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"Assaulted" by a child today


twobears

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Ha ha. Weybridge considers itself far too posh to have a McDonalds :lol: I was in Bognor Regis at the time :wacko: I'd never been there before but now I understand George V's final words i.e. "Bugger Bognor". My sentiments exactly :p

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I should point out that the child hadn't eaten a burger at this stage. He was waiting for one though. Maybe he was so hungry that he was hallucinating that I was a burger? I knew I shouldn't have accessorised today's outfit with a gherkin :wacko::lol:

 

Hullucinating you were a burger.

I heard you were a bit beefy. :lol:

 

:stir::snack:

 

 

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Ha ha. Weybridge considers itself far too posh to have a McDonalds :lol: I was in Bognor Regis at the time :wacko: I'd never been there before but now I understand George V's final words i.e. "Bugger Bognor". My sentiments exactly :p

 

Bogner, now that's a completely different story twobears you were both lucky

 

to get out alive :scare: :scare:.

 

Were you slumming it with Mr twobears by any chance..?? ;)

Edited by WhackyWill
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We are trying to find somewhere to live. Needless to say Bognor hasn't made it onto the short list :wacko: I loved Arundel and there was actually one very nice looking building on Bognor sea front but we didn't find our dream house on this trip. Having fun looking at the various Southern counties though :) Got the chance to drive Stanley for hours as well which was another bonus :D

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This thread reminds me of something I heard Karl Pilkington say on the Ricky Gervais Podcast - along the lines of every other kid supposedly having ADHD or some other behavioural issue these days, but what happened to the old fashioned diagnosis...'Dear Mr and Mrs Smith your son is a little sh*t.'

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God, this sort of thing just beggars belief. if the parents knew of their child's antics meaning, if this is a common occurrence, you'd think they might have a better handle on the matter. Seems they may have the persuasion of people will understand. Not bloody likely. One day that will happen to the wrong person and that kid will get drop kicked out of McDonalds that no happy meal will put right.

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im a youngster at the young age of 23 and can see this country's has gone to the toilet in the last decade, in my child years none of me or my friends would do anything like that as well you had respect (read scared) of adults, but now in more ways than one its turning to a lazy country where most not all before i get that backlash :dry: , and going out public to places like the seaside etc are not pleasant as its just full of Jeremy Kyle benefit families with a couple kids running riot over the place because the parents cant be arsed to deal with them ruining everyones elses day.

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Might you have been wearing something that set the kid off? I was on a bus once (in Spain, wouldn't do public transport here) and a downs kid made a bee-line for me in an aggressive way as I had a had a graphic print of a cat on my t-shirt and the kid had a thing for cats. At least I think that's how the kid's guardians explained it as their English was bad but my Spanish even worse ;)

 

Either way no harm was done and it was obviously challenging for the parents looking after the kid and I can't imagine the kid having a great time...I felt bad for the family really and made me grateful that I don't have those kinds of challenges in life.

 

But it's a hard card to call in your case TwoBears...on the one hand you want to be sympathetic but on the other it does sound like that child might cause chaos once he gets into adolescence. If I was Mystic Meg I might envisage him getting tickled by a police taser in the next few years :/

 

S.

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Might you have been wearing something that set the kid off? I was on a bus once (in Spain, wouldn't do public transport here) and a downs kid made a bee-line for me in an aggressive way as I had a had a graphic print of a cat on my t-shirt and the kid had a thing for cats. At least I think that's how the kid's guardians explained it as their English was bad but my Spanish even worse ;)

 

Either way no harm was done and it was obviously challenging for the parents looking after the kid and I can't imagine the kid having a great time...I felt bad for the family really and made me grateful that I don't have those kinds of challenges in life.

 

But it's a hard card to call in your case TwoBears...on the one hand you want to be sympathetic but on the other it does sound like that child might cause chaos once he gets into adolescence. If I was Mystic Meg I might envisage him getting tickled by a police taser in the next few years :/

 

S

First sensible response on this thread.

