Friend's Joke to Her Son

[Zozo1990]

I want to know if this is appropriate because I was deeply uncomfortable but then again I'm not sure if it's my own prejudices and my job that makes me feel this is wrong...

My friend, who I've known for a while told me that she and her husband sat down her seven-year-old son and told him they had something very important to tell him. His older sister and younger brother were present, too. They said to him that he was left as a baby on their doorstep and they had to take him in. They don't know who his real parents are. He was crying his eyes out she said and she was laughing as she's telling me this like it's funny. My heart broke for that little boy. I can't beleive she thought that was funny. I assume she told him this is a joke, she didn't say anything else.

She's also told me in the past she wanted to slap him because he was crying in school and wanted his mum and she found it embarrassing. I found her language quite surprising, but I assumed she was obviously a bit stressed and didn't mean she literally wanted to slap him. Because she normally comes across as very calm, but she has a highly controlling personality.

She sounds like an immature piece of shit.

Poor child. Please have a chat with the safeguarding lead at the school. Safeguarding is everyone's business. You may hold the piece of a puzzle that makes up a larger picture.

People need to stop wrapping her up as nasty, mental, imature etc....shes an abuser no other label needed.

it's totally different. kids are kids, I remember my sister telling my little sister she )older) was an alien who'd been swapped at birth and little sister totally believed her. you corrected it and it's now a family joke. she knows it's a joke.

sitting a kid down for a serious chat to tell him something like that it premeditated emotional abuse.

What the fuck?!! That’s twisted!

Good god! I feel the need to go and remove him 😢😢😢 x1000000

Report the evil bitch.

Evil c&#t.

What a vile woman. Poor kid

When she told you they had done this what did you say / how did you react? I think a natural reaction would be to ask why on earth they would do such a thing.

If you know the school they attend you could send an email to the head teacher. They won’t question the parent or child but it’s to make them aware of a pattern of behaviour and it will be logged

Yeah...I'm not sure what the medically correct terminology is but she sounds like a fucking psycho and somebody needs to be keeping an eye on her and her poor kids. With MN threads I'm often on the side of 'Kids are resilient, they'll get over it, stop being a wet lettuce', but this is well, well beyond the pale.

Agree. I used to tell my DD that if she did not behave I would take her back to the Co-op, where I had bought her (we had a co-op superstore locally where I shopped). She remembers and finds it funny. And it was said as a joke i.e. like found in a cabbage patch, left by gypsies, not a sit-down conversation...OP's friends seem unempathetic in the extreme (also racist in laughing having an Irish accent!).

There used to be some “family” YouTube accounts that would do things like this and label it as playing pranks on the kids. It’s disgusting and a sadistic form of emotional torture.

Mental torture of a child is abuse which is what this horrible pig is doing!

If you see her social media (WhataApp, Instagram), it's all about her kids, days out with them, etc.

She sounds like a sociopath

This. Why on earth would anyone do that to their DC? She must be sick.

You absolutely can and should report.

Action is also taken on accumulated reports. People who notice the little things and taken action.

The burden of threshold may not be met with one single report but you have no idea how many other people have noticed and reported.

If you know the school their ds attends you could report to the dsl. Chances are the school are already aware of issues like this and will have it logged.