When we hear that someone has had words with our children, often our initial reaction is to leap to their defence and piece the jigsaw puzzle together later on – and this mum’s response to such an incident is providing much food for thought online this week.
Karen Alpert, mum blogger and author at Baby Sideburns, has created quite the conversation with her blog post, entitled ‘Dear stranger who disciplined my kiddo at the playground today’.
In it, Karen recalls an incident involving her son, who happened to hit off a little girl stuck on the monkey bars while he shuffled past like a bit of a pro, at the park.
Now, Karen admits – and regrets – that she was not there to witness this other parent telling her son off for his behaviour (she was tending to a crying child elsewhere at the time), but she has a special message to share with that mother.
“I wasn’t there, but does that give you a right to discipline my kiddo? Does that give you the right to talk to him sternly and tell him to knock it off? Does that give you the right to act like you are the person in charge when he is actually MY child? Ummmm, yes. YES IT DOES,” she writes.
Indeed, Karen is incredibly grateful to this mother, for telling her son to ‘knock it off’ when he was acting like a ‘douchenugget’.
She admits that, while many others would take umbrage over the fact that another adult had dared to discipline their child, she is not annoyed – because she lives by the popular saying assuring us that ‘it takes a village’.
She adds: “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to do my job, so thank you for helping me do it. Sincerely, ‘That kid’s mom’”.
Well, what are your thoughts? Do you agree that, sometimes, it’s necessary to discipline another parent’s child? Let us know in our poll, below.
