A 48-year-old man has been charged in court on Friday 4 November, for allegedly assaulting an 11-year-old boy in a condominium playground.
According to news reports, the senior bank executive had carried out the assault on May 17 at Wing On Life Garden condominium in Bukit Timah Road.
On the day, the accused — who is a British citizen and Singapore permanent resident — had slapped the boy once on the back. He is also said to have grabbed the boy’s left arm and pulled him into a lift, and also used abusive words.
The man faces three charges of voluntarily causing hurt, harassment and using criminal force.
If found guilty, reports say the man can be jailed up to two years and fined up to $5,000.
When someone else disciplines your child
According to parenting expert Amy McCready, seeing your child being disciplined by another adult can be very difficult.
In an ABC News report, McReady says, “It’s natural to feel like we’re being judged and get defensive but if we can assume the person did it from a place of love, we’re more likely to respond with kindness.”
However, she adds that if you feel the reprimand goes totally against your own parenting philosophy, you should “calmly let the other person know you handle things differently and you’ll address the issue with the child in private.”
The general advice is not to discipline other people’s children, except when you can see the child is in danger. Then, McCready says, you should intervene without hesitation.
If you were to see someone else’s child misbehaving without his/her parents or another caregiver in sight, what would you do? Take the poll below and let us know:
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