Today at the playground a young dad showed up with two boys, looking to be probably a 2 yo and a 4yo. They started playing on the same slide as dd and pretty soon I hear dd say "don't DO that!" and I look over to see a scowl on her face as she's squaring off with the 2 yo. I reminded her to play nicely and she says "But he hit me on the head!" The 4 yo chimes up "He hits everybody!"
So I try to distract her and she comes over to talk to me. The 2 yo follows her over, and as she's standing there talking to me thumps her on the head again (!). I leaned into his face and quietly said "No, no hitting. NO hitting please." He's staring into my eyes and taking it in pretty appropriately. About this time his dad takes notice, yells "NO!", comes over, grabs the childs' hand and slaps it, quite hard.
The boy must have been used to that because he just pulled away defiantly and turned to walk away without any tears or reaction. The dad apologized to me. I smiled and said "Oh no, please. He's just being a baby. That's what they do! It's the age. You just have to keep reminding them over and over and eventually they just grow out of it."
So no big deal. You could see this was a really young father. Other than modeling tolerance and non violent parenting, I wasn't sure what else I might be able to do or say in such a cirucumstance. It felt like an opportunity to intervene or at least educate, and I'm not sure I took full advantage of it.
Any success stories from other parents in such cases?
So I try to distract her and she comes over to talk to me. The 2 yo follows her over, and as she's standing there talking to me thumps her on the head again (!). I leaned into his face and quietly said "No, no hitting. NO hitting please." He's staring into my eyes and taking it in pretty appropriately. About this time his dad takes notice, yells "NO!", comes over, grabs the childs' hand and slaps it, quite hard.
The boy must have been used to that because he just pulled away defiantly and turned to walk away without any tears or reaction. The dad apologized to me. I smiled and said "Oh no, please. He's just being a baby. That's what they do! It's the age. You just have to keep reminding them over and over and eventually they just grow out of it."
So no big deal. You could see this was a really young father. Other than modeling tolerance and non violent parenting, I wasn't sure what else I might be able to do or say in such a cirucumstance. It felt like an opportunity to intervene or at least educate, and I'm not sure I took full advantage of it.
Any success stories from other parents in such cases?
: I said "Yeah, that's completely logical, isn't it?" and kept walking. Not the best choice of words, by far, but I was in shock! She was so mean about it too! You did WAY better than I did! 
