Oh, No She Didn't!

This past weekend something really strange happened, by Doha standards, that is. Twice in one day at Landmark Mall, I witnessed a mom whacking her kid! Honest to goodness, I have never seen that in this country. No one ever disciplines their kids, much less giving them a much needed pop. Ok, I'm not a child abuser, it's just that every now and then, kids behaving badly need a little attention getter to bring them back to earth. I hate to say it, but witnessing it was refreshing. The first occurrence was at TGI Fridays, the land of unruly kids. I missed the alleged crime, but caught the ensuing backhand. I have a feeling the kid spit her spaghetti back at the mom. Lol. It was all pretty disgusting as the mom was mashing up the tomato covered pasta with her hands and feeding the toddler as if she were a little bird. Not to worry, the child didn't even cry, it was more like a "love tap". After Fridays, David and I made our way to Starbucks for a caffeine injection. It was fairly early on a Friday afternoon, so we got seating up front where it's usually overtaken by a sea of white thobes. Ahh, Friday morning mosque services giving us a shot at the prime seating. Have I ever mentioned that Qatari men LOVE their coffee? I felt a little evil for sitting in "their" spot, kind of like taking someone's "unofficial" pew at Sunday morning mass. Anyway, there was a Muslim couple next to us with three young children, of which all were taking their turns in screaming and crying for the usual reasons...NONE. Mom glanced my way with a look of exasperation and I smiled back and said, "it's ok, I went through this with four of my own". She breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that I understood. Moments later one of the kids went over the line and before she knew it, she had popped his face. He was already screaming anyway, so who knows if it really hurt. It brought memories of my mom and her famous saying, "if you don't stop that crying, I'm gonna give you something to cry about!". I, in turn, repeated that line with my brood more times than I care to mention. Will these children be scarred for life? I don't think so. Will that one tap bring on a barrage of future beatings? Not likely. Will these children, just perhaps, learn a little something such as life entails boundaries with consequences for those that don't abide by them? A good possibility.



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