Toddlers Goaded To Fight

[suffragette]

What type of parents encourage toddlers to fight in this manner? Are people losing all sense of decency and can we overcome this apparent descent into barbarism?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/63662 55.stm

[WaldoMcFroog]

Phuqwittery isn't new. There have been phuqwits ever since man first walked on two legs and there will undoubtedly be phuqwits on the day the sun goes supernova. As entirely odious as these knuckle-draggers are, they're not symptomatic of any great societal change.

[Goodsoulette]

"I didn't see any harm in toughening them up. I done the same with my own children." for Gods sakes, well thats a typical west country chav family.

[libertie]

Beggars belief doesn't it? And to think you need a licence to keep a dog!!

[joko]

i think i may emigrate to mars - perhaps the martians will have more humanity and sense

[WaldoMcFroog]

Good to see you read the article carefully then. The last sentence says they've been taken into care by Social Services.

[Llamatron]

I am somewhat jaded and I'm rarely moved by the horrors my so called fellow man are capable of but when I saw this on the news last I was genuinely shocked. These people are despicable.

You need a license to own a dog but any troglodyte can have kids.

[samuel23]

When I was younger my brother and I were always fighting. In the end my dad, fed up with the tears and snot, took us both along to the local boxing club, enrolled us and shouted encouragement at us to 'wallop 'im 'arder' and give 'im a good right 'ander' . We were only about five and seven, so what's the difference here then? Is it because it wasn't supervised by a third party, or was it because these people are dumber than a bag of donkey sh1te and filmed it?
As Waldo so succinctly puts it ~ there will always be phuqwittery. Just think on this a bit and then be glad they weren't being sent out onto the streets to earn a living by being abused some other way!

[gedk]

Words fail me, they must have the collective IQ of about 5 between them. Lets hope the children are not returned to these poor excuses for women and are placed somewhere with a chance of a decent upbringing. My heart bleeds when I think of some of the situations that poor little children are having to suffer these days.

[newtron]

One time when I was a kid, my brother began hitting me in front of my grandparents. I looked at them, expecting them to make him stop. Instead, they told me to hit him back and encouaged me to fight back. Looking back, I feel I learned a good lesson that day. You can't always expect someone to solve your problems for you. I think my story is a little different than the news report above, as my grandparents didn't encourage us to start fighting, but my point is that this story is not as shocking as many are making it out to be. As samuel23 states, there are definitely worse ways that children can be abused.

[joko]

samuel - you ask "what's the difference here then?"
well there isn't one.

your dad should not have done that, same as these kids parents shouldn't.

just because something is not technically illegal does not make it ok.
boxing clubs allow this sort of thing for 5 year olds simply because they can and because, as this thread proves, there is always some idiot willing to send their kids there to 'toughen them up'
young kids are too young to understand why their parents are standing there baying and cheering as they get kicked and punched, and why they are being protected by the people who are supposed to.

it may be teaching them how to fight (or be thugs, which is what it amounts to), but it is also teaching them to hit first think later, to think their parents don't care, to feel frightened, worthless, resentful and angry.

it is parenting at it worst

[mankymonky]

Why must i share air with these people, lets have a good clear out of all the scum in this country...

[samuel23]

Joko, do you mean to tell me that when you were at school, if you were in the playground at break time and one of your peers took a dislike to you and punched you, that you wouldn't have hit them back?
I agree that standing and goading toddlers isn't what amounts to good parenting, but at the same time how are these kids going to cope with bullies and thugs at school if they think every time they get hit and cry they are going to be protected? It will just make them targets for even more abuse until, one day, they either commit suicide or get themselves a knife or gun and go to the school and exact their own revenge.

[NJOK]

I think it's horrific making children fight for no reason. I mean, if they'd wagered a few quid on the outcome, you could understand it....

Seriously, though, on samuel's point, there is a huge difference between making kids scrap with each other and sending them to a boxing club. Which is why boxing is being brought back into schools.

[samuel23]

Newtron - got to say thanks for the supporting reply and ask did it do either of us any harm? I don't think so! we are both on here and capable enough to put forward some reasonable replies to the question. Speaking for myself, I'd like to think I'm a well balanced person that doesn't go out looking for trouble and getting into fights. On the other hand, I'm not scared to go out, and I can look after myself.

NJOK ~ thanks for your voice of reason. Boxing, far from being the barbaric bloodfest that many make it out to be, is a great way of building self confidence, and instilling self-discipline.