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.

I hope you took photos of the injury of your DS.
I think for you to hit him, he has to have really deserved it, as very few women every punch a stranger.
Let's hope he is so ashamed of what he did that the humiliation of reporting he bullied a child and the mum hit Jim makes him think twice before confronting a Mamabear.
Having friends who are Police this would be the highlight of the shift. If he took you to court his friends would find out and he would Never live it down.

Some of the replies on here are really starting to illustrate where a lot of issues in society stem from.

For starters
Why was your kid wandering around alone with a drink
you can’t go round thumping people it’s assault

so here is my story... we went on holiday, during soft play my son and another (older) boy fell out and pushing ensued. I later spoke to the child and said, yesterday was not a good day for you both, im sorry that happened. I would like for today to be better. Can we try to make our holiday a fun experience? After that they both played really well together . No need for violence at all.... im really not understanding this whole situation

im so disgusted my this comment

Saying your are sorry something turned out a certain way doesn't mean you are taking responsibility for that - maybe @user1483387154 just wanted to clear the air and make a fresh start? Sounds mature and sensible and I would appreciate someone saying that to me, if my child had been in a disagreement with another child.

Girl child bullies boy.
Girl bullies boy again.
Boy retaliated.
Girl's dad ASSULTED boy.
Both dad's argue.
Girl's dad won't let boys mum speak, is very rude.
Boy's mum punches girl's dad.

The Assult on the BOY is the police matter and far worse than the punch...

Well done op. I hope I would be brave enough. I know I would be angry enough.
I don't think it's a bad example. I think you are showing your son you'll stand up for him. The man was the one who turned it physical. He raised the stakes. You met him there.

This pride of women in their thuggish husbands and partners is quite disconcerting to see

Tell me about it - though in fairness some of the women don't sound much better

Best avoided really

Girl child bullies boy.
Girl bullies boy again.
Boy retaliated.
Girl's dad ASSULTED boy.
Both dad's argue.
Girl's dad won't let boys mum speak, is very rude.
Boy's mum punches girl's dad.

The Assult on the BOY is the police matter and far worse than the punch...

I've put the parts we are not 100% sure of in in italics, to highlight how we don't know the full story.
Also, the punch as as much an issue as the potential assault (which we don't actually know the dad carried out).
The OP could have prevented this at part 1 or 2 by telling her child to stay away from the supposed bully, but of course she didn't.

Ok so only you OP were the one actually seen to be committing assault.. personally I'd be leaving out of the country quite quickly especially since Spanish police carry guns and have a reputation for not being friendly.
What a daft thing to do.
You should have informed staff at the hotel what had allegedly happened & they could have called the police for you on this man. Now you are the criminal.

A wound which draws blood. Is Assult.
I love how people says oh it never needed to happen are refusing to accept the Assult happened because the girl's dad choose to hurt a child.
No one forced him to.....

@Doritosandsourcream

I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to your little lad.

All these people saying violence is wrong - no sh1t Sherlock. But as parents, we can retreat into our reptilian brain when we see an adult has assaulted our child!

Was it wrong to punch that man in the face? Yes, indubitably. But I bet it felt good 🙈

When the mothereffing c~nt who murdered my son was there, in front of me, if there hadn’t have been all the security etc., I would have leapt over the furniture, into the box and killed him. Pummelled him to death, ripped his eyes out, I better stop. Probably TMI.

Anyway, you did what a lot of people in the same set of circumstances would have done, when presented with some smirking mothereffing w@nker, who not only touched your child, but actually split the skin. And he was probably smirking because maybe he thought that British people (making an assumption that you are British) have too much phlegm and stiff upper lip to do anything but shout. Well, I bet he’ll think twice before doing it again.

The reason that I think a lot of posters are saying that they wouldn’t have done that, they would have phoned the police is because they haven’t, by and large been in that set of circumstances.

And let me just disabuse all those posters saying that crimes against children are strictly punished. No, they aren’t! Perhaps read up on some recent court sentencing involving crimes against children. The complete bullcr@p that defendants come out with is astounding.

