[...] this month, Roger Stephens slapped a two-year-old in Walmart after she wouldn’t stop crying.  Now a Cincinnati, Ohio woman is being accused of spanking a [...]

If someone hit my kid one time, I’d punch them in the jaw. I can’t imagine a stranger striking my child in a store. Wow, that is enraging.

CommentsSORRY FOR THE TYPOS I AM REALLY ANGRY AND REALLY TIRED. MY BAD…

I think he should have slapped the Mother a few times for not shutting up the child. Every been to a WalMart on a normal day?????

All of you people who would assault the man would only land in jail with him. That said, I would have grabbed the nearest can of Chunky Soup and dented his cranium with it. I think just threatening my child would have caused me to snap.

Kicking ass doesn’t solve any problems, and what it usually does is teach others that violence is an acceptable solution. Those who were there seemed to have acted properly, by holding him until security could get control. That seems to fit the rule of law, properly.

I was merely trying to get a chuckle…my first statement was my feeling that grown adults need to exhibit the self control that children sometimes lack. Going to jail for assault with a deadly can of soup is not my idea of a smart move.

Mom should have shut the child up. I guess he did it for her. I hate the WalMart crowd which is why I don’t shop there. Whining out of control kids and parents who don’t parent are the reason stuff like this happens, of course coupled with psychopathic older men you have a recipe for chaos. I am 6’1 and weigh 220. I lift hard and am very strong. This doesn’t give me the right to kick his behind but I bet he wouldn’t have done something like this to someone like me. Plus my kids don’t act out in stores like that. Raised them the same way I was raised.

Number one, no one could be that close to my daughter. Number two, if someone hits my child I would be in jail right now for second degree murder becouse I will kill the m@!#$%&r.

I don’t give a good goddamn if the child was wreaking ever-loving havoc in whatever public place they happened to be in. A STRANGE MAN ASSAULTED A TODDLER. Steve, you big ‘ol manly man whose kids don’t act out… yeah RIGHT. It’s NEVER your kid, is it. How *dare* you question the mother. Maybe you should do less heavy lifting with your body, and more with your mind. Someone should have asked this mother if she needed any help. The concept is a little beyond you and those who think that they are supposed to go to public shopping areas to relax and be undisturbed.

Steve
you have no children OR you’re an assh*le

This dude is my hero, I work at Walmart part time and cannot describe the hate I have for crying kids and their sorry ass parents. This man backed with the hatred from me and millions of others struck down this crying kid so hopefully a lesson could be learned that if you have a crying child, either don’t bring it walmart or any other public place, or shut it up yourself. All charges should be dropped and he should get a medal

Wilson
Get a real job

I go to school full time and last time I checked, walmart earns 400 billon dollars a year, the number one company in the world, so I believe my part time job where I get a 400 dollar bonus every quarter just cause me have so much money is more real than your crappy job that dosn’t make 400 billon dollars

Maybe if you work real hard you can be an Assistant Manager of feminine hygiene products in 5 years or so….

some of you are crazy,. why was the child crying? r u kidding me? kids throw fits and they cry, for whatever reason, its part of growing up and learning boundaries. the child was 2 years old, still a baby, this man had no right to touch anybody else or threaten the mother. If he didnt like the crying then he should have simply walked away. Im sure the mom didnt want their kid crying uncontrollaby too, but it happens and you deal with it. ASSHOLES!

you a re a idiot brad, I said “who” because it involed a person, “what” would imply a idea or thing. My god you should just kill yourself

If anyone touched one of my own, I’d be the one going to jail…However I find it appauling for anyone to suggest, that I move or help a mother who obviously can’t control her own kid. Mother’s if you have kids who don’t know who the parent is…stay home! Don’t expose the rest of the population to your lack of parental skills.

Sonia Vivar
Inglewood, California
svivar9087

Dear Brad & Wilson -
After reading your comments I’m convinced you both need to attend English 101…. again.

Brad, good luck on your meeting and the multi-million dollar contract.

Wilson – You’re still an assh*le.

Brad, Wilson, and Danny- thanks for making me laugh out loud on an otherwise crappy morning.

