To wish I could send this woman a bunch of flowers?

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www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/mum-who-hit-boy-12-8022761

So, a group of 20 or so kids are throwing mud and rocks at people using the river. A paddleboarder remonstrates with them, they argue back and she hits one with a paddle.
I think she's very brave. And the journalist doesn't think of asking the family how they feel about their son/grandson enjoying himself chucking rocks at people! It's all, poor boy.
If I knew where she lived, I'd send her a bunch of flowers.

What would help them is having parents who gave a shit

That black boy has now seen first hand what his mum meant when he told him to not join in with his white friends when they mess about because he’ll get the blame (standard advice, I’m assuming he’s had it). If he’s 12, he’s learned the lesson early enough. It’ll serve him well.

I did think ‘I bet the one who was hit didn’t throw anything because usually the actual perpetrators in a group are too smart to be caught’ .

Again, I don’t agree with the mum’s violence.

Well said!

Absolutely. How do we do that then?

Bunch of scummy kids with no parental control from parents so this happens, control your kids they might not get hit with a paddle.

It's amazing how many people defend bad behaviour until it effects them.

Actions have consequences.

Theres no question that an adult can't hit a child but I have sympathy to the women in question. It really annoys me that this is turning into a racial incident when it's a case of incredibly badly behaved children. Again this woman was wrong but parents need to have a closer look at the children that they are raising. I have a small child but would like to think I would be very proactive at disciplining my child do that they know throwing rocks is not acceptable. Interesting spelling of Antoine.

I mean kids who are violent are often reflecting the adults in their life who are violent. So what would help the woman's child in this instance would be not having a violent mother.

But sure let's carry on excusing an adult assaulting a child with a heavy object

Where does it say the boy who was hit with the paddle wasn’t throwing stones?

If I was him I'd have said I wasn't throwing stones as well.

It just says that he was the one who squared up to her when she told them off.

The poster banging on about this yesterday linked multiple articles. In one of them it confirmed from the court case that this child had not actually been throwing stones. And other children told the woman that but she ignored them and still assaulted him

Little shit deserved it, hopefully he’ll think twice in future

What would help them is better parenting @Pumperthepumper , how about they step up ?

Okay so do you keep letting people throw rocks at you, if you throw rocks at people the consequence is that someone may assault you is it right no, but it's not unexpected to get assualted after assaulting someone

Give the woman a medal.

It absolutely would, yes. How do we do that?

It just says that he was the one who squared up to her when she told them off.

So, he wasn't throwing rocks & mud. Just his weight around at being remonstrated by an adult? And was pushing her? Sounds like the hit with the paddle was accidental rather than her running up and smacking him round the head with it. If he wasn't there with the other little gits, then decided to 'square up to her' after being - rightfully - told off the incident would not have happened.

Not saying she was right. Just that nobody was blameless here.

No, you move away and you call the police,

Because that is how an adult deals with a violent situation.

You don't wade into a group of teens shouting and swinging an oar.

I remember when this happened, the kids was on tv with his mum claiming he did nothing wrong and it was a racist attack.

I am glad she kind of got away with it, though a £500 fine isn’t really getting away with it. Kids no longer have any fear of adults, when we were kids we were scared of what would happen if we pissed off an adult but now kids know that no one can legally lay a finger on them or even verbally abuse them. I remember getting whacked with a piece of wood at school by a teacher, probably not quite as bad as a paddle but almost 🤣.

Yes I don’t agree with violence but I would protect my family if a bunch of kids were throwing things at them.

What if that group keeps following you do you just let them do what they want, things come to a head and if these scumbags weren't doing what they did non of this would have happened. Remember they instigated this.

We all know that adults hitting children risk criminal charges, but I have some sympathy for the woman. If someone was lobbing rocks at my children in a way that could seriously harm them and I couldn’t get them out of harms way quick enough, I’d try to make the perpetrators stop in whatever way I felt was most effective.

@Againstmachine What if you walked away and they didn't follow? What if you walked away into a shop or got into your car, or to a more populated area where they wouldn't follow?

We could 'What if' for a while, but I believe there were probably a lot of options available to her that were better than whacking another person round the head with an oar.

Imagine if they'd threw a rock and hit someone on the head, hurt them and then they drowned.

Little bastards.

If someone threw rocks at my kids I'd of twatted them with the paddle also.

Yes it's wrong but ffs, 20-30 youths throwing rocks at people in the water. That is so dangerous, intimidating and just fucking vile behaviour.

If that was my child who'd done that I'd of made them give that £500 to a charity or straight back.

How bad was the wound on his head I don't think it said? Didn't see anything about it being a serious wound?

12 is old enough to know right from wrong and face consequences.

She walked away multiple times, they didn't follow, she kept coming back getting more and more wound up until she assaulted one of them