How to handle other peoples kids

It angers a parent when a child has hurt their child and I want to let them know, keep their cool and handle like a parent should.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. I am writing this article because I recently got into it with a neighbor. She blamed my 8 yr old for throwing a rock at her son and threatened to call the police. Even though we later found out it wasn't my son, she mishandled the situation and I want to explain the proper thing to do. The first most important thing to do is make sure your child is ok. If your child is crying, don't panic. Kids do cry when they are hurt but most of the time its not as bad as it seems. Comfort your child, check for bruises, blood, check their pupils, etc. If all is well, proceed to the next step.

2. Find out which child it was. Do not jump to conculsions unless you have the facts. Make sure you know which child it is and also why it happened. Granted, it is wrong for a child to be violent regardless, you need to know if it was an accident or intentional so you know what you are dealing with. DO NOT threaten to call the police, go to the parents if you must but it would probably be best to talk to the children first.

3. If you must speak to the parents, go to their house calmly. Introduce yourself and treat the parents with respect, don't start shouting and saying bad things about their children, this will worsen the situation. The better you conduct yourself, the more likely you will get the problem resolved. In some cases, the parents may be uncooperative and that is frustrating but always be the adult. If you are unable to get the issue resolved there are 4 things you can do. 1)Talk to the school, if the children go to school together 2) Talk to the police (depending on age of children and the severity of the situation 3)Let it go and hopefully it will resolve itself 4)Get hammered drunk and maybe the neighbor will reason with you and your louisville slugger (Just kidding, sorry to give you those kind of ideas!).

Tips & Warnings

• With patience and hopefully, understanding parents, you will soon have the confidence to deal with other peoples children.

[Jenci4]

on 6/23/2008 Great article. Being calm in a bad situation is always very inmportant. A good thing for parents to remember is that if they blame a child that didn't do the bad thing, or if they yell at a child that unintentionally hurt your child, you might ruin a friendship for your child that they really wanted. It also might hurt them for future relationships because parents do talk to other parents, and I know I wouldn't want my child around an adult that couldn't handle their own emotions. How will they be able to teach their own children to handle theirs.