There are times when children get a little too rough when playing with each other. Regardless of their intentions, we adults shouldn’t excuse their behaviour, just because they are young.
That is the sentiment of a mother, Lynn Nasir, who took to Facebook to share a story of one of her children getting stepped on the face by another child while playing at a splash park. According to the Facebook post, the incident took place at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa and was witnessed by Lynn’s husband, who was taking care of their 3 children at the time.
Lynn, who is a journalist, explained that her husband had brought their children to play at the splash park at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa while she was at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur (PWTC) for work. While he was taking videos and pictures of their children playing, a young girl suddenly came up to one of her sons as he lay on the ground and purposely stepped on his face, as seen in the photo below.
Immediately after that happened, the father pulled the girl away from his son and started scolding her. He then went around the park to look for the girl’s parents, only to find her father busy on his phone while the mother was nowhere to be found. Lynn was only made aware of the incident after work when her son complained to her, saying that someone had stepped on his face to the point where he could not breathe.
Her husband then explained to her what happened and advised her to not make a big deal out of it. While she agreed to not make a fuss, the working mothers shared that children shouldn’t be excused for their bad behaviour just because they’re young. “Manners need to be taught by parents who should be monitoring our children while in public places, not being busy on their phones!” she wrote.
The journalist ended the post by saying that she immediately feels frustrated every time she sees the image of her son being stepped on and urged fellow parents to be more alert with their children’s every behaviour. The post gained attention from netizens, with many sympathising with Lynn’s son and expressing their anger for badly behaved children and ignorant parents.
Local businesswoman Effa Mokthar shared a similar experience on Twitter when a child slapped her son at an R&R playground. In her tweet, Effa said she scolded the child, who then sulked and cried. When the child’s father was informed about the incident, he only nonchalantly replied, “This is normal, they’re just kids playing.”
Anak I pernah main dekat 1 playground in R&R and he’s being friendly tegur other kids yang main dekat situ. Tiba tiba ada budak ni datang & lempang Anaqi. Out of nowhere. Not sorry, memang I marah budak tu dekat situ & dia merajuk from his sibs & nangis bawah slide- https://t.co/nChGxp7pKA
— Efahanie (@efaperfume) May 24, 2023
Effa’s tweet also received a lot of attention, with many netizens commenting that the father’s response is unfortunately common and that bad behaviour amongst children shouldn’t be normalised. We agree with the netizens on this one and hope that parents (and adults) will be more proactive in stopping incidents like these from happening again.
