>>>>And from what I gather, you're gleefully fanning flames.
>>
>>Have you seen those programs where somebody is berating a child on the sidewalk, and eventually somebody stops and tells him it's wrong? Is the person who stops fanning the flames, or reacting to what they see?
>
>The alternative is you see somebody berating a child on the sidewalk, and you step in to tell them they are wrong.
>
>The child then punches the old lady in the face and runs off with her purse, which is what he was trying to do anyways.
>
>Its ok, though, the thief is poor, so its a good thing he stole that money.
>
>Now, which of the scenarios is true?
>
>Yours or mine?
>
>Probably neither.
>
>There's a third.
>
>A person is berating a child. We step in to tell them they are wrong. That child wanted an ice cream cone, and did nothing special to earn it. They were given an ice cream cone anyways. They wanted three scoops, not two. So the kid throws the ice cream on the ground. Then says "I want my goddamn three scoops of ice cream"
>
>At this point the grandmother loses it, and tells the child what she thinks.

Well, the time I ran into this and interceded, it wasn't on the sidewalk, but at the community pool. The mom was totally out of control, and berating her kids for how they were behaving, except they weren't misbehaving, just sitting quietly. After watching for a while, when she didn't stop, I walked over and asked if I could watch her kids for a few minutes while she collected herself. She turned her anger to me, using a few choice words, but at least for that minute, she wasn't yelling at the kids. Unfortunately, she then packed up the kids and left; I fear that in this case, I made things worse, not better, though I'll never know. I considered calling the police, but once she'd left, I had no way to identify her.

Tamar