Sara, the same thing happened to me about 8 yrs ago. Only this was between my daughter and her oldest son. He had acted out and yes, he needed discipline, but something about the last bit of it triggered me. She had him sit in front of his cousin and she told him what to say in way of an apology, but the words he said, he had NO CLUE what they meant. This was only part of the discipline but I won't go into the first part of it. When that poor baby, who was 4 or 5, started repeating her words, I started sobbing so hard I had to walk out of the house and could not go back in to save my life. I sat on the curb next to her van and sobbed so hard! My heart was broken for my grandson. I could feel the humiliation he was feeling. I had been humiliated quite a bit as a child. I could still scream when I think of it.