Flicking an unknown child for throwing rocks at terrapins

[Rafterplease]

I'm sitting in a pub and we are discussing an AIBU of one of the group.

Here's the scenario:

L is in Greece. There's a park with a pool and terrapins in it. A kid - roughly seven - is throwing rocks at the terrapins. The kid is blond but probably Greek. L is standing next to the kid and, fairly gently, instinctively flicks the kid with the back of her hand and says (in English) 'don't do that'. There was no parent in sight. The kid ran away.

L just didnt think, acted totally on instinct. She feels very guilty about doing this. Should she be beating herself up over it?

Turtley freaked out

Ooh I've been to that pool. .

why is it relevant that the boy was blond? would it be different if it was a girl - with red/brunette hair?

sorry but I had to LOL at some of the comments especially reference to Mrs Godzilla

some of the posters who are up in arms about this are probably the ones I see not parenting their kids in the park who are busy terrorising ducks and pigeons while they sit merrily ignoring their DC and gossiping/texting.

A seven year old should know not to hurt animals. a little tap to get his attention and tell him to stop is NOT child abuse or of lasting damage.

terrapied
turtley freaked out

^ wheezing now, please stop!

Shell we just say that tortoisely hurting either a terrapin or a child is wrong?

I want 'L' to come here and flick all the children who kick pigeons whilst mummy and daddy beam with pride.

The OP and her friends won't be back. I should think they've left the pub and gone terrapin bowling...

I told a little sod boy off who was tormenting a pigeon with a stick. Wouldn't have smacked him though.

He told his mum, who tapped him with the stick and told him off too.

Shelly this has tortoise all that we can't flick random kids.

Pity really.

phantomnamechanger - shell-shocked?

Amphibian a bit sorry for OP.

chopin it is not illegal to smack a child in the UK.

She shouldn't have flicked him, how shell-fish of her!

Scarletohello

I hope I have misunderstood you, when you seem to say that you condone physical violence, as it would have been too difficult to do anything else as the young boy didn't speak English!

So, it's ok to flick, slap, thump anyone to whom you need to convey disapproval, if they can't understand English. It really does seem as if some posters are stuck in a time when 'giving the back of the hand' to children was ok and if a victim didn't understand English; well, they could understand the universal language of assault.

MyFairyKing. I thought it was illegal to smack a child and if, as you say, it's not well it jolly well should be!

Children should never be assaulted.

Huge leap from a gentle flick to a slap or a thump.

Terrapins should never be pelted with rocks.

Children should never be assaulted.

Neither should animals.

I interpreted the gentle flick as a sort of shooing motion that made brief, gentle - the OP does say gentle, contact. Which is considerably better that having a rock hurled at one.

Is 'L' just a nickname for the friend? Because now I'm imagining this AIBU from the perspective of the abused creature: "Hi, I'm a terrapin, and this is Michelle..."

why is it relevant that the boy was blond? would it be different if it was a girl - with red/brunette hair?

Because if it was a dark boy, it would have been racist. Obviously.

I'm betting the OP is long gone but my answer's the same regardless.

She took a massive overstep of the mark by flicking the kid. Wrong anywhere, law of all things kid means there's a mother or authorised grown up somewhere.

Weirdly the OP seems to say it's almost OK to have done so give the kid was forrin. That' alone is gonna nail her.

Oh dear.

I am the OP.

Sorry for not returning until now. As many of you suspected, I was hanging out with friends and did not imagine this would have gathered this many replies!

A few points in response:

• THE FLICK. As I am not L herself, I can only go by what she was doing in the pub to demonstrate. It's quite hard to describe. I'm not sure I can describe it any better than I did above, sorry – it was fairly gentle, with the back of her hand facing the direction of motion and fingers splayed out. It would not have hurt the child. It probably would have startled the child (which was of course the point)
• The comment about the child being blond: I thought it was relevant whether the child spoke English or not, as L does not speak Greek. As this whole thing took place in Greece, we assumed that the child was Greek and did not speak English, but of course that is just an assumption. I don't know how many Greeks are blond but to me it made it a bit less open-and-shut that he wouldn't speak English (as it seemed a bit more likely he might be a foreigner). On reflection I'm not sure even if he'd definitely spoken English it would have changed L's actions
• L and I were expecting a far rougher, more condemning response. There's a lot of support for terrapins out there
• I didn't know what terrapins were before tonight. Huh.

I'm with the drunken asbo delinquent terrorist child abuser btw. And the cuntish terrapins.

Actually full on snorting with laughter.

Oh for God's sake some of you, lighten up. It's not assault or abuse to get someone's attention by touching them.

No wonder so many kids are monsters these days.

My seven year old boy is also blond but American, not Greek. I encourage you to flick him if you see him throwing rocks at animals!

If I found out somebody flicked my child to get them to stop hurting an animal, I would

A) Be very grateful that they had stopped awful behaviour when I'd been unable to
B) Not be in the slightest bit bothered that they'd flicked/tapped them (honestly wouldn't have occurred to me as an issue at all, had I not read this thread)
C) Be utterly mortified at my child's terraple behaviour...