Yes. 100%. This is exactly how I feel. You took the words out of my mouth. Thanks for the advice. Xoxo

Melissa Malejko! I was raised with yelling, (as were most of us) and have also been left with little to no tools for raising my own little ones. My son is very sensitive and spirited, and a big challenge sometimes for sure… funny thing is though… anywhere else he is but home he’s a complete ‘Angel’… so I realized 2 things: 1 – his challenging behaviour is relative to what I put out, and 2 – he feels safe and comfortable enough to show me his ugly (yaay for me!) I have recently discovered a website, book, and way of parenting that almost instantly has made significant differences at home for all of us… and also made me feel better about my approach and my way of parenting. Dr. Laura Markham and her ahaparenting website, and most importantly her books “peaceful parenting, Happy Kids” and “…Happy siblings”
http://www.ahaparenting.com/peaceful-parent-happy-kids
Happy reading, and good luck!

Well this is one of the prime reasons why.
Too many irresponsible parents who think its okay for their kids to have little or no dicipline…and we wonder why their are so many sociopathic bullies out there.
Personally I would have not only yelled at the kid, but I would have taken him by the arm to his mother, and told her exactly what was wrong with her parenting style.

You sound like you are doing a good job of raising your kids.
Showing pity to someone who is failing as a parent because of whatever excuses they have, is letting them get away with irresponsible behaviour.
She’s probably having challenges with the kid because she is being a lazy, unresponsive parent..

And to take it a step further, if she doesn’t show any signs of improving in her parental duties, I would call social services and let them know she is neglecting the child. One of the basic needs of a young child is structure and learning what appropriate social skills are.
From your description of how she handled the situation, she seems like she needs some parenting lessons. If social services get involved, she may be required to take some parenting classes.

You did not step over the line. You showed your kids that you are their protector, and that it isn’t okay to bully younger or smaller kids.
I applaud you- you have nothing to be ashamed of, as a matter of fact, you should feel proud of yourself.

You gave the mother more then one chance and she didn’t step up. You also removed your kids and when you went back the same thing happened. I would have done the same thing and taken control for my kids safety and have done when they were younger. We were a at an outdoor BK once and these older kids kept doing dangerous things and breaking all the rules. I asked them to stop and told them nicely. When they didn’t I got the manager and they were told to leave if they didn’t use the equipment properly. I had the same thing with younger kids not being supervised and coming in my yard to play without permission. I told them nicely and they stopped coming over unless I said yes. If they were hitting my kids I would have yelled.