I’m pretty sure if that happened in my household, it would be a race between my husband and me to see who could get to that family member first and tell them in no uncertain terms exactly how much we didn’t appreciate what they did.
The idea of disciplining another person’s child is certainly a provocative question in the modern world of parenting, where we tend to take every parenting decision way more seriously than our typically much more laid-back parents did in the ’60s and ’70s.
The concept is also the storyline for a NBC series premiering next week called “The Slap,” based on an Australian novel and television program by the same name.
Though the series looks compelling, the whole notion of slapping or hitting another person’s child tends to depend on whether you support physical discipline yourself, based on my very unscientific sampling of opinions from mothers and fathers across the country and in my social networks.
“I would not spank my children,” said Janeane Davis, a mother of four and founder of the blog Janeane’s World. “I do not spank my children. I do not think someone else should.”
The cultural, generational and regional roots of spanking
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“I was very frustrated by that situation, because I didn’t feel like it was my place to step in and speak to the child, but at the same time, I couldn’t allow my child to be bullied that way.”
Davis, of Janeane’s World, said that if a child needed to be disciplined in a public setting, she would say something to the parent quietly so the child could not hear it.
“I would not discipline another person’s child if the parent was present,” she added. “If the parent chose not to or could not discipline her child, I would remove myself and my family from that situation.”
Woods has said things to children who are misbehaving in public, even if their parents are right there.
“I firmly believe it takes a community. Most people are willing to stand by and judge and not help.”
Do you think it’s OK to discipline another person’s child? Share your thoughts with Kelly Wallace on Twitter or CNN Living on Facebook.
