My little boy and I were having such a pleasant shopping experience last night. When we got to our second mall, I pulled into a parking spot and noticed a young mother and her baby daughter, who was probably about a year or so old, getting into the car directly in front of us. I pointed out the pretty little girl bundled in pink to my son who loves babies.

As I got out of the car to get my son out of his car seat in back, I hear this woman scream "Maybe now you'll shut your f===ing mouth!" to that precious baby girl. I jumped back to look at her with the most despicable look I could give her while shaking my head, but she shot out of there before I could say something. I'm not sure what I'd have said, but it just breaks my heart to think what that baby must live with. I can't begin to imagine talking to one of my children like that. I'm still crushed by it.

I quickly realized my son hadn't heard what she said, and I focused on making his night even more fun, but that sweet baby and her nasty mouth, poor excuse of a mother still haunts me.

As a 7th grade teacher, and a person who loves kids, it breaks my heart to know that not every child is adored and treated like someone's precious little prince or princess. Every little one is so precious and important.

She sounds like, at the very least, she had a hard day. I admit to having those feelings toward my infant when I was a new Mom. I never screamed hateful things at him, but I felt that way. I hope it was an exception and not the rule for the mom. Otherwise, I agree - the daughter is going to have some twisted idea of acceptable ways of being treated.

This is one of many reasons my granddaughter lives with me. Her father is verbally and emotionally abusive to his wife and children. He has been charged twice with domestic violence (assault with bodily harm). He would SCREAM at her, "You are so F*#&+%* stupid!" when she was just a toddler. She had to go into court-ordered counseling.

It's too bad you couldn't get that woman's license plate number. Child Protective Services considers verbal/emotion abuse to be an office that justifies removing the child from the home.

When Cheyenne (the granddaughter) was about 3 or 4, we were at one of those indoor playgrounds they used to have all over the place - like Playland at McDonald's but on a much bigger scale.

A little boy was climbing thru the plastic pipes and just having a great time. His dad was ready to leave, though, and he wouldn't come. Every time his dad tried to grab him, he scampered up the rope thing like a little monkey and back into that plastic tube. Finally, his dad screamed, "Zach, get your ass down here RIGHT NOW!"

Cheyenne looked at the guy and said, very sternly, "YOU have a potty mouth!" I loved it. The jerk glared at her. I just dared him to say something ugly to Cheyenne. I would have told him off in a heartbeat.

:cry That makes me want to cry. I get so upset when people hurt children. It's unthinkable what people do. And we wonder why kids are mean to each other? It's what they learn at home. :cry

I was at Disneyland many years ago, when some obviously out-of-control mom started POUNDING her son. As I was figuring out what to do, a group of kids...maybe junior high age...started yelling, "Child Abuse! Child Abuse!" and park security (which blends in so well they appear to simply "materialize") was all over the woman who was immediately escorted out of the area. I'd like to think she was arrested on the spot...maybe she would be now...

That is very sad. It's something I see very often in the military life though, My dh has been in for 10 years and I have seen it all with parents here. It amazes me that people treat their children the way they do and do not seem to think twice about it. I knew a girl in Germany who was 21 and pregnant with her 3rd and she was forever speaking to her kids like that, the 5yr old got the worst of it as he wasnt her husbands and the 1 yr old was forever being called f'ing stupid and stuff, luckily she and he husband had to take parenting classes and are much better parents today for it. Isn't it amazing that you have to take a driving class/test to drive a car but anyone can have a child? I hope soon people like this mom realize what a gift they have and appreciate it.

I experienced something similar a few years ago. I was visiting my daughter and we opted to take in a movie. As we parked the car, I heard a man's voice just screaming obscenities at someone. The way he was talking, I thought it was a young couple having an argument. (Even that would have been bad enough.) As they came around the corner of the car, I saw that he had a beautiful little girl -- about two years old -- who was visibly shaking and sobbing. He was frighteningly out of control. I knew that I had to do something. If nothing else, I figured that I would be able to deflect his anger and rage from her to me for a moment.

I said to him, "Excuse me, sir...please don't talk to her like that. I don't know what has just happened, but there is nothing that a child that age could have done to warrant that kind of language." He kept at it. My kids (15 and 21 at the time) just stood there and watched me take this guy on. I thought he might hit me, but I figured it was better than him hitting her. I was scared to let him get into the car with her in that state.

He started yelling and swearing at me and told me to mind my own business. I continued, in a calm voice, to try to talk to him. I said, "Please, sir...she is just a little girl. Think about what you are doing."

He continued to scream at me and the little girl continued to sob. I was afraid he was going to hit her. I calmly said, "Sir...please...think about what you are doing. You have a beautiful little girl there. Please...stop." After a few minutes, he had focused all his anger at me (which was fine -- I preferred that to his rage being aimed at a two year old).

After several minutes, he did not seem angry at her anymore, but I could tell he was furious at me. I said to him, "I will pray for you, sir" and the kids and I headed toward the movies.

We had just about got to the ticket line when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him running after us. He got up in my face and started screaming at me that I had no right to tell him how to raise his child. He was totally enraged -- screaming, swearing and coming at me.

