I agree with what's been said here a few times...even if you didn't get a message to those "parents", hopefully you did to the precious. Being a survivor of abuse, I didn't know that anything that went on in our home (or elsewhere) wasn't normal. I remember that shock when I found out it wasn't normal...thinking it wasn't OK was almost beyond my comprehension. You placed a wonderful "stopper" in thought, patty...possibly the best gift given because it happened in the moment where the impact is greatest and most lasting.

*************** TRIGGER ********************


At a theater several years ago, my family and I were watching a movie. A young mother picked her (probably 2ish) child up and spanked her right in the theater in front of everyone...speaking horribly. This was a BABY. She had no business in the theater for an adult movie anyhow. We're talking multiple slaps...what constitutes a spanking.

I was LIVID and triggered. I got up...hubby knows my by now and said, "Babe, sit down, please." Um, no! I walked out of the theater to get a guard to report the abuse. As I was walking out, another woman was as well...crying. I knew she was on the same mission that I was on. We found the guard and he got the woman and child out of the theater. I was very harsh. The other woman cried and pleaded with the young mother saying that she can't imagine what the child goes thru at home if she does that in public. All the time we're looking at this beautiful baby on the mother's hip...still snubbing from the crying.

You could tell she didn't get our upset. However, she promised she wouldn't hit her anymore and we left in the the hands of the security guard where I prayed he reported it.

I remember being a young parent with issues (I had my oldest at 18). It's so hard. It truly is. As a mother, I'm so proud to say that my children don't know the meaning of the act "whipping" or "spanking". That's one heck of a testament. HOWEVER, I remember wanting to spank, react harshly, etc. I think the feeling is "pre-set" if you were raised with physical punishment. It's how we respond to our own thinking that helps our reactions. I look back and know that most of the times that I felt that way was ME, not the child...much like my responses to ppl in real life today.

It's just so hard and don't doubt, patty, that you let a little girl know that 'IT'S NOT OK'. You couldn't have given a better gift in the moment. Oh, if someone would've let me know it wasn't OK...a big part of my life might've been different. You gave that child that.

KD