A clip of a woman berating and even pinching the ear of a small boy in a mall has drawn the ire of many netizens, who condemned her behaviour.
The video, which was posted on crowdsourced news site Stomp on Monday (Mar 21), shows a woman standing over a young boy who seems to be struggling with his shoelaces.
At one point, she yells at him and bends down to tie the laces herself.
When the boy touches the laces again, she reaches out to twist his ear.
The boy then winces in pain and holds on to his ear.
The woman then points at the boy and walks away.
In what appears to be separate clip, a man can be seen saying a few words to the boy and then walking in the same direction as the woman.
A stomper who goes by “Wenqing” sent the video to Stomp, and said the incident took place on Saturday afternoon at 313@Somerset mall, outside Sushi Express.
Wenqing told Stomp: “What prompted me to take a video was that she actually kicked the boy twice when he was kneeling down to tie his shoelaces, while he was trying his best to do it in accordance to the way the woman wanted. I was so shocked.”
She added that even though onlookers stared at the woman, she kept on yelling at the boy and he was red-faced and looked upset.
Later on, she said, she saw the woman, man, and boy sitting inside the restaurant. Figuring that “nothing violent’” would happen, she then left.
Wenqing said she did not report the incident, but felt sorry for the boy and was “disturbed and bewildered” by the woman’s actions.
“The woman’s actions are very barbaric. Whether she is his mother or not, it is not right to treat a child in such a manner. I wonder what is happening at home and am concerned that this incident will scar the boy psychologically. Is this an appropriate manner of parenting?,” she told Stomp.
Like Wenqing, many netizens expressed sympathy for the young boy. They commented on the Facebook pages of Stomp and AsiaOne.
Some even expressed concern about how the boy is treated at home.
However, there were others who commented that instead of taking a video of the incident, Wenqing could have stepped in and helped out.
Some commented that she should not have made the video available for public viewing.
/TISG