To have said something to this awful mother?

[Nicola19]

I was in the shop tonight round six, a guy was behind me and i noticed a little girl around five walking slowly down an aisle. Suddenly i was startled to death by the loudest 'No!!!!!' and i looked round to see her mum. I expected to see an angry face after that outburst but she looked quite neutral. The girl put back whatever she'd been holding. The guy behind looked at me with wide eyes. The little girl then sidled up to her mum in the queue and her mum shouted, 'i said no, stop asking for things!' and as the girl stepped away from her mum kicked out making contact with her heel, making her knee give way slightly.

I made eye contact with the lady in a fearful kind of way. All throughout it the girl never made a peep. Should i have said something? I used to be braver when i was younger but now dont seek confrontations. Just feel so badly for the poor child! WWYHD?

[mrsjay]

all my advice is in hindsight though It sorts of fades over the years how annoying it was. but I had to ignore her or i would have strangled her got very cross,

[Soupa]

The mother kicked her child? There is no justification. I would report to social services and hope it was on the security footage. It awful, horrible behaviour. It does make you wonder what happens at home.

[freddiefrog]

Kicking is never ok, but I have had similar 'no, no, no, for gods sake NO!!!!' meltdowns after I've trailed my way round Sainsbury's hearing 'can I have?' every 2 seconds.

I also whacked my daughter in the face completely by accident once, we were in Sainsbury's one Sunday afternoon getting a chicken and a bag of spuds for a roast dinner, she was behind me nagging to get her ears pierced and I got fed up with hearing it for the millionth time, spun round to face her, didn't realise how close behind me she was and elbowed her in the face. Total accident and I immediately apologised, but I got a lot of dirty looks and tuts

[ChunkyChicken]

Gecko generalising much??!!! If I'd said "the problem with American kids is they only get burgers for dinner" or "the problem with French kids is their parents drink too much", people would call me judgemental, potentially racist and wrong. So how about you keep that particularly judgement to yourself?

OP, this is why, when I walk around shops telling my 3yo DD off about asking for things, I add full sentences for the benefit of every listening judging person in the vicinity: "No DD, I told you, no already, I can't buy that for you because you have 3 at home" etc etc etc However, deliberately kicking a child is unacceptable, and I guess that if the Mum was aware that she'd done that accidentally, she could/should have said "oops, sorry".

[rambososcar]

God help us if we live in a world where parents can't "shout" NO to the poor little darlings occasionally. You would be entirely unreasonable to say something to the parent about that or even to question whether you should. Some children touch constantly, one of mine included, and some parents, myself included, think it's bloody bad manners and bad behaviour. The "kick"? I don't know. It's less clear what the intention was or whether that was deliberate. If it was a deliberate kick it's not acceptable but not the worst thing in the world that a badly behaved child got a tap on the heel "making her knee give way slightly".

NB, "shouting"- do you mean using a stentorian tone? Shouting in a supermarket would be unusual from most people.

[pictish]

To add, British children are so disrespectful imo, they don't get proper, consistent disipline at home.

And the What A Clanger award for the most outlandish comment of the week goes to.....

[Cakecrumbsinmybra]

And you gecko, are an idiot.

[Goldenbear]

I think wide eyes is entirely appropriate if someone is kicking their child. I can't figure out how you would 'accidentally' kick someone in that scenario. How many adults walk around kicking their legs about in shops- not something I've ever seen. I've seen plenty of parents being arseholes though that seem to have no control over their anger when it comes to their own children but would exercise self discipline if an adult made them angry. I have and I would say something about obvious cruelty like that!

[SooticaTheWitchesCat]

I'm sure I have been really loud saying "No" on many occassions so I don't think that is really a problem. Kicking a child is not acceptable though.

I'm not sure I would have said anything either, you never know how someone is going to react and I am not usually very confrontational.