SINGAPORE: A woman who was concerned about her neighbour’s child took to social media asking how she could help. In an anonymous post to popular confessions page SGWhispers, the woman wrote that her neighbour upstairs had a child with Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and constantly throws tantrums and cries often.
“But rather than dealing with it peacefully, I can always hear the parents shouting and screaming loudly back at the kid in a military tone, asking him shut up, saying he is stupid etc.. thereby causing further stress to the kid. Being a parent myself, I can understand that the parents are also stressed up and probably tried to deal with his tantrums until their patience runs out”. However, she added that she did not see how the adults shouting would improve the situation.
She added that she came from a broken and abusive family and felt that her parents scolding her was rather traumatising. Even without physical abuse, the woman said that the child would probably be emotionally scarred for life. “Every time when I hear the kid’s crying, I had to shuffle between the thoughts of calling on the police or the anti-abuse hotline (which btw is a joke as they only operate during office hours) and even tried to intervene myself by confronting the neighbour, but I think due to that they seem to be more cautious/ avoiding towards me”, the woman wrote asking how she could best help her neighbours. She also wondered if she was being too sensitive and should just stay out of her neighbours’ matters.
One netizen who commented on the post said: “At the very least: Call the police. Having the police show up may help the parents realise that the situation they have at home is not normal. At the very least, they’ll know that their neighbours can hear what’s going on really well. It may not help at all, of course. But there’s at least a chance that it jolts them into having some awareness”. Another netizen commented: “You can only observe passively, if there are signs of abuse that’s very obvious, then call the authorities. Nowadays a lot of stressed up parents end up killing their own kids or torturing them to death. Often, it’s not that they wanted this outcome, but they are human too, and sometimes people find it extremely difficult to seek help on their own. If you can prevent a bigger tragedy, why not?”