Would you help a hurt child out?
Discussion
A year or two ago I was in a pub I in a low rent tourist resort in Europe, I've posted about it before but don't want to make it Googleable to this post so I'm being vague. Please, no prizes for guessing where it is 
Some kid climbed on the wall out the back, he fell off it and cut his hands and arms. I was working but wearing shorts and t-shirt like every customer, I wasn't identifiable.
The kid was just scraped up but screaming and bawling his eyes out. I tried to calm him down and work out where his parents where but they were obviously inside the pub somewhere. He couldn't stop screaming enough to tell me. I'm trying to calm him down and get him to tell me his name or something but before I can get any sense out of him a lady has appeared screaming "what have you done to my kid".... not what has happened to him but what specifically I've done.
Thankfully the other kids quickly explained what happened. I explained that I worked there. I suspect now Mrs Angry can't back down and say sorry in front of a crowd so its then its my fault as I let him climb on the wall. I was collecting empty pint glasses, not babysitting or working any sort of creche or anything. He was outside of the pub and outside of the vision of the parents. Though probably all quite safe as its not like theres been any high profile abductions of British kids here
I suppose this one just sticks out for me as for a second I thought I was going to be on the receiving end of a kicking off a pissed up family straight out the Council thread. It'd still help again but sadly as a bloke on my own I think you need to be quite aware of what other people might think you're doing.
Funnily enough the earliest memory I have of my own childhood is my mum and dad losing me on blackpool beach. my plan was to walk in a perfectly straight line from where my parents were sitting on a very busy beach, to the sea. Then swim and turn around and walk a couple of hundred metres back in a perfectly straight line to my parents. Unsurprisingly my plan went horribly wrong, all I could see was never ending families that weren't mines. I got upset and some nice lady took my hand and managed to get me safely back to my mum. I can still clearly remember what she looked like and what she was wearing, 30+ years on.
There would need to be something disastrous or life threatening going on for me to be alone, and put someone elses kid in my van today
Some kid climbed on the wall out the back, he fell off it and cut his hands and arms. I was working but wearing shorts and t-shirt like every customer, I wasn't identifiable.
The kid was just scraped up but screaming and bawling his eyes out. I tried to calm him down and work out where his parents where but they were obviously inside the pub somewhere. He couldn't stop screaming enough to tell me. I'm trying to calm him down and get him to tell me his name or something but before I can get any sense out of him a lady has appeared screaming "what have you done to my kid".... not what has happened to him but what specifically I've done.
Thankfully the other kids quickly explained what happened. I explained that I worked there. I suspect now Mrs Angry can't back down and say sorry in front of a crowd so its then its my fault as I let him climb on the wall. I was collecting empty pint glasses, not babysitting or working any sort of creche or anything. He was outside of the pub and outside of the vision of the parents. Though probably all quite safe as its not like theres been any high profile abductions of British kids here
I suppose this one just sticks out for me as for a second I thought I was going to be on the receiving end of a kicking off a pissed up family straight out the Council thread. It'd still help again but sadly as a bloke on my own I think you need to be quite aware of what other people might think you're doing.
Funnily enough the earliest memory I have of my own childhood is my mum and dad losing me on blackpool beach. my plan was to walk in a perfectly straight line from where my parents were sitting on a very busy beach, to the sea. Then swim and turn around and walk a couple of hundred metres back in a perfectly straight line to my parents. Unsurprisingly my plan went horribly wrong, all I could see was never ending families that weren't mines. I got upset and some nice lady took my hand and managed to get me safely back to my mum. I can still clearly remember what she looked like and what she was wearing, 30+ years on.
There would need to be something disastrous or life threatening going on for me to be alone, and put someone elses kid in my van today
Edited by Algarve on Sunday 25th August 13:22
SD_1 said:
Like it or not, in this day and age you need to be very cautious with these situations if you are a bloke (especially a young one). A friend of mine was at the park with his young daughter last year sitting on a bench and just keeping an eye on her when one of the mothers of another kid asked him what he was doing and why he was watching the children. She even took his picture and posted it on Facebook with the title "look at this creep sitting watching the kids, be careful out there". It got taken down eventually, but unfounded accusations do happen.
