A certain sort of man..........

My husband watched a mother grab her child's hand roughly and trail her across the road. She then pushed her hand away as if she wanted nothing more to do with the child. The child was left walking way behind her mother. It was sad to see but what can you do?

There have always been men who want their sons to be tough guys and many of them, as this thread shows wanted to teach their daughters to be tough or at least not cry-babies too.

In some cases we could and should intervene, in others it is probably worse for the child if we do. Teachers and others with a duty of care have to intervene in many cases were the ordinary passer-by doesn't and it is never easy to be either the one or the other

I suspect the same people who say minimise bullying, homophobic or racist comments as "only banter" would describe some if the behaviours here as perfectly acceptable,

Oh Luckygirl 100% agree with you... it makes my blood boil, and I've even been known to same something to the culprit. Much to the embarrassment of who ever is with me.

I agree about you been framed hate it, so unkind to see children in that situation.
We never told our son to man up and he played cricket and football. My h just used to play with him in the garden with a football and taught him to play cricket and also taught him to swim. If our son had not been interested then my h wouldn't have minded.

Loathe the phrase 'Man up' - entirely inappropriate to say to a child. I have noticed over the years that some parents and grandparents (usually the Dads and Grandads) are like this- my ex SIL used to say this to my GS all the time, so did SIL's father so I always assumed it was learned behaviour.0

I feel so sorry for one of my Grandsons, who has a mild form of ADHD he is adorable, sociable, friendly, and helps everyone. His Father, my Son, seems to "threaten" him, my Grandson is 15 and on his way home from College had forgotten his School Computer at Mc Donalds, fortunately, it was still there when they went back for it, but afterwards my Son threatened him with not being able to use his moped ( which Grandson adores) for six months. This kind of behaviour I find dreadful, it is a type of bullying and does this boy no good at all, he should be encouraged, as we all try to do. My Son is divorced so that might tell you something, I am glad when these boys are with their Mother every other week to be honest. Any suggestions how Grandma can butt in?

We have a ghastly family across the road from us - 4 kids from different fathers, all much younger than the woman and poor kids have never been taught any manners, so another generation dragged up in the same mould. Every time we go out, we get a mouthful from the "men" and the language from the poor kids has to be heard to be believed. The only family member worth a fig is GM, who lives down the road, is a good mate of mine and who does her best, but is fighting a losing battle with them!

Good for you glammananna, If only more people would stand up to and shame these bullies, perhaps there wouldn't be so many of them. What a hateful trait to have.

Yes Diddy1,he is your son give him a good old fashioned talking to.