This story is appalling and so is the lack of sympathy for this mother and her child. Kids cry. Toddlers throw temper tantrums. It’s not the parent’s fault and it often can’t be “controlled.” Anything other than a sympathetic look to the mom is unjustified.

sometimes it sounds like someone is dying.. my sister used to ask me that when I cried… and now I understand why. Kids cries sounds like someone is dying. They don’t cry silently.. they make this horrible sound. Sound like pigs get slaughter. That old guy should kick the mother’s ass for being a dump ass mother… if you can’t take care of a child… then don’t have one.

As a lawyer, let me put to rest the assertions that the mother would have been arrested for assault and battery if she struck the man — even with a soup can — after he hit her child the first time: NOT IN A MILLION YEARS. Defense of another is an affirmative defense against assault and battery. I would have hit him or done anything in my power to prevent him from touching my baby again, believe me. He is a lunatic, and although it appears he didn’t cause the baby any serious injury, the mother had know way of knowing that when he was lunging at the baby to slap her.

Good for him I hate kids….it was probably well deserved and Im sure the mom could have used a few as well

wow2009 – I bet your neice and brothers have never thrown tantrums before. They are just the perfect most wonderful children and totally respected their parents from the time they came out of the womb. Oh puhlease. Maybe the woman was addressing the problem but didn’t have time to do it. It didn’t say how long the child was crying for. Maybe the child was only crying for a minute. Do your little brothers and nieces stop instantly while throwing a tantrum? Oh wait. I bet they do. The second their parent goes, “Be quiet,” they are quiet…right? Come on. Yes, you have to teach your children to respect you, but even the most well behaved children sometimes slip up. If you don’t know that you don’t have any.

I hear you, Renee. If someone was threatening my child I would have put myself in front of him. If he was able to rain one blow down he wouldn’t have been able to do more than that because I would have laid him out on the floor.

JD – listen to yourself. That’s the problem right there… with a bad attitude. Duh… did you actually think before you type? Cause you’re making no sense. The old cranky man asked the mother to stop her child from crying but she didn’t so he did it for her… he didn’t approach the situation appropriately…. but that’s what happen to mothers who just let their kids run a muck. This child is at the age where she knows how to manipulate adults to see what they can get away with. I used to do the same damn thing… I should know better. Kids learn alot from age 1 to 5 and is smarter than most adults. Don’t let their cuteness fool you… since I did get away with alot of stuff… thank you, thank you very much. So all kids cry… you need to be tough with them and not just let them get away with everything. No wonder why people grew up stupid. They think their mommie and daddy going to bail them out in every sticky situation they got themselves into. The guy is wrong for slapping the kid but the mother is also wrong for not keeping her kid in line.

What if the mother couldn’t get her child to be quite because she had hurt herself? What if the toddler was in pain? Maybe she couldn’t get her to stop crying right away. Just a thought. What’s with all of the frustration in here? Is it because it’s not Friday. :)

If it had been my child he slapped I can assure you he would have been carried out of Wal-Mart…..in a body bag!

wow2009 you are an idiot. Did it ever occur to you that this toddler was sick, tired or hungry? How do you know that this mother did not do anything to try and calm her child down? What makes you such an expert on how kids behave? God forbid you should ever have any children and if you do I can only imagine the abuse you inflict on them when they cry.

For those of you who blame the mother for the kids crying…Did you ever stop to think that maybe the kid might have been ill? When’s the last time you had an earache or were teething? And I would have grabbed hairspray and a lighter…And watched him BURN BABY BURN

This guy was not in the wrong at all. Parents these days are horrible, and let their horrible kids do whatever they want to in public places. If your child can’t behave properly in public, leave them at home. Or at least have the balls to shut your own kid up! This guy is awesome.

Two facts: 1. No one should ever hit someone else’s child. 2. If your child won’t calm down take them out of the store. These are not contradictory.

Wow. I’m taking this all in with a grain of salt. It’s so interesting that when someone makes a differing opinion, they’re met with a snotty “you never raised kids” retort.

You guys sound like a bunch of brats showing off new shoes to the poor kids.

So I’ll make this clear:

1. No one can raise two children exactly the same way.

2. No one can raise someone else’s child the way they believe they should be raised.

3. A parent must establish that they are the parent.

4. Discipline that involves hitting is not called Abuse.

I don’t have sympathy for this woman. If anything at all, he taught her a lesson in how to deal with your child. The people here who claim to go to Wal-Mart and ignore people like this also ignore their neighbors. Nobody wants to be involved in helping each other nowadays or letting others know that they’re wrong in letting their kids get away with certain things. A two yr old child crying can be helped. If you’re saying it can’t, then you obviously haven’t found a solution as to how.

