To think any parent would do the same? Or am I bonkers

[Doritosandsourcream]

On holiday in the buffet eating dinner all I could hear was my son crying walking from the bar with his juice in his hand. I thought oh maybe he fell over so DH went over to him. Turns out that this little girl that has been picking on him for the past 2 days her dad has grabbed DS and twisted arm so tight he broke his skin and dug his nails into him. (German family)

DS has been coming to me about her saying she keeps pushing him and sticking her fingers up since they arrived. DS finally got annoyed and pushed her back earlier on in the day and she told her dad. So dad got his own back on DS.

I ran over to DH as he was shouting at the dad and the dad was just smirking and something just came over me and I punched him in the face.

Never in my life have I punched anyone and I didn’t think about the consequences at the time I just kept looking at my son he was in flood of tears.

It was the weirdest feeling I have never felt adrenaline like it.

aibu? How would you have handled it? The hotel did absolutely nothing.

In what world does violence = fostering respect?

I'm concerned for your son in all of this, op. The man will survive and have a story to tell his friends back home of the stereotypical, rowdy Brits abroad with their terrible parenting and the ridiculous situation that resulted in him taking a punch to the face. He may even be able to laugh about it now, who knows.

Your son, on the other hand, has experienced his parents completely losing control and resorting to violence to solve a problem. He has also probably listening to your veiled xenophobia whilst on holiday - something along the lines of "they're different to us"), which will also leave it's mark on his impressionable young mind.

May I ask, what was his reaction to this scene? My DS would be inconsolable as violence is not something that forms part of our everyday life. Let me guess, he wasn't disturbed in the slightest by your behaviour because he's seen it all before. Desperately sad.

Every child deserves a mum who would punch someone for them!

I don't know. My teenage children now beg me not to "call the school and go apeshit" or, "please don't go over to that person and have a massive go" whenever I feel our peaceful lives have been interfered with. I am known for losing it big time.

That's informative.
You've still not explained your prejudice.

So the 'picking on him for 2 days' turns out to be just 2 incidents, 1 of which was last nights altercation. You told your son to push this girl. Next time he saw her (last night) he did just what you told him and the father of the girl grabbed him because he was doing it. Sorry, but if you go around pushing little girls you should expect their parents to stop you. You didn't protect your son, you escalated things so your son got hurt.

Has OP confirmed yet whether she actually knows this man is responsible for her son's injuries?

“Also she mentioned he was German to exemplify the entitled rude attitude. We all know what she meant! God forbid anyone ever says “

Hilarious. Coming from (I assume) a Brit.

This

True. I am lucky enough not to meet these types at home or on holiday.

It is an insight into a different world certainly!

Both of my sons would be mortified with embarrassment if was a rough mother who solved everything by punching people. Respect? They’d be horrified that I was so unhinged

My children are now two happy and successful grown women and respect me plenty.
You don't need to pretend you're living in an episode of Eastenders to earn respect from your children.

Punching was possibly ott. No parent would watch their child get hurt without trying to protect them in some way. It’s a natural instinct. Given that your child had been bullied several times by the same family this was the culmination of a series of events.

Quite a few of you need to realise that punching a man in a buffet does not make one Joan of Arc.

You don’t measure parental love in how much you’re prepared to injure a stranger. It doesn’t make you noble, or protective, or a good “mama bear”. It makes you a thug, and you’re teaching your child to be one too.

The AIBU vote and some of these comments are truly depressing.

You’ve made me laugh out loud. Well done, I think I’d have done the same, or at the very least wanted to. It’a child abuse.

You’ve never been a teenager/young adult then?

Violence breeds violence down through the generations. The child is told to push another child then sees his mother punch a man in the face? Disgraceful

Well said

Presumably this is a joke, albeit in extremely bad taste?
After all the comments about how wrong the German man was, what should the little (or even "tiny" as someone described the 6 year old boy) girl's mother have done in response to that?

‘Every child deserves a mum who would punch someone for them’

Oh dear. What an embarrassingly low bar for a parenting standard.

It is not about ‘appearing’ classy. It is about having a considered and intelligent response without giving into your violent instincts. It’s about role-modelling decent behaviour to your children. It’s about using your words to try and achieve the desired consequence. And using what brain cells you may have to think about what might happen if someone retaliates and punches you or your kid harder.

My kids would have been mortified to watch me brawl. They know I have their back when needed and I am incredibly assertive on their behalf when I need to be.

I just don’t need to behave like a thug in doing so.

I guess it varies on the practices and behaviour of your local ‘culture’. For some here, shouting and brawling is normalised. It’s like watching some shit channel 5 show play out live on this thread!

I expect everyone clapped.

I think you have been watching too much Eastenders ;-)

Don't let the congratulations on here go to your head OP. You acted in the heat of the moment, the man deserved it, but it was still a really daft thing to do. You're very lucky that you (or more likely your DH) didn't end up in a very violent exchange where someone could have been badly hurt. You're also lucky the hotel 'did nothing' as being arrested for assault abroad would have not been a great experience.
For the rest of the holiday I'd be keeping my DS under my close eye. Close enough to head it off if he's getting picked on and accompanied at the buffet.

I mean, yeah, obviously we're only getting OP's version of events-same as any story posted on this site. But I find it hard to imagine any situation where it would be acceptable for a grown man to grab a 6 year old, hard enough to leave physical evidence.