Saw a mother smack her 3 yo today

[Louisep]

In Ikea, all he was doing was whining she smacked him hard on the bottom and told him to behave. I looked at other shoppers aghast and no one looked in the least bit perturbed.

Thanks for being gentle with your LOs. I feel so bad for that little boy.

[philomom]

Ah, yes. You will find it hard to find non-spanking families there. There's still a prevailing "dominion over the children"
mentality.Trust me, I lived there for 15 years.

[Babina's Mommy]

Awww poor boy. Now with me, if my daughter is acting out in a store, I pick her up, try to talk to her, etc. and I'm afraid other shoppers are going to look at me like I'm a bad parent, for spoiling, for not being strict or angry enough.

[Louisep]

Originally Posted by Babina's Mommy

Awww poor boy. Now with me, if my daughter is acting out in a store, I pick her up, try to talk to her, etc. and I'm afraid other shoppers are going to look at me like I'm a bad parent, for spoiling, for not being strict or angry enough.

Ha, that's me totally too. I always feel like that at the playground especially.

[Jaesun's Dad]

Ikea brings out the best in people. I saw a mom once yelling and screaming at her little boy because he was doing exactly what little boys do: explore stuff. He wasn't do anything bad, he was just crawling under furniture and stuff. I was a kid once, I remember doing that too! 20 minutes later I saw her literally dragging the poor kid by one arm. She was walking *fast* and the poor guy must have been having a heck of a time trying to keep up with those little legs. I felt bad for him, too.

Of course just to get from the entrance of Ikea to the registers is an expedition, but the do have a little courtesy child care area, at least in the Emeryville CA store, probably for this very reason.