irateplatypus

I was assaulted by a little kid in Wal-mart.

While crossing the store from housewares to groceries I saw a small child (no older than 5 years) in my peripheral vision walking towards my person. Perceiving that this little tike was approaching me with deliberate purpose, I turned my head to get a better look. He threw up some sort of gang sign and said (and I quote) "Checka-checka-checka me out." By then he was on me. He drew back, delivered as serious a blow to my thigh as he could muster, and disappeared into the folds of the poorly sewn jeans and novelty boxers that lined the aisle.

The punch didn't hurt at all, but I did remain in the aisle for a short moment to reflect on what had just happened. I realized that I had known that he was going to hit me before the blow was delivered, but was too struck with a kind of curiosity to stop it. I'm sure that I was expressionless through the whole ordeal. What an unusual thing to experience.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Manic_Skafe

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read - by far.

Why didn't you go look to see who was responsible for the little hoodlum?

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Redjake

Did your entire life flash before your eyes?

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Off the record, on the q.t., and very hush-hush.

greeneyes

When I used to live in Lafayette, IN we had Wal-Mart and "ghetto" Wal-Mart and the kids at the "ghetto" Wal-Mart were just as crazy and seemingly without parents. Good thing the regular Wal-Mart was closer anyways.

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sadistikdreams

Fuckin punk ass kids. I would've followed that fucker home and talked to his "parents". There's so many little wannabe OGs in my city. And you see these rich little white kids wishin they were poor little black kids, and those same black kids, you know what they wanna be? Rich little white kids.

The whole thing pisses me off.

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hearts, by d.a.

irateplatypus

yeah, there is actually a bit more to the story.

20 minutes later i was headed to the cashiers in front. i passed this kid walking with his mom and (we will charitably assume) his dad. apparently he had done something else because his father was scolding "you've got too big fer your mutha-fuckin britches". agreed, kind sir.

the kid has probably had a rough time of it... part of me felt really sorry for the lil' guy. of course, the other part of me was tempted to put a boot in his face.

__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

KungFuGuy

sounds messed up more than anything else. and he was five? its too bad u didn't react since u were sure that it was definately coming.

MSD

The last time I was at Wal Mart, I got kicked out of the toy department.

Seaver

I dont know if I'd call that "assaulted". Pestered by a punk sure... but assulted?

irateplatypus

of course i was assaulted! i've already contacted my lawyer!

i guess if it weren't so funny to me and my assailant weren't pint-sized it'd be assault. but naww, i just used the term for comic hyperbole.

__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Bacchanal

That is hilarious! I dont know what I'd do if I were in that situation... maybe laugh?

Wonderful opening line too.

ironmaiden7o7

Definitely funny, but lord, yet another problem child!

Vincentt

A friend of mine was riding his bike when a kid threw a rock at him.
He stoped and by the time he turned around the kid was in his face.
"Yeah I threw that rock, what are you gonna do about it."
This kid like 10 or 12, my friend can't beat the shit out of him with out going to jail.

He just rode off.

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viejo gringo

My daddy had a method of applying a belt to your ass that would stop that shit forever...

irateplatypus

vincentt,

yeah, what can you do in those situations? what should you do? i'd like to at least provide some repercussions for his actions. on the other, i'm sure as hell not going to court for anything like that. i'm willing to bet that he'll be taught his first lesson in juvenile hall. poor kid, what a mess.

__________________
If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

Suave

If the kid is 12+, you could always just get all threatening-like. Maybe fake like you're gonna hit them so they cringe, then just walk off. Not worth an assault and battery charge, but definintely worth a sorting out. HATE punk kids.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

krwlz

My daddy too... Made me a better person.

Bill O'Rights

But...didn't that hurt your feelings? To say nothing of the damage that must have been done to your self esteem. Where was your freedom of self expresion?

I'm being facetious, by the way. My ass was laid bear to my father's skinny 1960's era black leather belt more than once as a child. I don't think that I suffered any the worse for it, and came away with many a valuable lesson. Respect for authority not being the least of them.

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kutulu

Kids don't need to be spanked or whipped. That's just bullshit. Neither my wife nor I had that happen to us and we ended up fine.

Blaspheme

I can point out a lot of kids who aren't subject to physical punisments and are horriffic little brats with no respect for rules. Lack of consequences breeds lack of respect.

On the flip side, I cannot name a single person that I have ever known that was somehow traumatized or affected in a permanent negative manner by being disciplined with spankings.

There is indeed bullshit involved with this issue, but I suggest you watch where you step very carefully as the shit in question is not where you think it is. I'd hate to see you mess up your shoes.

