To think the punishment doesn't fit the crime and wonder are we really this intolerant

[ohforsucksfake]

man pours drink over toddler

So an angry punter pours a drink over a grizzling 15 month old in a pub, and then kicks the mother when she reacts, he gets a fine. I think he should have received at least a short custodial sentence for assaulting a baby and an adult.

Also raises the question, should we be more or less tolerant of children? Judging by some of the comments people obviously think he was justified. Personally I think we could all be a bit more tolerant of children. Yes they can be very annoying, and yes sometimes adults just want to escape kids. But there ARE places you can go where children are either not allowed or very unlikely to be. Also while they can be annoying, they are part of society, part of life, there are lots of things in life that are.

I flew back from holiday recently and there was a very grizzly baby who cried for about the first hour, although I found the cheesy flight attendants, the stink of aeroplane food at 2.00am more annoying than the baby.

If mothers were sat drinking out of cans or bottles next to a playground area in a park would that be acceptable?

I wish we had more of a meditteranean attitude towards children

But that's such a cliche!

Would we want our children having a kip around 2:30 pm, just so they could be running around the street at 10:00 pm (that was the norm when I lived in Spain)

we would need the weather to adopt it better, that is for sure

why shouldn't children go to pubs? what exactly is the problem?

they aren't smoke filled anymore.

cozy i dont really see the point of the play areas either but the pub this is about didnt have one its just a family eating bar type place

point of play area = children play, whilst adults enjoy pint, lunch and chat

She should have knocked the bastard out. I would have had NO problems chinning the old shit.

She should have knocked the bastard out.

I see we have another Weatherspoons regular!

I've never set foot in a wetherspoons...we don't have them here so I'm not even sure what they are. But I would have certainly defended my toddler from a shit like that.

complex lol :)

ALl these comments about children shouldn't be in pubs etc are right if you are talking about the evening. Adults wanting their own time away from loud children is fair enough then. However, in the day that's unreasonable. Lunch and a drink in a restaurant or pub at lunch time is something families should be able to do without being cat bummed or assaulted. If adults want peace and quiet then they have free range later on. Children exist. We do not live in Victorian times where they are seen and not heard. Any other thinking on this is just being intolerant and miserable. Remember we were all kids once.

The DM comments are full of unmitigated twattery at times. People who think that children are grown in tanks and emerge at 18 or something. People who seriously claim that they "controlled their children" and "never allowed their baby to cry" etc. That said I once had a catsbum face old dear tell me in a shop that her kids never ever spoke or made a noise in public without being spoken to, not even when they were babies in a pram That was when DS1 was talking away (not screaming or anything) in the pushchair while queueing to pay. There is a lot of intolerance toward children and it's rubbish.

"Would we want our children having a kip around 2:30 pm, just so they could be running around the street at 10:00 pm (that was the norm when I lived in Spain) "

Sounds fab to me As long as there was no work to be up for.

In absolute seriousness, if someone had done that to my son I would have to have been dragged off them. What a see you next Tuesday.

He is a massive knobhead, no doubt about it.

However I find it ironic that he was so bothered by the baby's behaviour (whining for his mummy by the sound of it) that he ended up chucking his pint over said baby and then kicking the mother up the arse. This is the sort of behaviour that you'd expect from a toddler. Infact my son (who is the same age as this little boy) has done exactly this before. Chucked his drink at me, then hit me when I told him off

I think he should have got a bigger fine and some hefty community service. Somewhere noisy and annoying. He should also avoid Wetherspoon pubs in the future. IME they generally noisy, allow children to eat there and are no place if you want a quiet lunch.

complex I don't frequent weatherspoons, and i can honestly say if i saw someone doing something quite so aggressive to my child i would want to hurt them, and i think i would do it before i even thought about it.

I do not think it would be possible for me to be calm when a twat had just done that to my baby, but i'd guess a fair few mothers would too, i would also do it in waitrose, my child is defenseless i would defend him if thought he was in danger, that man was quite obviously a threat.He threw a drink over a baby and then kicked the child's mother.