Look the Other Way
Oh boy, guys. I took my kids to McDonald’s this morning for breakfast. That was three hours ago and we are just getting home, having never eaten our breakfast, because of a personality trait of mine that my son calls “Oh-Heck-No-itis.” You see, when I’m out and about and I see something wrong happening, I cannot look the other way. I cannot pretend I didn’t see it. No, my pushy butt gets involved to right the wrong. Especially when it involves kids. Makes sense given my upbringing.
So, we are walking through the McDonald’s parking lot and this older woman, about late 60s, has this adorable little toddler with her. She isn’t holding his hand even though there are cars and traffic. The little boy runs almost in front of a car and I grab him and pick him up. He is such a happy little guy. I go to give him to the woman and she says, “Come to grandma you bad boy” and grabs him out of my arms. She then proceeds to pull down his pants and hit him in the butt about five times really hard. It echoed. When she went for the sixth hit, I grabbed her hand and pushed her away.
This poor little boy is screaming now, and she is screaming assault. I pick up the boy and call 9-1-1. You do not hit a child with that kind of force while calling him a demon child and cursing at him. I take the little boy over to the side of the restaurant as I’m on the phone, telling the operator that I just had to physically restrain a woman from beating a toddler. The old lady is screeching and my son is blocking her from getting me and the baby. Officers come, and we tell them what happened. By that point, the boy is calmed down, but he had huge red welts on his little behind.
You could tell it hurt him to sit down. The officers get mom’s number off grandma. We sit with the boy, as he seemed more comfortable with us than the officers. Half an hour later, a car comes into the lot and the little boy’s face lit up when he sees it’s his mom and dad. They come straight to him and are hugging and kissing him and apologizing. They get the full story from the officers and us. Dad is angry. He is practically breathing steam.
Mom is crying and just looks…broken. Dad marches over to the patrol car housing his (as I found out) mother-in-law and asks her what the heck she thought she was doing not holding his hand near traffic, then beating him for her mistake? She is still screeching about me hurting her. That’s all she would say. I apologized to the boy’s mother for putting my hands on her mother, but she gave me a hug and thanked me for helping him. Dad comes over and asks mom if they’re going to press charges this time.
This. Time. This time? Ok, I’m not gonna ask, it’s none of my business, but dad looks done and asks as if this is finally enough for mom to understand her mother is terrible. Mom says yes, and I give my full statement, as does my son. Mom and dad take my phone number and take their poor boy home. I told them to call me, as I have experience in these areas and know people who can help them if they need it.
The mother-in-law gets taken in to be booked. That old witch not only almost let that poor boy get hit by a car, she then beat him for her error. Not a good idea if I’m around. So, we ended up just coming home and now I’m making brunch to burn off the excess adrenaline. I hope they call me. Poor mom looked so heartbroken. Story credit: Reddit / ScaryKerry91476