Disturbing Post - Raises Serious Questions

[sbhdmh]

On the MSC board a poster recently stated the following:

 

"My sister had an Italian kid (7 or 8) tell her she was going to get her throat cut by him if she didn’t let him make an ass out of himself in the adults only hot tub. I pinched his little Italian ass so hard under the water he was crying for hours, told him there was a piranha in there ha-ha. Deserves him right! Brats! Don’t bring your Euro Trash to America to act like that!"

 

While clearly this child was behaving inappropriately I am disgusted that someone would not only physically abuse a child on board a cruise ship but go so far as to brag about it afterwards. It has made me wonder just what would/should happen in this sort of circumstance. If you are floating in international water exactly what standards apply in this sort of situation? If an adult was punched by another passenger I assume security would probably be all over it. Unfortunately some cultures do not view child abuse with as little tolerance as we may be used to in our home countries. (Sadly this is often true of sexual abuse as well, whether the vicitim is an adult or a child.) If someone on board physically abused your child what would you do? What response would you expect? How could you follow up if the cruise line doesn't take it seriously? I am a bit shaken by this because I realize this poster was also on our recent Indy cruise with my 5 year old dd. Any thoughts?

[notentirelynormal]

On the MSC board a poster recently stated the following:

 

"My sister had an Italian kid (7 or 8) tell her she was going to get her throat cut by him if she didn’t let him make an ass out of himself in the adults only hot tub. I pinched his little Italian ass so hard under the water he was crying for hours, told him there was a piranha in there ha-ha. Deserves him right! Brats! Don’t bring your Euro Trash to America to act like that!"

 

While clearly this child was behaving inappropriately I am disgusted that someone would not only physically abuse a child on board a cruise ship but go so far as to brag about it afterwards. It has made me wonder just what would/should happen in this sort of circumstance. If you are floating in international water exactly what standards apply in this sort of situation? If an adult was punched by another passenger I assume security would probably be all over it. Unfortunately some cultures do not view child abuse with as little tolerance as we may be used to in our home countries. (Sadly this is often true of sexual abuse as well, whether the vicitim is an adult or a child.) If someone on board physically abused your child what would you do? What response would you expect? How could you follow up if the cruise line doesn't take it seriously? I am a bit shaken by this because I realize this poster was also on our recent Indy cruise with my 5 year old dd. Any thoughts?

 

I'm confused. A 7 YO threatened to cut someone's throat? Then told this person she had let them make an ass out of themself? A 7 YO threatened he HAD to be allowed to be an ass or else? Seriously - NO 7 YO tells me what to do. Are you not an adult? Tell the kid to get out of the hot tub! Where were the parents? Its an ignorant comment made by an ignorant person and should be ignored. NO ONE better touch my child, or any child like that. The biggest question would be - why, why would any parent let a 7 YO be alone in a hot tub with strangers. Why would any self respecting adult be threatened by a 7 YO? It makes no sense.

[CanadianTwosome]

I'm confused. A 7 YO threatened to cut someone's throat? Then told this person she had let them make an ass out of themself? A 7 YO threatened he HAD to be allowed to be an ass or else? Seriously - NO 7 YO tells me what to do. Are you not an adult? Tell the kid to get out of the hot tub! Where were the parents? Its an ignorant comment made by an ignorant person and should be ignored. NO ONE better touch my child, or any child like that. The biggest question would be - why, why would any parent let a 7 YO be alone in a hot tub with strangers. Why would any self respecting adult be threatened by a 7 YO? It makes no sense.

 

I have to agree, this is all quite bizarre. I also agree with the OP that realizing this individual had been on board with my child would give me the heeby jeebies. Of course, my daughter wouldn't ever enter the adults only hot tub, nor would she ever be alone with strange adults, so it's a moot point, but still... what a nasty person.

 

Anyway, to answer the original question, I've been in situations where kids were in places they shouldn't be, not following rules, etc. and my first question to them is always to ask where their parents are, and then I voice my issue with them. If there was an unsupervised 7-8 year old in an adults-only hot tub who refused to point out his parents (and/or was misbehaving/rude/threatening), I would simply inform a staff member that there was a 'lost little boy' in the hot tub who needed to be taken to find his parents. :p

[zippehsmom]

I have to agree, this is all quite bizarre. I also agree with the OP that realizing this individual had been on board with my child would give me the heeby jeebies. Of course, my daughter wouldn't ever enter the adults only hot tub, nor would she ever be alone with strange adults, so it's a moot point, but still... what a nasty person.

 

Anyway, to answer the original question, I've been in situations where kids were in places they shouldn't be, not following rules, etc. and my first question to them is always to ask where their parents are, and then I voice my issue with them. If there was an unsupervised 7-8 year old in an adults-only hot tub who refused to point out his parents (and/or was misbehaving/rude/threatening), I would simply inform a staff member that there was a 'lost little boy' in the hot tub who needed to be taken to find his parents. :p

 

I agree with response. Not only to remove a child that was misbehaving, but for his safety also.

[sbhdmh]

I think that there are a couple of issues here. Obviously the child should never have been allowed to behave that way - adult only hot tub, rude/obnixious behavior, threatening physical harm - and his parents should have been contacted by either the passengers involved or by the crew. That is a separate issue - certainly appropriate to be discussed on the Family Board - but separate. My question, though, is about responding to a passenger who takes it upon himself to physically discipline/abuse/assault the child.

 

At home I would call the police and report it as a crime, whether the child involved was mine or not. On a cruise, though, are we at the mercy of what the security personnel think is appropriate? There was a thread recently about a woman who was assaulted as she was leaving a Carnival ship as a member of the staff stood by doing nothing (even as she hid behind him to keep from being hit again.) In the responses several people commented on similar non-reactions by ship's security officers even when it involved inappropriate sexual behavior towards minors...

 

As a parent I am putting my dd into an environment with thousands of people with different backgrounds, temperments and states of mental health. As I said in my original post security would probably jump in to break up a fight between 2 adults and escort someone off the ship at the next port. Can we expect the same things if someone does something like this to a child on board? I kind of doubt it. What then can we expect and what can we do if we observe something like this happening?

[sandytoes03]

OH MAN! I had a good laugh with this one!:D;)

[sas80]

Ladies and gentlemen, I think this was a "hit and run" post..... ;)