CONTENT WARNING: Animal Abuse (Toddler mishandling a kitten)

A few weeks ago, I got a new kitten. Today, my mum decides to invite her friend and kids (basically spoiled toddlers and one spoiled child) to our house. I met my mum’s friend during language school. She is a b****, and her kids are terrible. I told my mum I don’t like her, but my mum thinks she can make me the best of friends with that woman.

As soon as they come into the house, one of the toddlers sees my cat and runs to it. The cat starts running until the kid corners it. I quickly interfere and make sure my cat is safe.

One hour passes with no trouble at all. The toddlers are watching the TV, and my mum is talking to [Friend] with coffee. I’m over in the other room playing some “Battlefront 2” on my PC while my cat sits next to me on the chair. My cat decides to jump away from the chair. I assume he’s going to get some food or maybe use the litter box.

I then hear long screaming from the toddlers. I quickly run to the kitchen, and the same toddler is chasing the cat. He picks the cat up and starts squeezing it. I try to gently remove his hands, but he won’t let go, and the cat starts meowing. I do what any sane person would do and push the toddler so the cat can run. He runs, and the toddler starts crying. Say what you want about me pushing a toddler, but I’d rather that than have a dead cat lying there.

After that, [Friend] gets up and screams at me.

Friend: “You f****** piece of s***. How dare you push my child?!”

Me: “Shut the f*** up, you b****. He attempted to kill my cat!”

Friend: “HE WAS ONLY PLAYING!”

Me: “I DON’T GIVE TWO FLYING F***S IF HE WAS PLAYING OR NOT! THE CAT WAS BEING SUFFOCATED BY THAT PIECE S*** OF YOURS!”

Friend: *To my mum* “Are you gonna let your child swear at me?”

Mum: “Time you left. Get out.”

[Friend] grumbled something and left with her kids.

I never saw her again, and I’m so happy.

My daughter is autistic, and her therapists suggested scheduling play dates with neurotypical kids so she can learn social cues from them. I don’t know a lot of parents outside of my daughter’s school… and the dojo where I learn karate. My classmates will bring their kids and let them play while we do our class, so it’s a good fit. And the kids love [Daughter]. 

The only problem is [Daughter]’s lack of situational awareness. When she needs Mommy or wants to play in the mat area, she doesn’t care if adults are swinging weapons and each other around.

Luckily, [Daughter] also responds to bribery, so I promised her a Happy Meal (the height of rewards for a kid) if she behaves and stays out of the mat area during class.

During drills one night, I looked over to see four of the kids holding my daughter back from the mats. One of them dramatically shouted:

Kid: “Don’t do it, [Daughter]! Think about the Happy Meal!” 

The entire dojo burst into laughter. I found out what she wanted (just a hug), and she’s since learned she can call out to me for assistance.

My friend messaged me right after this happened to vent. [Woman] moved into the apartment next to [Friend]’s a couple of weeks ago. [Woman] has struck up short, polite conversations with [Friend] just two times in that period, with the second being the day before this whole fiasco unfolded.

This morning at about 9:00 am, [Friend] was having a nice Saturday breakfast. (She gets up at 6:00 am on weekdays, so this was a weekend lie-in for her.) Someone started aggressively banging on her front door. When [Friend] answered, [Woman] was standing there with [Kid], her sweet five-year-old daughter, who had a little backpack on.

Woman: *Sounding very flustered* “I’m so sorry to have to ask this with no notice, but could you please watch [Kid] for a few hours? I have somewhere really important to be.”

Now, something you need to understand about [Friend] is that she can’t stand kids and has no idea how to deal with them. Like, she tenses up and gets super awkward if a kid so much as waves at her in the supermarket. [Friend] is also disabled. She uses a motorised wheelchair sometimes and a walking cane for short distances or when she’s just pottering around her own home. She lives with her girlfriend, who is also her carer. Her chronic illnesses involve fainting spells and a lot of brain fog, so by her own account, she’s absolutely not someone who should be left in charge of a child.

[Woman] has seen [Friend] using both her wheelchair and her cane and has seen [Friend]’s girlfriend (who was at work when this all happened) helping her in and out of their car.

So, [Friend] responded with a firm NO, explaining that her medical conditions meant that [Kid] would not be safe in her care and that she was not well enough at the moment to have any guests (let alone an unattended kid) in her home, anyway.

[Woman] immediately flipped from pleading and simpering to hand-on-hip indignation, accusing [Friend] of “faking” her disabilities. (Because, of course, if she can walk AT ALL, then she obviously doesn’t actually need a wheelchair, right?) She threatened to report her to Centrelink (welfare) if [Friend] didn’t watch [Kid] for her.

Never mind the fact that [Friend] isn’t on welfare. Her girlfriend has a high-paying job and [Friend] works somewhere between part-time and full-time hours from home most weeks. (She’s a g**d*** machine, and I don’t know how she manages it.) News flash: not all disabled people are unable to work. Although, of course, getting employers to actually hire us is another matter, ‘cause ableism.

Friend: “I’m not on Centrelink, and I don’t appreciate being blackmailed. Find another babysitter, because I am not it.”

And she closed her door. [Woman] kept banging on the door for a bit, but she eventually left.

About twenty minutes later, [Friend] heard a very faint, timid tapping on her front door. She said if she hadn’t been so close to it, she probably wouldn’t have heard it. She sighed heavily, having kind of already guessed what was happening. She opened the door and there was [Kid], who had clearly been crying, clutching the shoulder straps of her little backpack.

Kid: *Very softly* “Mummy said I could stay here today.”

