Saw something v sad in Hyde Park today - still thinking about it.

[Milomonster]

I was sat in a bench in Hyde Park today and a little boy of around 2.5-3 was scooting happily on his scooter with his father behind him. A few minutes later, the child walked past and was crying whilst his father was a few feet in front of him with scooter in his hand. He seems pretty angry. They walked towards the mother and the father picked up his other child’s scooter (second child had been standing with his mother all along) and put both of them in the bin. I was gobsmacked. I just don’t understand his reaction to such a tiny child. I just remember how happy and carefree the boy was as scooter past.

I looked in the bin and they were brand new and expensive (not that that matters at all). I thought of those poor kids and how they must get treated if this was a snapshot of their father.

What an arsehole.

Yes it is unfortunate and so sad. some kid have dreadful parents
Some adults are mean spirited and emotionally and physically cruel
But encouragingly what’s you witnessed isn’t the norm

That's awful. Whatever could have prompted the father to do that?

You don’t know anything about it.

I

You don’t know anything about it

Doesn’t look great though, does it?!!

What a prick. What did the mum do?

I understand OP. We've just come back from holiday and I witnessed a man really shouting at his Ds and raised a hand to him. Almost hit him. There was a woman with a baby too. All because the boy hadn't come out of the sea quickly enough
People will come along and say you don't know anything about the situation, but I know how I behave towards my children and when you see something so opposite to how you'd behave, it tends to stay with you.

Are you sure they didn't come back for them?

I would confiscate my child’s scooter if they rammed people’s ankles with it after a warning (or two).
If he was very rich I imagine binning and getting another in a few days might be the same effect.

Did you rescue them out of the bin? (after the family had left of course)

take the scooters out of the bin and donate to a charity

Are they Arab? What kind of question is that meant to be?
Stereotyping at its best

You can consider me as one of those “rich Arabs” and I wouldn’t do that. The issue here isn’t throwing an expensive scooter, it’s being over the top and acting unnecessarily to make a 2/3 year old upset. The dad probably has anger issues but obviously it’s hard to know based on what you saw, and certainly not very nice!

Legacies are made from what we do today. The man will regret it when its too late.

Weird. There's some very weird people in London......

The father sounds like a knob.

Believe me its not just the rich that do this. I witnessed the same thing at the bus stop last week. Three year old having a tantrum mum picked up the scooter and put it in the bin. Then got on the bus with the screaming child. I was gobsmacked.

You never know. He might be a total bastard or that 2/3yo might actually be 5/6yo and have been very naughty and hurt someone. My friend has a dd so little that she looked like a 2/3yo when she was 6.

He might be a total bastard or that 2/3yo might actually be 5/6yo and have been very naughty and hurt someone.

But to throw the scooter in the bin, along with the scooter of the other child who presumably wasn't doing anything wrong?

Confiscate (if the first child had been naughty) yes. Just chuck away, that's wrong on so many levels.

My friend has a dd so little that she looked like a 2/3yo when she was 6

When I was 6 people kept telling my mum I looked three. I was tiny.

Not something I would ever do personally but really its not much worse than confiscating it, if they can't behave safely with them then its better they that they just don't have one for now.
You have no idea how they're treated at home, they could be very happy, loved and cared for.

Throwing one scooter in the bin and then retrieving it after a couple of minutes as a lesson for a naughty child. Okay, I can see a strict father doing that.

Throwing both scooters in the bin and abandoning them? That sounds abusive to me.

Um, it's not about Londoners.

that's the kind of thing my dad would have done in anger. Just wankers. What did the mum do?

I stayed at the bench for a good 40 minutes after and looked in the bin - they were still there. It did cross my mind that I hoped they could be given to charity. It was a huge deep bin and it wasn’t possible to climb in. I hope the bin men retrieve them and someone gets the benefit of them. The other boy was around 6 and was stood with his mother all along. The time between the boy scooting past happily and returning in tears was less than 5 minutes.

Mother stood and watched. Father stormed ahead like a stroppy idiot.

They won't forget this. I had a similar experience when my dad tried to teach me to ride a bike when I was little. He screamed at me and made me so upset that my mum locked my bike away and wouldn't let him anywhere near it ever again. I never showed any interest in riding a bike again and can remember that day pretty clearly even now.