In a post that is very quickly going viral, a man has published an image of a letter addressing the parents who humiliated his 80-year-old father for attempting to talk to their young son.
The post, shared on Reddit under the title, faith in community slips away a little more…, shows an image of a letter hung up in the posters local shopping centre.
“To the parent(s) of a young child,” the letter begins.
“In the week ending September 10, 2017, my 80-year-old father spoke kindly to a young boy in the prominent supermarket in Winmalee. This gesture ended with the child having a friendly hand rest briefly on his head or shoulder.”
“At his car, my father was challenged by a plain-clothed police officer. This lead to confusion and upsettedness expressed.”
The letter in full.
The letter ends on note asking society to be more open-minded and saying, “I can not express how much your actions of alarm has struck at the confidence of an older man.”
Many male commenters are finding they can relate to the situation.
I was in Sydney park with my 4 year old the other day, watching him scooter around at the designated area for this type of shenanigans when a kid fell of their bike right in front of me. I went over to the crying kid to pick the bike off him and ask if he was ok.
I picked him up and asked where his parents where and as he turned around to obviously point in their direction I heard the shrill of his mum telling me to get away from her kid. She shoved me and yelled at me until a nice lady came over who had observed the incident, and explained that I was being nice.
No apology. She just dragged her kid away and loudly told him not to speak to strange men. I still haven’t been able to explain why the lady was angry with me to my 4 year old.
Do we need to be more careful before jumping to conclusions when we see a man talking to a young child, or is it necessary evil to protect our children from harm?
What do you think?
