It’s 3 am and I finally got out of bed after tossing and turning for more than an hour in cold sweats. I couldn’t sleep, not after what happened tonight; not after what I saw tonight.
I saw a child being beaten by his mom, in public.
As if possessed by devils, the mom beat the child like it’s nobody’s business, never mind the shocked eyes of the people inside the same room. In one corner of the room, my 7 year old daughter sat silently.
Then she let out soft sobs.
I am a parent to a seven year old (with another on the way soon). We never had to go to the extent of ‘spartan’ discipline; raising hands or using something to beat her. Thankfully, Pristine never gave us that chance to be ‘possessed by devils’. She is well behaved. I always say a silent prayer every night and thank the heavens for we are not challenged much with our parenting with her (as of now!). If you’ve met her, you’ll know.
But as a mom, I admit I’ve had my share of frustrations when she was little. She’s a normal child in every way and we passed the terrible two’s and the terror three’s, whatever you call it.
Everything wasn’t easy and smooth and I am never the perfect mom but I know, believe and have realized earlier that beating a child would NEVER silence him or her.
The child we saw tonight is three years old. The mom is an old mom (as she admitted), in her mid-forties and having a three year old ‘frustrated’ her. The child wanted something and was crying, wouldn’t listen to her. She started beating her child until his precious little face turned red – obviously to silence his cries. Obviously, the child cried more and made the situation worse. The mom shoved a bottle with milk to pacify him. And told him to shut up, shut up and close his eyes!
I was looking at her as if begging, stop beating your child, you’re killing him! To which she replied, with hands flailing in the air, eyes rolling to the ceiling, “I’ve had enough! This child is killing me!”
Really, bitch? Sorry but a mom too mean like that don’t even deserve to be called a “mom”. I’d really love to say as I cradled my own daughter who was deeply hurt by the scene,
You are killing your son!! Physically, not yet but with the rate you are beating him, you will kill him soon. If he survives the physical beating, you are killing his confidence, killing all the love in his heart for you. In return, all the love he will have for another person when he grows up dies too.
If this mom can beat her young son in public like that, I don’t want to know what she does at her home, in closed doors. I cringe at the thought of the three year old boy who couldn’t choose his own mom, who has to live in that terror everyday of his young life.
After the mom told the boy to lie still with his bottle, she left the room. Five minutes later, the boy got up and headed to the door, crying “mommy, mommy”. I called him, opening my arms and offered comfort (and candies) to lure him out of the door because I know if the mom comes back and see him not “sitting still or being quiet”, another round of beating is in the cards.
The boy looked at me, his eyes inquisitive, like he has not seen someone with open arms, or never heard a gentle voice. Suddenly he didn’t know the emotions I showed, he is alien to them. He ignored me and continued to call out for his mom again.
Unbelievable as it may seem, despite being beaten red, the child looked for his own mother. Here you see a little human being not giving up on love, not giving up trying hard for a cradle, a hug or a soft touch. My heart tore to pieces. How can someone sleep well at night after seeing a scene like that?
In the end, it’s easy to be judgmental and write a blog post like this some will say but for me, whatever the circumstance, if you are a parent, hurting your child, especially in public is disgusting behavior. It doesn’t show the public how good you are. It doesn’t justify your fatigue with child rearing, nor it is an excuse because you’ve had enough.
Some parents realize that they shouldn’t have become parents in the first place only until they have children. People who don’t know where to draw the line between discipline and child abuse.
And out there, there are plenty of them. What a sad, cruel world.
Finding Backroads 
This post has made me cry. In fact, tears are still rolling down my face. I think if I was there I would have intervened. I would have rather her beaten me then the child. How sad…. I don’t think I would have been able to sleep either.
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This is atrocious! I’m so glad you said something to her. It really irks me to the core that grown adults feel the need to beat on little children for any reason. What would possess a 5’6 person to hit a 3 foot person? pick on someobody your own size. She knows the child can’t fight back. Unbelievable.
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When I was little my mother took her leather work strap to me. I remember running away from her and falling down and trying to crawl away as the belt came down on my bare legs. Days later welts developed from the metal circles on the belt. My grandparents were baby sitting me of course noticed. When my mother came to pick me up my grandfather told her if she ever hit me like that again they would never talk to her again. She never used the belt on me again but here, over 30 years later, I still remember it.
That being said I think people need more than a dirty look. They need to be told outright what they are doing is wrong. But at the same time it needs to be recognized that not everyone has the same coping skills. The woman obviously needed to be told and needed to be told there was help out there. ie. “I’ll watch your kid for 15 minutes if you want to go collect yourself”.
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How truly sad!
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OMG. I can certainly understand the anger and frustration that the woman in your account might have felt. I think we’ve all been there as mothers but I hope she can get some help to control her emotions and learn to discipline her child in non-abusive ways.
That poor kid…
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seen many same situations like that here. I once saw in a mall a father just to stop his boy from crying gave a right jab on the boy’s ear, I know that from that point the boy could lose his sense of hearing and he cried all the more.
It’s really heartbreaking to see them do that.
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Good grief, why do people like that have children?
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Got teary-eyed after reading your post! Honestly I’m really emotional when it comes to children. And I felt really sad for the little boy. I hope he will not grow up like his mother. This is really sad and disturbing but this is truly happening all over the world most especially to poor countries.
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I, too, am crying at reading this post. The poor dear child, I shudder at what his life holds for him. I commend you for your efforts to console and offer love and a place of comfort to him.
I pray for a change in his young life so that he learns how to love.
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ohh this is really sad how could any mother do this?:(
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