Should I report my neighbour for "man handling" his child?

[theneighbour]

My Ring doorbell captured a neighbour aggressively grabbing his toddler's arm ( she looks about two years old) multiple times. She clearly did not want to walk, and attempted to sit down, at which point he kicked the back of her legs to keep her upright; the kick itself wouldn't have been hard to an adult, but would be for a toddler.

His DD ended up sat on the ground, he wrenched her arm to get her back on her feet a few more times, then hit her on the side of her head when she refused to stand. After that, he walked away leaving her on the ground crying.

He could have easily lifted her up, and carried her home, which is what I often had to resort to with my DS when he was having a tantrum, or just refusing to cooperate.

So, should I report this to social services, or is there another body I can speak to who might best advise me? Also, I'm uncertain as to whether there would be a data breach in sharing the doorbell footage with the relevant authority.

YABU - Mind your own business. He was probably having a bad day.
YANBU - Of course you report it. No harm done if SS deems he acted reasonably.

Do you have the footage? Absolutely report it

This really needs reporting to the police. If he will do that to a child out in public, what the hell is happening to her in private? It goes way beyond lawful chastisement. There is no excuse for kicking a child, or hitting them on the head.

Kicking and hitting a toddler ?? Are you joking?

Social services obviously.

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong how the hell can an actual slap on the head and a kick be 'provoked?'

No wonder she is badly behaved if that is the example she has to follow every day! Not a nice man!

It sounds a little over the top, but is the kind of thing that upsets people who have never had children and experienced a public tantrum.

"No harm done if SS deems he acted reasonably." is sadly not true. It's Russian Roulette with someone else's family.

I am a police officer, please report it to the police. We would absolutely deal with this and also liaise with social services. This family could already be known to them and this is the finally bit of evidence they need to act. Police will probably want to look at your footage and then go from there. Far to many people turn a blind eye to things like this and the reality is if that is happening in public what on earth is happening in private. Please act on this, it sounds excessive and violent.

There’s no justification for being ‘provoked’ into hitting and kicking a 2 year old. That’s abusive, pure and simple. It’s made me think of CCTV that gets shown in court in cases like poor Star Hobson- who was dragged along the road when she could barely walk (turned out she had a broken leg). I thought you were going to say he was pulling her along by the arm or something- which can be subjective obviously as we’ve all had to try and wrangle toddlers to go in directions they don’t want to go. But what you’ve described sounds horrific. Definitely the right thing to report.

What does the poster mean who says it may be provoked ? A grown man hitting and kicking a 2 year old is NEVER acceptable under any circumstances.
The man needs to be reported to the police and social services.
Please op report this incident immediately.

If you've got video evidence of aggression, absolutely report it. I'm sure many of us have had to wrangle an uncooperative toddler, it's not always possible to do so gently, but that's not the same as kicking and hitting.

Seeing someone hit and kick a toddler upsets normal people, including parents whose own children have had tantrums.

What always worries me is that if they do that in public what on earth goes on behind closed doors?

I get that sometimes you just have to grab them by the arm and pull them along but there's no excuse for kicking and hitting in the head. That's really shocking behaviour. I couldn't ignore that in good conscience.

Well obviously you report someone hitting a toddlers head and kicking them. I can't believe you need to ask.

You're title makes it sound like an ordinary difficult toddler episode with parent a bit fed up but doing their best

Absolutely report this assault.

It is illegal to hit a child like this. Technically it’s not illegal to hit or smack your child if it’s deemed a “reasonable punishment” and it doesn’t leave a mark. But a grown man kicking, hitting and yanking the arm of a toddler is not reasonable punishment.

As if he kicked her! Report this!!!

Oh god this makes me
Feel sick, trust me, if this is what he does in public, it'll be worse at home.

It upsets me and I have a child with SEN who regularly has massive meltdowns in public which are very frustrating and hard to deal with. I’m also a children’s social worker and regularly see and hear about truly horrific abuse. But this still upsets me.

don’t let people down play this type of behaviour.

If it was just the arm pulling, I'd leave it as some light man handling can be needed with toddlers (eg. To stop them running off), which can sometimes look worse then it is.

The hitting and kicking I would 100% report, there is no excuse for that.

Aa a one off we have all been there. ... if you suspect abuse you should report.

Plus. As an aside Your ring doorbell ahould not be anle to recird your neighbours. Thats an invasion of privacy

We have not all been there! I’m on my third child and our second can be incredibly difficult to manage. Never have I kicked her and hit her head. Even once is completely unacceptable and abuse!

You witnessed child abuse and hopefully still have evidence of it!! Report it to police and SS, NOW!

I have never, ever been there.

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong
Are you 100% sure what you saw was unprovoked?
Provoked by a 2yr old? get a fuckin grip of yourself

Arent you lucky