I write a piece every week but I’ve decided that on Sunday I’m going to give a voice to someone other than myself a fellow survivor with a story to tell.
Today is shout out to a close friend of mine whose compassionate actions deserve recognition.
What SHOULD you do?
Most of us come into contact with people acting unreasonably in public in some way at some time in our lives, when this unreasonable behaviour is towards a child it never ceases to surprise me how little people are willing to do to help protect that child I’ve heard all the excuses – “There not my kid” “It’s not my business” “Maybe they’ve been acting up and the parent has just snapped” (like that makes it ok!)
And recently I was speaking with a friend who said to me “What should you do then?” and that’s a really good question most of us don’t see how our involvement can help or what that involvement should be.
Be assured that getting involved directly is very rarely a constructive, productive way to help usually the best way to help is to “Observe and Report” take a step back and take notes, as many details as you can, when, where, for how long, descriptive details that can help authorities track the incident. I told my friend this and recently she put it into use!
My friend was in public and she watched a father abuse his toddler, slapping him and kicking the back of his legs – the way she handled this situation was just perfect!
- She first observed – she noticed that the man was with a group of adults so did not approach which would have been incredibly dangerous and may have caused the situation to escalate putting herself in danger and potentially further endangering the child. She watched from a safe distance and quietly followed these people trying to obtain better information to give the police. She took note of the street and descriptive details of the people involved. She saw them go into an address and noted it.
- She then called the police giving all the details she had noted during this time plus the address they all went in to. She formally reported it to the correct authority – that child was in immediate danger and while you can call social services the lack of funding and large case load can mean they cannot get involved as quickly as is needed. When you have an immediate concern for someone’s safety always call the police.
- Most importantly she took the time needed to do the right thing, she could’ve easily been disapproving and gone back to her day, shrugged it off as “someone else’s job” and “not my business” but she showed a level of compassion and concern towards a vulnerable person in need of a good Samaritan. She took the time needed to do as much as she could to help that 3/4 year old child. She treated that child like her own, the way you would want someone to protect your child/grandchild/niece/nephew.
What’s great is that not that long ago I was sat with this friend who asked me what she should do when she sees child abuse in public and she LISTENED.
We had been exchanging some public abuse situations that we had seen and been involved in and she was stating she didn’t feel comfortable confronting people. It’s so rarely a good idea to directly confront someone it can escalate the situation to a point where more violence occurs it can even cause more abuse towards the child later when you can’t do anything.
You need to assess the situation take the time, the date, the exact location, the physical description of those involved, if you can do so safely take a photo or a video, try NOT to get noticed so you can freely observe these situations and get as many details as possible.
You can do this, you can change your attitude, learn how to help and you can make this world a safer place for all – you could even save someone’s life.
Survivng Life 