It sounds like that one would have been extremely easy to diffuse there and then, and your friend preferred not to for some strange reason?Algarve said:
It sounds like that one would have been extremely easy to diffuse there and then, and your friend preferred not to for some strange reason?
He did explain to her that he was the father of one of the kids, even pointing her out and she waved back. Thought that was the end of it until the photo did the rounds on facebook later that evening . Because Facebook is the domain of attention w
es and sensationalist tts.
They just wanted to go viral, sod the consequences.
Meanwhile, off topic slightly. On the subject of lost kids, I was at Blackpool Pleasure Beach the other week and I noticed a couple of young children (4-6 perhaps) with their parents who had written their (parents) name and mobile on their kids arms in pen. Clever idea I thought.
es and sensationalist tts. They just wanted to go viral, sod the consequences.
Meanwhile, off topic slightly. On the subject of lost kids, I was at Blackpool Pleasure Beach the other week and I noticed a couple of young children (4-6 perhaps) with their parents who had written their (parents) name and mobile on their kids arms in pen. Clever idea I thought.
I was driving home around seven years ago (early evening through the outskirts of Edinburgh; rough area) and was flagged down by an older chap; he had just stopped to help a young girl crouched by the side of the road but wasn't sure what to do and asked if I could help. The girl in question was circa 15/16, dressed for a night out and very, very upset/dishevelled/confused. I agreed, and finally managed to get her to tell me where she lived. She got in my car and we set off; she was so traumatised I asked her if she wanted me to take her to a nearby Police station but she was absolutely adament she wanted to go home. I dropped her off (not somewhere I would want to hang around..), and it wasn't till later that I thought more about it and realised that something nefarious had probably happened to her and wished I had insisted and taken her to the Police station or called them after I had dropped her off. I can see why the first guy was reluctant to give her a lift, but my automatic reaction was to try and help.
I think the OP did essentially the right thing but you do need to be careful about getting into a position of risk or vulnerability.
I once got stopped outside the front door by a young woman asking if she could have a lift to a phone box. Pre mobile days before anyone asks.
She followed this up by claiming she had been raped in the woods opposite where we lived.
No way was I getting alone into a car with her, and soon as possible persuaded her to come into the flat and use our phone, knew there was somebody there as a witness who knew I'd just left to go to shop.
She didn't want to ring police and her story started falling apart, in the end we rang for immediate attendance by police. In the end it turned out barney with hubby, packed a case and buggered off, got cold feet in a strange city and tried to play the sympathy card. Could have been tricky though.
Didn't stop me getting the tag of Reg Thrumper aka the Blagdon Amateur Rapist for a day or two, just for those who remember the old Private Eye days.
Mind you during the statement giving it didn't help a flatmate observing that she should just have asked for a bunk up for the night and there would have been a fight for places in the queue. Unhelpful.
I once got stopped outside the front door by a young woman asking if she could have a lift to a phone box. Pre mobile days before anyone asks.
She followed this up by claiming she had been raped in the woods opposite where we lived.
No way was I getting alone into a car with her, and soon as possible persuaded her to come into the flat and use our phone, knew there was somebody there as a witness who knew I'd just left to go to shop.
She didn't want to ring police and her story started falling apart, in the end we rang for immediate attendance by police. In the end it turned out barney with hubby, packed a case and buggered off, got cold feet in a strange city and tried to play the sympathy card. Could have been tricky though.
Didn't stop me getting the tag of Reg Thrumper aka the Blagdon Amateur Rapist for a day or two, just for those who remember the old Private Eye days.
Mind you during the statement giving it didn't help a flatmate observing that she should just have asked for a bunk up for the night and there would have been a fight for places in the queue. Unhelpful.
KungFuPanda said:
Narr, could be a trap to rob you, you could get blamed for causing the injury to them, you could get blamed for making the injury worse, and yes you could be labelled a paedo.
Just use the Ricky Gervais defence,To the child;
“If I was a peeeeedo , do you really think I’d go for a fat, ginger
like you?”Seemed to work...
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