Do you know that not one person in the line at the movies tried to calm him down? There were probably about 10 other people there -- men and women, alike. Instead, they all just backed away -- moving over into the next line. Finally, the manager came out and asked if she needed to call the police. I told her I thought it was a good idea -- and then, as she talked to him, I slipped inside the building, as I could see that I was now the focus of his rage. I hoped that if I got out of sight he might calm down.

She got him to come into the theater and to calm down a bit, but when she asked him if he wanted to let the little girl play for a bit until he calmed down, he flipped out again. Apparently, that had been the problem. He had brought his little girl to the movies and, being two, she did not want to watch the movie -- she just wanted to play. My guess is that he was a single dad who was trying to entertain his little girl, but had no idea how to do so. The theater manager did get him to calm down and it was my hope that they made it home safely. By the time the police arrived, the man had left.

The thing that got me about the whole situation, though, was that not one other person stepped up to try to defuse him. Instead, they cowered in the next line. Only after he left did they make comments like, "If my husband was here...he would have said something to him." and they asked me if I was ok.

It reminded me of the stuff they do on 20/20 where they stage these sorts of things to see if people will get involved or walk away. I'll probably get myself into trouble sometime, but I cannot stand by and watch someone hurt a child or a woman or an elderly person without saying something. My kids said that they were afraid for me that day, but that they were also proud of me. I didn't even think about it twice...I just knew that I could not let it happen.

MarySue -

People are crazy. You could just as easily have been dead. I wouldn't have intervened in that situation either. To me, there's a thin line between being brave and being foolhardy.

While I was in graduate school one of my professor's sons will killed. He stepped in and tried to make peace when 2 strangers were arguing. One of the guys stabbed him in the chest.

I understand wanting to protect the child, but girlfriend, protect yourself, too. Call 911, get the license plate. Help without putting yourself in the line of danger. I'm sure that's why others didn't intervene.

It was noble of you, though. I'm really glad that you weren't hurt.

That is awful. It makes me so very angry when I see or hear people being mean or abusive to their children. There are too many good people in this world who want children, but for some reason can't have any, and then you have "idiots" like this woman who doesn't cherish the gift she was given. Hopefully someone will knock her down a peg or two and set her in her place.

I don't believe what I did was either brave or foolhardy. I was just trying to advocate for someone who was totally helpless in the situation. I never raised my voice, but kept it calm. I just needed to defuse his anger. Had I called 911, he would have been gone by the time the police arrived and who knows what he would have done to that little girl by then. I figure that I kept him from pounding on her as he put her into the car seat, if nothing else.

The situation was in a public place and, until he came back after me in the movie line, I was never within striking distance. Of course, had he decided to strike me at that time, the dozen or so people who were standing there would have just watched him beat the crap out of me and would have stood there wringing their hands telling me what they 'would have done' to him while I was lying there on the pavement, based on their reaction to this whole thing.

Granted, had he been carrying a gun, it would have been a different story, but he didn't.

I could not have lived with myself had I walked away knowing that he was going to hurt that little girl. I think that is a huge part of what is wrong with our society -- that people all turn their heads and say 'not my problem'.

I am very level headed and I don't think that anyone who knows me would consider me to be a foolhardy risk taker. I don't regret what I did in that situation if it saved that little girl from being beaten by a man in an absolute rage.

Of course, had he decided to strike me at that time, the dozen or so people who were standing there would have just watched him beat the crap out of me and would have stood there wringing their hands telling me what they 'would have done' to him while I was lying there on the pavement, based on their reaction to this whole thing. quote]

Wouldn't that include your own (grown) children?

Nope...I was not including them in the group of bystanders who opted to turn their heads the other way and wring their hands. It was the 'adults' that I was talking about -- the ones who stepped away. My kids were just kids. However, I have no doubt that even though my son was a freshman in HS at the time and my daughter was still in college, they would have jumped in to protect their mom -- had it come to that. I'm not sure how much help it would have been, though, as she weighs all of about 110#,but I am confident that they would have done the right thing. I am a single mom and we have become quite a team over the years. I know that there have been other times where they have stood up to others at school if they were picking on kids, so I have no doubt they would have helped their mom in a time like this.

I don't know why, but I thought your kids were older. I must be losing brain cells faster than I thought...LOL

MarySue - I hope you didn't read my post as me implying that your act - or you - were either brave or foolhardy. I admire what you did but noted that it would not have been me. As crazy as people are, an irrational man pulling out a gun is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. As I said, I think you were entirely noble thinking of the child more than yourself.

No offense taken...to either of you...but thanks for the clarification. It is appreciated.

I always reserve judgement on these things - kids can really push your buttons and if that baby had been whinging and crying all day long she may have been at the end of her tether. Its so satisfying yelling out swear words when you're really frustrated.

Like when your one year old headbuts you full force (and breaks your nose) while you're getting him into the car. I can tell you I yelled a few choice words then in public, with blood streaming out my nose and it was all I could do not to smack him. Then once you let that emotion out, you regret yelling at your child.