Advice
Do you ever need mommy/parenting advice? I know I do! Well, today I’m on the other side, and helping another mommy out with a question. I’ve teamed up with Danielle from Serene Mom, Iyanna from Yannivlovely, Nikki from Healing Momma to answer all your questions.
The Question
Our first mommy asked:
I was at a birthday party recently and the host yelled at my daughter. My daughter was just standing close to the t.v. I didn’t say anything, but promptly got up and politely left the party. My husband said I should have said something, but the situation caught me off guard. How should I have handled the situation?
My Answer
Wow. That’s a pretty tough situation. I mean, I yell at my own kids all the time, but I don’t think I would like another mom doing it. Especially since it seems like your daughter wasn’t doing anything wrong. I completely understand you leaving because it really would have caught me off guard too.
I think if the same thing happened to me, I would first check on my child. Make sure he/she was OK, and find out if there was more to the situation than I saw from their point of view. I would then have someone else watch my child while I pulled the other parent into another room. I’m not big on confrontation, and I don’t think in the middle of a birthday party is the right atmosphere for a good conversation.
Even though it would probably be hard, I think I would calmly ask the parent to explain the situation. No matter what had happened, I would ask them to come to me first next time. I understand that birthday parties can be stressful on the parents. I’m usually running around like a crazy person. However, there’s no need to just yell at another person’s child.
If my child is doing something wrong, I have no problem with discipline, but I want it to come from me or my husband.
Future Advice
Thank you so much for writing in with your question. I hope my advice helped! You can also go check out Serene Mom to see what Danielle would do, and then head over to Yannivlovely for advice from Iyana.
If you have any questions, please email momstribeadvice@gmail.com and you could be featured anonymously next week!
This was really great advice!
I live this idea how neat !! I will def keep up with this Laci
I really appreciate this. As someone who is often in charge of children, I don’t think anyone should yell at another person’s child unless they are directly in loco parentis. Thanks for sharing! Gonna love this series 🙂
My mom always gave my friends’ parents permission to get onto me – but I would be all over someone who yelled at my child.
I think that you did the right thing – sometimes it’s best to just keep the peace and send a strong & quiet message! Either way, you’re doing a great job momma!
Love,
Katie
That is a tough one! Your advice is pretty much how I would have handled that, too. Since they had already left the party, maybe call the host for clarification. What a great idea for a series!
I love the idea of the advice column!
I agree yelling at someone else’s kid, especially in the middle of a birthday party with other kids and parents presents is not okay. I’m sure the host of could asked the daughter to move away from the TV in a nicer manner. This incident does need to be addressed so that the host knows this behavior is not okay and what proper action to take in the future.
Yikes! That is a tough situation!! I agree though, I would want the discipline coming from me or my husband!
I love this idea for a series! Maybe I’ll pick up on some pointers for when I am a parent :). I think one of the things I’m NOT looking forward to is dealing with other parents lol.
Agreed.
This is going to be a great series! And what a great response 🙂 Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Thank you!
Ugh that’s a tough situation. I would not be too happy if someone yelled at my kiddo. He’s very sensitive and I don’t think anyone has a right to yell at someone else’s child unless they’re hurting someone or something dangerous is happening. Even then, I’d yell over to the parent first! Good advice!!
What a great new series and your answer was spot on!
I don’t think I could ever seriously yell at someone else’s child even when they’re misbehaving badly.
xoxo, Jenny
That sounds like great advice! I can’t imagine yelling at another person’s child (especially while the parent is there) unless there was some sort of possibility of violence or danger. This was obviously not one of those cases.
This is going to be a fun post to read! Good advice.
Great series and advice given! Though I don’t have kids if I did I would have asked the other parent what my child did. If there wasn’t a reason to yell at them then there needs to be some understading as to what happened.
Exactly. Thanks Mistle!
I love this idea for a post!! I don’t have any questions yet, but I’m looking forward to reading the answers! And I agree with your answer 🙂
Thank you!
This is really great advice. Looking forward to this series.
I certainly would have said something. Yikes.
That is a rough situation, for sure. I make it a point not to get after others’ children unless they’re just doing something that’s absolutely not okay–like hitting someone else or taking things repeatedly–but by no means do I ever yell. I think I may have nonchalantly and non-confrontationally made a comment about it, but I’ve definitely been in situations where I was so caught off-guard I didn’t know how to react.
I hope I am never in this position. I don’t yell at my own kids, I wouldn’t know what to do if someone else did. I thought you gave great advice, though. No need for your children to see you question someone else’s authority without understanding what is going on.