Good for you @Doritosandsourcream, if I would have been there, I would totally have had your back. And maybe just grabbed his thumb, accidentally, and oh no, I broke his thumb!

Edit: darn autocorrect!

Presumably for her son’s part in the pushing and shoving?

OP has not said she witnessed the adult even touching the child though, she is going on what the 6 year old said. He had already told her about issues with the girl and was told to 'push' her back, and it is quite possible that injuries resulted from the two children interacting, or that her son was forcefully held back because the other parent witnessed him looking like he was attacking/hurting his daughter. OP should have taken the 6 year old's initial concerns more seriously and kept a closer eye/kept him away from the girl. She could have prevented this escalating.

Obviously it was completely and utterly the wrong thing to do.

But yeah I can't say for sure I wouldn't do the same. You hope you have the time and mindfulness to stop yourself in this kind of situation but can never say for sure.

Get real....
No one thinks a pair of children disagreeing results in an adult male assaulting a 6 year old boy and drawing blood....
The male in the UK would be in so much trouble for doing that to a small child.
So why are people trying to ignor what the male did?

Love it

OP and lots of others seem to think exactly that - that two children disagreeing, possibly in a physical manner, has resulted one parent apparently 'assaulting' a child. It's not about ignoring what anyone did, but accepting that we don't actually know that this is what happened.

@Warum

OP has not said she witnessed the adult even touching the child though, she is going on what the 6 year old said. He had already told her about issues with the girl and was told to 'push' her back, and it is quite possible that injuries resulted from the two children interacting, or that her son was forcefully held back because the other parent witnessed him looking like he was attacking/hurting his daughter. OP should have taken the 6 year old's initial concerns more seriously and kept a closer eye/kept him away from the girl. She could have prevented this escalating.

Exactly. And even assuming that the other parent did “draw blood with his fingernails” - he would have an easier time explaining that to the police:

“I was just trying to restrain the boy who I was worrried was going to attack my daughter again - no idea where his parents were by the way. Of course I didn’t do it purposely but I was genuinely scared for my daughter’s welfare”.

Versus the mum’s excuse for the assault:

”My husband was shouting at him in a language he isn’t fluent in and he was just looking smug and saying sssshhh. So I ran up and punched him in the face”.

Unrelated complete stranger adult grabbed your 6 year old, twisted his arm, broke his skin and dug his nails into his arm? That's just bizarre, what an abusive weirdo. Yea, not surprised you punched him in the face and I don't blame you.

TBH, you probably should have called the police. But I certainly understand why you felt the urge to punch him, and did it.

OP It's amazing eh? Where the adrenaline and anger comes from when your kid is hurt.

I almost did something similar to you.

My teenage daughter was attacked by a very very drunk British woman on holiday once, my dd came screaming into my room telling me what happened. She's never encountered violence in her life. She was all pony club and ballet!

I lost it. The red mist descended me ... I ran out that hotel room in my skimpy jammies and legged it to reception, taking my earrings out as I ran. I'm Scottish, and as a child had many fights! Different times!! Not fought in over 50 years but it all came back!!

A Scouse woman saw me take my earrings out and knew exactly why and grabbed me. Literally bear hugged me to stop me lamping the other woman.

Another lovely woman helped her, and started taking to me in hushed tones and both of them managed to drag me outside.

One of them said "Is that what you want your daughter to see? You rolling about the floor in your PJs battering another woman?"

And BANG that brought me right back to the ground!

I'm eternally grateful to those 2 women. I know a martial art too so most probably would have really hurt her.

You really don't know what you'd do in that situation until you're in it!!

OP you can justify this in your mind however you like, and to be honest I would have wanted to hurt the man if he hurt my daughter BUT you weren't protecting your son. If you saw the man grabbing your child and hit him to get him to let go, that would be protecting your son. Your son was away, he was safe, marked and scared but safe. What you did was revenge or your own version of punishment. It wasn't protection.