to think I would want someone's head too if they slapped my child?

[ThingyTheBusCleaner]

linky

Morrisons shop assistant sacked for slapping a four year old customer. What was she thinking??!!

It was still a ridiculous thing to do mind.

And if I see a child misbehaving I always think along the lines of maybe they're tired, ill, having a grotty 5 mins. I don't assume they're brats

Yup, same here. I normally just feel sympathy for the mother a relief it isn't me, however there are people out there that seem to take children misbehaving as some sort of personal insult.

I just don't understand why people get so bothered, they aren't doing it to ruin your trip to Sainsburys.

Wow there's a shedload of presumptions going on here as usual

Some of These comments remind me of the thread the other day when a Supermarket worker called a child a "Little shit".

I just don't know what Kind of godawful Levels of Patience you must have to hit or call a child a "Little shit" in the normal course of your work.

Maybe the mum is a crap mum. Maybe the child was running wild. But some random checkout Lady actually got out of her seat and smacked/hit/tapped* that child.

again: wtf was she thinking?

*delete as appropriate

I've read the article but not the whole thread, so sorry if this point's been made, but....

I find it really hard to see how when a cashier had threatened to hit my child,I would fail to notice her...getting out of her chair....coming round to my side...and slapping my kid!!?

Seems reeeeeaally odd to me.

Yep. Really odd

Then going to the DM about it for a photo shoot

Odd

I would bet my bottom dollar that had my DS1 have taken that lad into a shop the cashier would not have smacked him, because DS1 is 6ft2 and has spent the last 3 years training to go in to the Army so is built like a brick shit house!

The cashier got above her station. She had no business even threatening to smack the child's legs, let alone carrying it through. Had she have done it to me I would have given her a lashing of my tongue after the threat, but then I am as common as muck!

Gosh I can't be bothered to have conversations with people who

Assume this mum is a liar
Assume the child is a spoilt brat
Assume the worker must have been pushed to do something which ended up with her not having a job.

I don't understand people who always think the worst of a child. I work in a school. It's a good job I'm a lot more tolerant with 4 year olds than some of you on here. I expect you'd think it was ok for me to smack them if they didn't do as they were told

Off to read rtft as I can't believe anyone thinks it's ok that she smacked the child......

Y.Y. Liberal. people who condemn her behavior toward this innocent child are every bit almost as bad.
This retched being was on about a child playing up, yet where was her control when she got up and smacked this child. No 2 ways about it. This was abuse.

Allegedly smacked the child....allegedly....

No don't, it wasn't abuse. Of course it wasn't. It was a smack which was unacceptable, but don't go round labelling stuff abuse when it clearly isn't.

It doesn't help anyone, victims of abuse included.

Those saying allegedly.

Morrisons haven't denied that she smacked the child, which I'm certain they would have done if she hadn't. Who'd want everyone thinking employees of their company go around smacking children? Morrison haven't denied it because it obviously happened.

Was it abuse?
It was an abuse of position IMHO. As an adult against a small child.
It was an assault.
And I agree with a pp that no way would she have done that if the parent had been a 6'+ man. Probably not if it was any man tbh. No matter how the child was behaving or what the parent was doing about it.

I do wonder if the woman concerned has got problems of her own tbh.

It's such a dreadful thing to do. I hope if she needs help and support, she's getting it.

I'm also glad she's sacked. Totally inappropriate behaviour of an adult. Many 3yos are brats when shopping. But you don't go around hitting children of strangers, let alone customers.

ExcuseTypos She probably has but she still had to go!

Apes physically chastise each other's children, perhaps this woman is some kind of missing link.

The argument that the checkout operator was simply stepping I and parenting the child fails dismally simply because smacking isn't generally considered to be an acceptable part of parenting. She stepped in and did something that the majority of parents wouldn't have done.

Also, however unacceptable the child's behaviour was, she should have addressed any concerns she had to his mother if she felt his mother wasn't parenting appropriately. Presumably she didn't do that because she knew she WBU? You don't get to step in and 'parent' someone else's child because that is interfering, not parenting.

Even if smacking were an appropriate behaviour management method and she were an appropriate person to pass comment, she had no idea about what the child might have already gone though that day and you don't deal with one behaviour event in isolation. She didn't know this child or his situation well enough to even know that a sanction would be appropriate on that occasion. That's why parents parent and strangers don't.

She was out of order on a number of levels regardless of the behaviour of the child and whether his mother was dealing with it appropriately.

I hope, if a shop assistant felt it necessary to smack my child, I would be deeply ashamed of my child's behaviour, and feel moved to apologise.

Whatever that child was doing, she had absolutely no right to touch him
I don't care if he was trashing the place and the mother was ignoring it

Well thingy. As far as I'm concerned it's abusive and wrong to hit anyone especially a child.

I find it ironic how so many posters quite rightly don't agree with anyone smacking their dc, that it is assault, it wouldn't have happened had a man been with the child rather than the mother, how the shop assistant deserved to lose her job, all of which I agree with.
However, they then go on to say 'Sacking would've been the least of her worries/I'd have slapped her myself/she wouldn't have done it if my DH, DS built like a brick shit house etc would've been there instead.

What she did was wrong. Hitting or smacking anyone is unacceptable. There is no excuse! She had to be sacked. That much is true, but how are we ever going to get away from teaching our dc that any kind of violence is wrong if we are condoning or suggesting a man built like a brick shit house should have threatened or intimidated her or given her a slap in response??

Why does justice have to involve more violence ffs? She has lost her job. The matter was dealt with correctly. No need for the comments about retaliation in the form of my dad is harder than your dad violence from adult to adult.

Am I the only one thinking 'how?'

Unless the cashier stood up and walked around the cash desk how could she reach the child?

Do you know what, even with all the best parenting in the world, kids play up and behave badly sometimes. It's what kids do, because they are kids.

And anyone on this thread who says their child has never misbehaved in public is not being truthful.

Hitting another human being is ILLEGAL. Does that change when the victim is a small boy.

Nasty, bully of a shop worker. If things were really that bad she should have spoke to the parent not take it out on an innocent child.