tbh

JudgeJ · 29/09/2025 16:13

goldtrap · 29/09/2025 13:55

Putting aside the bullying question, why are they both (I mean, why either?) at a 7 year old's birthday party (assuming NT child). Was it a sting operation? A setup? Were they hoping to catch your kid in the act?

This sounds like one of those instances where the boys will be the best of friends while the parents are still arguing the toss. Happens a lot in schools.

Anyahyacinth · 29/09/2025 16:11

I’m just wondering if they were asking him to stop certain behaviour and said it was bullying? The details of what the parents were intervening about is missing? If it was harmful behaviour I’m not sure it’s wrong to raise it…is it agreed they were shouting without reason? (I mean loud party or other danger?)