Another thing I read was that he repeatedly told her to do something about her child while in different isles. If he can hear her kid in isles away, then the child must have been screaming bloody murder. This is something you don’t ignore. It annoys the other customers and their shopping experience. It’s a nuisance and a hinderance and makes people question the mother’s parenting abilities. Any good mother would go prepared just in case the child starts to cry. Was she not aware of this? Was this her first child? Babies cry for a reason. Find out what the reason is and continue shopping. Don’t ignore it, that is rude. It’s like bringing a crying baby to a movie theater and getting made when the man next to you gets up and calls security.

We’ve all gone to Wal-Mart and we’ve all experienced some form of rude behavior. I don’t ignore it and I commend this man for actually stepping up and telling this woman to do something about her child. The problem with today’s society is that noone wants to be in the wrong, no one wants to be told to do something. No one wants to accept criticism. But if it’s clearly disrupting someone’s shopping experience and you do nothing, don’t be surprised if someone pulls something like this again. Neglectful behavior like this has gone on long enough.

Catalyste, when you advocate for strangers striking other people’s children to protect the shopping experience, then I say you can shove that experience up your ass. Bye troll!

Scorpio, I never said I advocated anything this man did. I made it clear that I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened again due to circumstances parents like her use when shopping.

Another thing you should do is think of the events that led up to his decision to confront this woman and slap her child.

This isn’t about hitting a child. It’s about parental responsibility to their children when they go out in public. When you’re out in public, you have to be considerate to others. Be inconsiderate when you’re in the privacy of your own house. If the child was sick, then she should have stayed home with the baby. If the parent and child were coming back from an appointment, then the mother should have made a quick stop before going home or taken someone else with her to help her get things while she takes care of the baby.

Scorpio, when you advocate over-reacting like that, you advocate the ignorance associated with it. You’re not thinking about another view point or other ways this situation could have been prevented. Instead you find ways to complain about the problem and insult those who have multi-faceted thinking.

In short, you shouldn’t call someone a troll if you’re being one.

Uh Lauren, that child won’t be affected by this. You’re over-reacting.

My kids aren’t always perfect, but I do handle them when in public. They hardly act up.

The point that has yet to be brought up is that people are oft times provoked to act if no action has been taken. It’s not like he just came out of the blue and decided to slap the child. Things led up to the incident.

Another thing you may want to question is why the mother did nothing to stop the man from slapping her child 4 times and why it was another shopper who stopped him?

Again I’ll say that she was probably a new mother and didn’t understand how to handle her child yet.

So knock off with the hysterics. It’s silly.

Lauren, if you were the mother. What would you have done to prevent the incident that happened?

Mind you, I’m asking you what you would do with the crying two year old, not what you would do if someone came up and told you to do something with your crying child.

What I’ve observed is that if any thing, people would rather sympathize with the mother until she makes a mistake somewhere. What I’ve also seen was that for some reason when a father goes shopping with his kids, they don’t act up or scream. Why is that? Why such a difference in mode? I can’t speak for all fathers or all children, but only from my observations on parenting tact.

Yes it is hysteria. When people are practically screaming obscenities to opposing views or writing views that crucify this man as evil without viewing the 360 of this case, then it’s labeled as hysterics. It’s hysteria because there are other tactics that could have been used in the case, just like there are other factors that haven’t been asked about as to how long from one warning to another did the man repeatedly ask her? How far were the isles the people were in? How loud was the child crying or screaming? Was there something wrong with the child?

See these are just mere questions that should be considered and not skipped over. A situation like this could have been prevented by taking measures. However, as it were, things did not go accordingly and it resulted in the overall embarrassment of the mother.

Society has a way of trying to exacerbate simple means of discipline by making look like it’s the wrong thing to do.

True, strangers shouldn’t hit a child. But she should also mind herself and her child while in public. A person might be peeved that someone suggested that they do something about their kid’s behavior, but you should overlook that and try to understand that perhaps this is making you look bad as a parent and that you need to start getting a handle on the situation before it gets worse.

It’s all about prevention.

He already owned up.

Now how about you answer my question.

My main point is that noone is perfect, and maybe people should stop being so judgemental. He did something illegal, she didn’t.