Now, like I said, [Friend] cannot stand kids, but even she said that [Kid] was an absolute darling throughout this entire fiasco and the most she ever did was cry because her mother is clearly a monster. [Woman] had driven off and sent [Kid] to [Friend]’s door, clearly thinking that if she left [Friend] with no alternative, she’d just play along and babysit [Kid] for her, anyway — especially since [Friend] had literally no way of contacting [Woman].

WRONG.

[Friend] escaped abusive parents at a young age, and this s*** made her furious. She got [Kid] settled in front of the TV with a drink and some snacks, and she called the police.

Friend: “My neighbour just abandoned her five-year-old daughter outside of her apartment, and the kid showed up at my door, asking to come in.”

When the officers arrived, [Friend] told them the full story, and while they were appalled, she said they weren’t surprised.

Officer: “You’d be shocked at how not rare this kind of thing is.”

Which is honestly kind of the worst part of all this.

The officers took [Kid] with them and were really sweet with her, explaining to her that she wasn’t in any trouble and had done the right thing and that they were there to look after her and find out where her mummy had gone.

They were able to contact [Kid]’s father, who is currently working on finalising a divorce from [Woman] and was also appalled, but not remotely surprised by what she’d done.

This morning, [Friend] had another knock on her door, only it was the dad with [Kid] in tow. He was there so he could apologise for what his ex had done, and so he and [Kid] could thank [Friend] for looking after [Kid] and for calling the police. [Friend] said he seemed like a good guy who was clearly putting his kid first in all this, which was really reassuring to hear.

He told [Friend] that, according to his lawyer, her calling the police and handling everything the way she had would basically be a gift-wrapped custody battle win for him, because what kind of court would ever grant [Woman] custody after the s*** she’d pulled? His lawyer was over the moon when [Dad] called him!

[Friend] also asked [Dad] what had been so important that [Woman] had abandoned her own daughter over it.

It was an appointment at a nail salon. She’d taken [Kid] with her several times previously, and she just demanded that the staff babysit her and refused to even acknowledge the kid during her “me time”. When she called yesterday morning to book a last-minute appointment, the staff put their foot down and told her she could no longer bring her kid to her appointments and would be refused service if she did.

[Dad] also said that [Woman] had shown up so late to the appointment that they’d refused to see her, anyway.

So, she abandoned her daughter cuz she wanted her “me time”, to get her nails done.

[Dad] told [Friend] that “me time” is an excuse [Woman] uses to ignore her kid, basically any time she feels like it. “DO NOT talk to me during my me time!” etc.

[Dad] also asked [Friend] if she would be okay to help with his custody battle. He said he understood that her health wasn’t great, but his lawyer had said a written statement would be fine. He said while it probably wasn’t essential, since they had the police report, he wanted to have as much evidence on his side as possible, just to be sure. Of course, [Friend] agreed.

[Woman] hasn’t yet shown up at [Friend]’s door to scream at her, so [Friend]’s thinking maybe dealing with the police put some actual fear of consequences into her. We shall see.

I’m a cashier for a grocery chain. It’s a Saturday, and it’s crazy busy as always. A family comes through my line with a big order. No problem; I see tons of those. Except, there is a problem. Midway through the order, their little boy, who can’t be more than two, starts whamp, whamp, whamping on the credit card keypad like it’s his own personal LeapFrog toy.

Normally, when a kiddo starts playing with the keys, their parents notice and try to discourage them by wheeling the cart forward out of reach or telling them not to touch it. This mom does nothing.

I try to dissuade the little guy (and Mom) by turning the machine around and saying calmly:

Me: “No, buddy. It’s not a toy.”

Because it’s not. Kiddo, naturally, gets annoyed and starts fussing. He then turns the machine back around and starts playing again. Now, you would think if Mom heard me say, “It’s not a toy,” she’d get the hint and maybe not let her boy continue to mash the buttons like a crazy man.

But Mom, again, does nothing.

This continues not one but TWO more times, with Kiddo getting more fussy each time. Mom finally reacts — not to her son, but instead to tell me: 

Mom: “Well, this is the first time anyone’s ever told us that.”

Really?!

My first thought: “Darn, that kid is probably spoiled rotten. He’s going to be really disappointed when he grows up and finds out he can’t get everything he wants.”

My second thought: “Sooo, you just let your kid play with electronics that don’t belong to him? Okay, then…”

I keep ringing them up. By this point, the kiddo is actually upset, which I do feel bad about. I don’t want to ruin his little morning, but I decide to stand by my decision. That decision is that the credit card machine — which is not a toy — is still not a toy, even if Mom, apparently, doesn’t give a flip what I think.

I do my best to be nice and use a calm, crooning voice to tell the kiddo, “I’m sorry, buddy,” and so on and so forth because, again, he’s just doing what toddlers do. But as I am finishing up, Mom chats with the kiddo and shoots me look as she says passive-aggressively: 

Mom: “It’s okay, sweetie. We just won’t come to this line anymore.”

I admit, part of me didn’t mind this.

Mom called and complained, and I got reprimanded. I do not know her version of the story, but my manager advised me to be careful not to “discipline” other people’s children.

Related:
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows, Part 11
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows, Part 10
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows, Part 9
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows, Part 8
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows, Part 7

When I was five or six years old, I was taken to the hospital with a fever of 104.8 F (40.4 C). I had bronchitis and a UTI at the same time. I was there for a few days — over Halloween weekend — because I was so young and those were both severe.

My parents brought me a couple of gifts and then tried trick-or-treating on my behalf. They’d explain and some people gave them some candy, but most didn’t believe them and refused. I would’ve been thrilled with a bubble wand!

The upside to this story is that one year, my dad and stepmom grossly overestimated how much candy they’d need for trick-or-treaters, and my dad, remembering my experience a few years before, did one of the only decent things he ever did and took all the leftovers to the children’s ward at the local hospital and passed it out (with approval from parents and doctors/nurses) to those kids.