! ROFL!  I had forgotte that reference!  I am sorry I cannot give you more than one insightful!  maybe Brad can tweak it to give you 5 stars!  Fantastic!

Tova - re-read his response.  Let me draw your attention to the bolded part.  It is not a carte blanche.

RE-read Mason's blog.

To quote: "They were jumping, yelling, hopping up on the counter, playing with the soda fountain, and basically running amok"

We are not talking about a child who just accidentally walked by a grouchy man and stepped on his foot by accident. We are talking about children that were hopping up on the counter, playing with the soda fountain and just being out of control.

My wife nor myself would allow our children to behave like that.  And if they were out of control like that and accidentally hurt an adult, yea, I would meekly take an adult reprimenading my child in the way Mason did because I would feel shame for not having raised my children properly.

Do I think there's only one way for children to be raised? Not at all.  But in my experience, the kids that can't control themselves are the ones who end up living poorer lives in the long term.  Mason didn't lose control here. He snagged teh child b ythe shoulder and told him in a serious voice that he should go sit down before someone got hurt. 

We aren't talking about how YOu raise your children. We are talking about the children in Mason's blog.  IF your children behave in the way the ones in Mason's blog do, then it does apply to you, otherwise you're being defensive.

The one example you did give doesn't make your child look bad, only you in that you taught your child that it is okay to be malicious.  I am sure maliciousness can make someone king of the trailer park but it is not a very good life skill.

The issue is that they were acting out BEFORE they stepped on Mason's toes.  The time to be disciplined was before they interacted with Mason, not after.

And what we are saying is that we have seen children so out of control that it would make sense.  Last week at baseball, my 5 year old son got mad at another kid and pushed him off the stands and hurt him (not badly but enough to make him cry). The other kid had smacked my son in the face. But my son's reaction was over the top and I disciplined him right then and there and told him mom what had happened.  But I have seen plenty of cases where a mom will sit there and let their kids hurt other kids or disrupt adult activities. I wouldn't grab a kid over anything like that and generally rely on my kids to resolve inter-kid stuff themselves. 

But there is a certain point where a child is so out of control, so disruptive that if the other parent hasn't put a stop to it themselves that I feel they've forfeited their rights and I feel free to intervene.  I've never actually had to do that with other children because I do interact with the adult first but that's only because it was more convenient for me to deal with the adult. If the adult had been further away, I would have dealt with the child (not physically). 

If I had been in Mason's shoes, I would have done the same thing, however.  I can picture the situation he describes and I've seen similar things.

That's fine, but we have a different opinion and that's all.  I think the onus is on parents to control their children, not on adults to tolerate children.  I know what it's like to have difficult children and I know they can be controlled with proper parenting.  If other parents want to let their kids run wild and free and out of control, that's fine as long as it's not harming me or my family. Children who lack discipline become adults who lack discpline and they end up at the bottom rungs of society as a result.  Too many parents ruin their children's futures by not being tougher in the present.

Unwise?  Perhaps in some cases.  Since this is not a kidnapping or custody issue, I doubt we can give that a carte blanche unwise.  You child is heading over a cliff on his bike.  I grab him and restrain him.  Unwise?  He steps on Mason's toes.  Mason is a teddy bear.  Mason does nothing.  The guy behind him has a short fuse.  he belts them across the room.  Unwise?

Absolutes have no business when you are talking about an abrogation of parental responsibility, and an out of control child.  Mason just may have saved that child from a real abuser.  best to pick your fights.

See above. You are under a mistaken impression that it is a tit for tat. it was not. And if you let your children run wild, best keep them in a cage. Your rights end at the tip of my nose, and that goes for your parental ones as well. Abrogate them, and deal with the consequences (peaceful as they are). NO ONE has stated anything about an adult abusing or tit for tatting a child.