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~Friedrich Nietzsche

yellowchef

I got spanked and Im ok.

Theres a difference between a few swats on the ass, and beating. A VERY BIG difference.

Ive been "assaulted" a few times before. Mostly in the dirty ass K Mart here. I just shake my leg or throw them a dirty look while shoving them away.

kutulu

Being able to point out people means shit. The fact is that people do not need to be physically abused in order to learn respect. Good parenting does not require abuse. Breaking out the belt is abuse.

Blaspheme

That line should have been prefaced by the words "In my opinion". You have stated this as if it were a fact, which of course it is not. A typical left wing definition of abuse which, in my opinion is an insult to anyone who has ever had to suffer real abuse in their lifetime.

Is it always 100% necessary to physically discipline a child in order to raise them properly? No, I don't think so. Everyone is different in how they respond to how they are raised and individual assessments must be made. In most cases though, I strongly believe physical discipline is both appropriate and necessary.

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Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

skier

What if it's a lesson about physical abuse? Your kid hits his sister or is physically abusive to someone. A spanking will give them plenty to think about the consequences of their act, and how their violence hurts other people, as well as teaching them that there are bigger fish in the sea that won't just stop with a few slaps to the butt. Which should be explained sometime after the spanking. I'm not saying it should be a frequent punishment for all bad behavior. Just that there are a few situations where it would be an effective teaching tool.

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Suave

By law, his definition IS considered abuse. If a child knows enough to do so, they can press charges against their parent for hitting them in ANY FASHION. Violent, non-consentual physical contact between individuals is assault and battery, whether you're the child's parent or not.

Corporal punishment is only required if you are such a horrible parent that you have no other way of properly disciplining and socializing your child.

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"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

shakran

You're obscuring. Good debate technique as long as you don't get caught. Sorry to be the one to catch you.

See, you list two seperate situations and then try and convince the masses that the two situations are in fact one and the same.

You say "I can point out a lot of kids who aren't subject to physical punishments and are horrific little brats with no respect for rules."

Then you say
"lack of consequences breeds lack of respect."

Because your second statement is obviously true, you are desperately hoping that people will link that to the horrific little kids, and then link those two to the statement about kids who aren't subject to physical punishements.

Two of your statements talk about a child who receives no discipline whatsoever. The other one attempts to convince us that the solution to this is to spank the child. You neglect to mention that there are non physical punishements out there - you hope we'll forget that.

In short, your argument doesn't measure up.

avhg1

It a shame, because kids that young only mock things they see from adults. Probably has some bad influence at home.

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Coppertop

Oh no - you did not just bring politics into a thread about a 5 year old in Walmart.

ShaniFaye

Im editing this, because I have thought better about getting into the "spanking" debate with the people who believe its wrong. All my thoughts on the subject can be found in the already existing spanking thread.

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guthmund

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

As for spanking...well, I was swatted more than few times when I was young and had my face slapped a few times when I thought I was a big bad 'man' and I turned out okay.

I certainly don't want to get involved with the debate that is inevitably going to start up in this thread, if it hasn't already, about spanking, but there is certainly a difference between swatting a kid on the backside occassionally and beating the dog shit out of them with a belt. Parents these days seem so afraid to discipline their children physically, but have no problem brow beating them into submission.

The other day, at a Wal*Mart, no less, I saw a mother just lose it on her kid in the cashier's lane. He was reaching for a candy bar and she let loose a verbal tirade that seemed to last forever. It seems to me that a quick slap on the hand would've done the job just as well and she wouldn't have made such an ass of herself in the middle of the store.

Of course, that's just my opinion....

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meembo

I love WalMart -- it's a great picture of a slice of America's population.
You can't blame such a small and young person for their behavior. Sure, consequences for bad behavior are appropriate, but good examples are much, much more important and effective. I hope the little shit has somebody to make him toe the line.

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drakers

That's pretty funny. I wonder where the parents were, I wouldn't let my kid running around Wal-mart when he is only 5, with sick-o's out there. But man, I think I would have just stared at him the whole time like you did. How wierd.

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Blaspheme

No, I didn't, or at least that was not my intention. The phrases "Left Wing" and "Right Wing" have grown into uses beyond their original political meanings in ordinary conversation. While it may not be proper use, it is fairly common. Ironically, I used the term deliberately because I was trying to avoid the label "Liberal", which is both overused and heavily politicized these days. Just goes to show how hard it is to speak plainly in today's world.

