Spanking at Playgroup

[lisac77]

Ugh. We had an awful situation today at playgroup. My DS and another little boy were playing with a toy train set. The other little boy is in pretty posessive stage, and he got angry with DS for touching the trains. The end result was that DS got hit in the face with a train.

I ran to DS and started comforting him, while the other little boy's mother grabbed him, took him into another room and spanked him really, really hard It was awful. I could hear the sound of her hand beating his little body.

When she came out, she announced that they were leaving and did so. The two other moms and I were just sitting there, stunned.

I can't get it off my mind. This mom was so upset and angry that I think anything we said to her at the time wouldn't have helped. I'm thinking of writing to the leader of the group to add a non-violence policy to the group's charter. Something along the lines of "In order to help our children learn to navigate personal relationships, please engage in non-violent discipline techniques while at playgroup" or something like that. I mean, for crying out loud, it's an LLL group - there should be no spanking!

Has anyone set up a non-violence policy? I don't want to drop this - I will leave the group if there continues to be violence allowed while playgroup is going on.

[TeaBag]

Wow. I'm so sad for that little boy.

Honestly, having been around parents who spank, including my own siblings, a non-violence statement isn't going to mean much to them. I think, personally, I'd try to find another group.

[charmander]

I would talk to her first before going behind her back and adding a no-violence policy to the charter.

[lisac77]

The thing is, I barely know her and I have no authority in that group whatsoever. If I called her out of the blue it seems like I would be overstepping my bounds. If it came from the group leader, it could seem more like a gentle reminder for everyone rather than directed at the person who spanked her kid at playgroup.

[georgia]

That's one reason I've heard LLL isn't supposed to have "official" playgroups. You can't control what parents do outside of a meeting BTW, I know LLL leaders who spank

[maxwill129]

Ick. People who do this thing in public always make me wonder what goes on inside the home...

Shannon

[annab]

I am sure that she was just embarrassed by her son's behavior and wanted you to think that she was taking it seriously. It sounds like she has few resources on what to do. My mom has this problem in her school all the time. She actually had a parent kick a 5th grader in the rear to try to convey that she was DOING SOMETHING.

You MIGHT be able to say something about "that is how they act at this age. Please don't feel the need to punish him on our account. Eventually they all learn to play together."