Annie you obviously had a disturbing experience there, however I am firmly in the camp of needing to walk a mile in about he other person's shoes. It is very unfortunate he was out with an adult who obviously wasn't in control of him or aware of his triggers.

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Might you have been wearing something that set the kid off? I was on a bus once (in Spain, wouldn't do public transport here) and a downs kid made a bee-line for me in an aggressive way as I had a had a graphic print of a cat on my t-shirt and the kid had a thing for cats. At least I think that's how the kid's guardians explained it as their English was bad but my Spanish even worse ;)

 

Either way no harm was done and it was obviously challenging for the parents looking after the kid and I can't imagine the kid having a great time...I felt bad for the family really and made me grateful that I don't have those kinds of challenges in life.

 

But it's a hard card to call in your case TwoBears...on the one hand you want to be sympathetic but on the other it does sound like that child might cause chaos once he gets into adolescence. If I was Mystic Meg I might envisage him getting tickled by a police taser in the next few years :/

 

S

First sensible response on this thread.

Annie you obviously had a disturbing experience there, however I am firmly in the camp of needing to walk a mile in about he other person's shoes. It is very unfortunate he was out with an adult who obviously wasn't in control of him or aware of his triggers.

 

Absolutely, I wouldn't feel anger against the child apart from the initial shock, I would be more angry at his parent/guardian/helper

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Be careful dealing heavily with children however effing annoying they are - I was involved in an incident with a group of kids on a local estate a couple of years back that left me expecting a knock on the door from the local constabulary - which fortunately never came.

 

I was driving along in the snow and ice when I heard a massive bang on the side of my car - I slammed on and a quick scan around the scene seemed to point to a group of kids having thrown something at me. I got out of the car and started walking towards them talking in my sternest Ray Winstone voice expecting that they would sh1t themselves and scatter - instead they started pelting me with snow balls, which was poorly judged, so I started running at them and this did make some of them dispserse but one or two just stood there and let me get to them - I managed to stop myself throwing any punches, but what do you do when you catch a child that threw a snowball at your car? I pushed them about a bit and made a point or two - they apologised in a fashion so i walked away.

 

Unfortunately, one of the little tw@ts must have been Freddy Flintoft's nephew because just when I put my hand on my car door handle I got caught on the back of the head by a ball of ice - which although it had great comedy value - unfortunately sent the red mist into a full blood boil and so I jumped in the car - which had 4wd - and chased the buggers back into their estate with the engine racing, wheels spinning, tail sliding like something out of the Sweeney.

 

The really worrying thing was that I was driving the car at them - I was so bloody mad - and then it started to dawn on me that a 50 year old grey haired bloke probably isn't that scary in that part of town and however cross I was it probably didn't excuse me using my car as a weapon against a bunch of teenagers! It also occurred to me that it all could have ended very badly if I'd hit one of them or worse, actually had to fight with anyone - as it's about 30 years since my last bout!

 

I don't know? What do you do? Why shouldn't you stand up for yourself and protect yourselves and your possessions against anyone - if they think they're big enough to 'take on' the adult I'd say it makes them fair game. I know it wouldn't look good on the charge sheet though!

they all know/think they're untouchable. You can't punch a child and they know it. You could however have lobbed a brown snowball.
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Squee and Vik, I agree that it wouldn't be fair of me to blame the child because, like I said, I believe that he had some sort of issues since his behaviour was definitely outside the bounds of normal children. I know it seems silly to be shaken by the experience but I honestly wasn't expecting it and I think that made it worse, the shock factor. I assessed his age at around 7 but he was very big and overweight for his age. I think that his father/guardian needed some help to control him because he really can't be allowed to growl and lunge at strangers and punch them if he gets close enough as he could certainly hurt someone now and that will only get worse as he gets even taller and heavier.