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Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
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Seething

There aren't many things you can do in that situation. I think I would have stared the kid down. Just give the kid the meanest look I could muster, and just glare away. Let his imagination do the work for me. He'd either run off, or get in my face, then I'd just hold that same expression until he got bored and went away. Just to show that punk kid that not everyone backs down. If he doesn't learn that by the time he's a teen, he'll pick on someone with far worse intentions, and likely get shot/beaten/stabbed. You really do feel sorry for the misguided youth of America.

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Blaspheme

Feel free to show me the law backing up that statement. I suspect though, that you cannot. I wouldn't be surprised if you could dredge up some court cases where people prosecuting on the behalf of children had prevailed against abusive parents, but that is a far cry from there being a law outright banning parents from spanking their children.
Another good candidate for having "In my opinion" appended. There's two sides to that, as I said before. In my opinion, it's the legions of Dr Spock devotees that let their children run rampant because they're afraid to raise a hand to them that make horrible parents.

Shakran, I have to say that you've totally lost me. You seem to take issue with my post because I haven't followed some rules of debating? I hate to break it to you, but I have no training or education in the field of debate. I'm just an average guy trying to express his opinions as clearly and accurately as I know how to. If my arguments are rendered irrelevant to you because they don't follow proper formatting, then I'm sorry to hear that.

In truth, there were no "desperate hopes" in my post, just my attempt to put forth my viewpoint on a topic of interest to me.

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Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Captain Nemo

Hell, I would have "stepped on" his foot after he delivered the afore-mentioned punch. It is amazing with all of this debate about spanking, that I survived my childhood and didn't become a wife beater/murderer. Hell, I had been spanked as a kid, I used to ride up in the rear window in my parents car while we tooled down the highway at 80 miles per hour, m mom socially drank while she was pregnant with me, blah blah blah. Thank god I was a child of the sixties

SSJTWIZTA

Im sorry if this offends anyone but, I would have kicked the little fucker like a football. After he regained consciousness im sure he would have learned his lesson about drive by-punchings.

Melka

I was spanked a few times as a kid, but my parents favored punishment was being put outside. When we got in trouble we had to go sit out on the front step by ourselves. Don't know what the plan was, think it just succeeded in making us afraid of the dark.

shakran

Cut that out. Of course it's in their opinion. They're posting an opinion on a message forum. We don't need to have our hands held and be told it's an opinion. We learned the difference between fact and opinion in grade school.



You missed my point entirely. In the midst of what was frankly a sarcastic and needlessly insulting post, you attempted to use obfuscation to push forward a flawed concept. You said kids who aren't disciplined don't respect anything (by the way, you failed to add "in my opinion" to that. . .just sayin'. . . ) You also said you've seen kids who werent' spanked and who were rotten.



That implies that spanking kids makes them respect rules. While that may be true in some cases, it obfuscates the fact that other methods have met with similar success without involving the striking of a child.


Now on to the real debate that's been started, regarding spanking.

Let's face it, it's completely illogical. Someone up there said that if a kid hits another kid, you should spank him to teach him a lesson. That is pure, unadulterated hypocracy. "hey Little Johnny. You hit someone, and that's wrong, so I'm going to hit you."

That won't teach the child anything other than "avoid pain." It won't teach the kid to respect that other kid. All it will teach him is that if he wants to hit the other kid (and hitting mustn't always be wrong since Mommy just hit him) just make sure to do it when he won't be caught, then he won't be spanked.

If however you raise the kid to be respectful of people, meaning you actually take the time and trouble to work with the kid BEFORE hitting other kids becomes an issue, then you are being proactive rather than reactive and you have a much better chance of stopping the problem before it starts.


Raising a kid to behave well without spanking him is, no question, harder than just spanking him whenever he screws up. But it's a lot kinder, a lot more logical, and frankly any parent who's so lazy they'd rather beat their child than work with their child to teach him good behavior shouldn't be a parent.


And yes, that's in my opinion.

ShaniFaye

I love how some of you think that spanking the child makes for a lazy parent, I also love how spanking seems to be the same as beating.....they are two completely different things. IN MY OPINION people who chose to reason with a child, and Im talking ages 2-5, are parents who love the sound of their own voice so much they love nothing more than repeating the same things over and over when trying to convince your toddler not to do something, and they think that we (as in the public) love their voice so much that we just have NO problem hearing it when shopping somewhere or eating somewhere.


Blaspheme, I too am waiting to see this "law" against spanking your child as it applies to people in the US. I am aware of a few laws in a few european countries....but I have been able to find nothing in the US laws regarding a spanking being illegal.

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