I was with a 2yo in the train in Luzern. A big fat lady sitting across us all of a sudden hits my boy over his back. It’s my understanding she didn’t like him moving between seats.
There was no conductor in the train, and clicking SOS resulted in no action.
I heard a story when a lady hit a boy in supermarket, family complained about it and they ended up in court. Is the only way to teach some crazy bitch a lesson to sue her?
The usual course of action initially would be to speak to the person who hit him.
It would really depend on the seriousness of the incident as to whether any further action would be taken but it should technically be considered as assault.
It would rarely be appropriate to hit someone else’s kid. I guess depending on the details and whether this was more of a tap/‘clip around the ear’ kind of thing rather than some kind of physical assault with lasting damage, then the appropriate actions might range from ignore it to seek criminal charges.
Holy moly, big fat lady would’ve been a grease stain on the floor.
Please don’t use this button for such case. It’s not the reason to distract the train driver from his job.
There is a phone number of the transport police written on the wall (or maybe window, I don’t remember) stickers in every carriage. Call this number and explain the situation.
I second TinyK’ advice and report to the Transport Police. There are often cameras on trains that may have seen the incident.
This is the number of the SBB police : 0800 117 117
Better call them soon before the video is automatically deleted after a few days.
Agreed.
But on the other-hand, if my own kids had been annoying other passengers, I would have told them to sit down and be quiet and apologised to the passengers concerned.
Previously good friends broke all contact with us when they felt affronted after I asked politely that, in a restaurant, would their son, who had no interest in the food, not walk around the table violently rocking the chairs of our own children who were quietly and politely trying to eat their food. (My children were around the same age).
What the lady did was wrong but as the OP hasn’t come back to state whether it was a tap on the shoulders to get his attention or a violent slap on the back which sent him reeling across the carriage.
As @Phil_MCR suggested, this should direct the course of action of the OP - from doing nothing (or perhaps questioning her own control of her children) to contacting the transport Police.
Consider the local culture. Not exactly known for strong displays of affectiveness. Or, where touching other people is normal in friendly exchanges. So, touching other people is a no-no. Not even gentle taps in the shoulder.
This. The only circumstances where you would touch a kid, and taking the train story as a context, would be to perhaps steady him if he were about to fall and was out of immediate reach of the parent. ‘Hitting on the back’ for moving between seats is absolutely a no-no.
Which is what I wrote. My caveat was that the course of action the OP should take should differ depending whether it was a warning tap on the shoulder to get his attention or a violent assault.
You may be right, this is not a touching culture but neither is it the US culture of over-the-topness.
The lady hit the boy with her arm across boy’s back. She didn’t use her fist, but she did hit the boy.