 

I don't know if I could cope with a child with autistic spectrum disorder or similar but you wouldn't have any choice if your own child was affected so I really did try not to judge too hastily as you are both right and I didn't know what was wrong with the child. I didn't react to the situation or say anything to his father/guardian and neither did Mr Two Bears because of this very fact. I actually like children a lot and they often make a beeline for me when I am at the yard seeing to my horse or whatever because they know I will talk to them, unlike most of the others there who just want to get on with their chores.

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SMD, unless I'd spoken to his guardian I couldn't really know what he was having to deal with so I wasn't angry with him either. If I had spoken to him and he'd said that he'd let his child become feral because it was a bit of a laugh I would certainly have judged him but I doubt that was the case. I've got over the surprise now but I would still hope that the child in question doesn't get the chance to go for someone else who might be more vulnerable than me because he was a big lad and he could definitely hurt someone if he wasn't prevented.

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SMD, unless I'd spoken to his guardian I couldn't really know what he was having to deal with so I wasn't angry with him either. If I had spoken to him and he'd said that he'd let his child become feral because it was a bit of a laugh I would certainly have judged him but I doubt that was the case. I've got over the surprise now but I would still hope that the child in question doesn't get the chance to go for someone else who might be more vulnerable than me because he was a big lad and he could definitely hurt someone if he wasn't prevented.

 

Yes that's the sort of 'anger' I meant not retaliation more worry I suppose that if it had been someone elderly or pregnant it could be very nasty.

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Might you have been wearing something that set the kid off? I was on a bus once (in Spain, wouldn't do public transport here) and a downs kid made a bee-line for me in an aggressive way as I had a had a graphic print of a cat on my t-shirt and the kid had a thing for cats. At least I think that's how the kid's guardians explained it as their English was bad but my Spanish even worse ;)

 

Either way no harm was done and it was obviously challenging for the parents looking after the kid and I can't imagine the kid having a great time...I felt bad for the family really and made me grateful that I don't have those kinds of challenges in life.

 

But it's a hard card to call in your case TwoBears...on the one hand you want to be sympathetic but on the other it does sound like that child might cause chaos once he gets into adolescence. If I was Mystic Meg I might envisage him getting tickled by a police taser in the next few years :/

 

S

First sensible response on this thread.

Annie you obviously had a disturbing experience there, however I am firmly in the camp of needing to walk a mile in about he other person's shoes. It is very unfortunate he was out with an adult who obviously wasn't in control of him or aware of his triggers.

Was waiting for this......you were more restrained than I thought you'd be Vik! :lol:

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There is a young child in our immediate family that suffers from autism. There can be circumstances that happen that make him feel "out of control" (often when something out of the ordinary happens) and he will sometimes react to that in an angry, physical way. As far as I know this has never spilled over to affect someone else.

 

However, my niece and her husband would do almost anything to ensure that this didn't happen. In the example you gave I would have expected one of them to have thrown themselves between you and him, apologised profusely and explained the situation.

 

On a lighter note, I said to my friend that some visitors to Sussex had been "assaulted" by a child without saying any more. Then I said "guess where it happened". He said Bognor or Littlehampton :lol:. My friend is, however, a curmudgeonly old so and so who condemns whole areas/places based on a whim :boxing: . I have visited both places on many occasions without violence being perpetrated upon my person ;)

Edited by NeilMH
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It's the responsibility of parents / guardians to keep their kids under control. From what you wrote, it sounds as though you got no word of apology or explanation from the parent. The fact that he might have some sort of mental disorder is unlikely to be much comfort to the person he injures or worse.

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It's the responsibility of parents / guardians to keep their kids under control. From what you wrote, it sounds as though you got no word of apology or explanation from the parent. The fact that he might have some sort of mental disorder is unlikely to be much comfort to the person he injures or worse.

 

Absolutely, if a child (or adult) can't be responsible for his/her actions then someone should be with them and take responsibility when out in public surely.

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