Witnessed a Father Repeatedly Hit & Pinch His Child Due to Homework Matters in a Library
Was in a library when I saw a mainland Chinese father start to get quite rough with his daughter presumably because of her poor performance in her homework (don’t know exactly what).
He would pinch her in a hard fashion, and even punched her in the arm (though it was controlled, but there was still hurt behind it).
There were about 7 instances or so in the 10 minutes I was there. He was a huge guy with wild movements and it was clear that the girl was afraid.
I wasn’t really sure what to do, unsure if it was my business to speak out as I felt it was a borderline case with a certain degree of ambiguity, and also worried that the young girl might face extra punishment if I did.
I’ve covertly recorded their interaction and recorded 2 instances of the ill treatment, but it these instances were very much milder as compared to the rest.
Also no one else in the library seemed to notice this happening but I did as it was directly in my line of sight.
What should I’ve done? Perhaps I could’ve let the father know that such form of punishment is unproductive politely, or even make up a story on how I used to be hit by my parents myself, until one day I took a glass cup and smashed it in my father’s head while he was asleep, just to scare him in a friendly, well-meaning manner?
I’m also planning to head back to this library for the next few days (or weeks) to see if they return and observe if further action needs to be taken.
Netizens’ comments
- I know the type. If you try to speak up and stop him, he’s just going to take it out on her more at home. Unfortunately that’s just how it is.
- Yup, all he’s going to learn is to keep his pinching and hitting out of sight of strangers. All you’ll do is buy her 30 minutes of peace, and then when they are home, he’ll hit her more because she “made him lose face” in public.
- i once saw a father bring his 2 daughters out to buy canes. they had bought them and were at the hawker centre waiting for food. the girl was hitting her leg with the cane and the father seemed angry.
- You can alert a Family Service Center but that’s really as far as you should go. Don’t get personally involved in it.
- The other day I saw a school kid kneeling on the floor and repeatedly bowing and crying “I’m sorry father” to his dad in public, behind a bus stop.
A part of me wanted to step in and intervene because no kid in the world should ever do that, not to your own dad. - You can’t angrily confront this kind of guy, or it will escalate. If I’m in a good mental state, I might go up to them with a smile and comment something nice like “wow, your daughter is so hardworking! What a good girl.”
Depending on his reaction I might offer to buy her some bubble tea to encourage her. I might start chatting with the dad and give him some encouraging anecdotes. It really depends on the situation.