Catalyste has gone from advocating strangers assaulting others’ children to advocating outright vigilantism. If the parents won’t take care of it “society” will. The awesome part is that no matter how much you talk out your ass, Catalyste, this man’s actions and your justifications are illegal. So moot point, done deal, you haven’t a leg to stand on. You may have the gumption to argue for what you believe in, but I’m sure if you ever tried to put it into action, you’d have your ass handed to you in a Walmart beatdown of your own.

All the story says is that a 61 year old man slapped a two year old girl four times because he said (HE said) the mother could not quiet her. From reading all these comments, you’d think all of you were eyewitnesses. How kids should behave in public, how parents should act, how strangers should act – all of those are reasonable topics for discussion on a parenting site, but this new story is being used as a proxy for a lot of people who clearly have a giant big up their butts about something. You know nothing about this story beyond the merest details, and so any judgments being made about the man, the mother, or the child, or the circumstances that led to this arrest are purely speculative and wholly without merit.

But party on!

ick

Bec,

Many professional actually suggest ignoring temper tantrums b/c acknowledging them is giving attention. And negative attention is as good as positive to a child. Many times I have ignored temper tantrums and ususally within a minute or two they end. I with you so what if she was ignoring it….that’s her business. As a busy working mom, I can say you can’t always reserve chores for a time when your kids are ready to be out, you also can’t end a shopping trip every time the kids get antsy…you’s get nothing done. At no time does anyone have the right to hit another’s child.

Did this get linked from a childfree site?

Honestly, this is idiotic. In the United States you cannot strike a person because they irritate you. Ever. If you could, cell phones and those damn kids’ sneakers on wheels would have disappeared long ago because loud cell phone talkers and zipping ten-year-olds are a hell of a lot more annoying than crying toddlers.
I would lay you odds that, considering it involved a cranky, probably ill senior and a cranky, possibly ill toddler, this charming scene took place in the pharmacy area at Wal-Mart. If that’s the case, it’s unlikely that walking away–for either the Mom or the monster–was much of an option. If you’ve ever dealt with a sick child, they generally cry untill the pain goes away, which is usually after you obtain the medicine. Demanding that a sick child be removed from a pharmacy is like demanding that sick, cranky people wait till they are feeling better before they go to the doctor.

Comments
It’s a really good thing for all of you who defend the criminal activity of assault on a child (or any human for that matter) that on an occasion when you acted up in public your parents didn’t allow some stranger or themselves to haul off and beat you down. Perhaps they sought to teach you differently. It’s a pity that they didn’t also teach you compassion, patience, and common sense before they turned you out into the world to believe the utter nonsense that you were a perfect angel as a child and never had to be taught a lesson. For the person who works at Walmart and doesn’t like families, get another job. Without the support of families, your company wouldn’t make nearly enough money to give such a narrow minded individual such as yourself a job. Why subject yourself to work with the public in a retail situation if you don’t like the majority of people who come through the door? It is interesting that there are no accounts of bystanders in the store describing this child’s behavior as wholly uncivilized. Our society has declined significantly if even a small percentage truly believe that assault on the child or the mother (as some have suggested should have occurred) is remotely acceptable. Even if the parent wasn’t parenting (which has not been determined just because it isn’t what YOU would have done) and even if the child were completely misbehaving (which hasn’t been established either), how in the world is that justification for assault? A child crying is not criminal activity, nor is the parent ignoring it (if that is truly what was going on). But hitting someone IS a criminal offense. Is it so difficult to ignore a crying baby? If it really cramps your style on a social level in Walmart, you have my pity. Afterall, each of you has been a crying baby at some time in your life. If you think you didn’t cry for no reason on occasion as a two-year old, get a grip. And if you think every tantrum can be stopped in 30 seconds, do some reading and educate yourself on why tantrums occur and the best way to avoid them.

Hell yea! Smack that loud ass kid. Thats why kids throw tantrums anyways, they no longer have respect or FEAR of their elders. Try getting your ass spanked a few times for throwing a fit, or popped in the mouth for screaming when your not supposed to. YOULL THINK TWICE! and that is why this man should get a medal of honor. The rest of you pinky commie wussies who wanna try an use USELESS time out sessions, ill see you on the news when your kids kicking your ass because your too wussie to teach them RESPECT!