But more likely their parents don't know about the incident.

And unfortunately in some cases they don't care

#52 beat me to it. Some distant relatives came over to stay for 3 weeks, on the first day the child was breaking mirrors with glass. On the second day he broke my 250 USD headphones. On the third day he started a fire in the kitchen with some paper and a toaster. I had enough and told them to piss off, they stayed and wrecked someone else's house instead. I'm bringing this up because the father did nothing but give me an awkward smile, and avoid eye contact. It was only when I caught him rummaging through my stuff, that I found out it wasn't the child's fault just the parents. They bring them up this way. tl;dr me blowing off some steam.

Ya don't say?

Definitely! Some situation are MYOB!

She was probably flirting. Little girls hit boys they like, right? Lol

@12, i hate when people use that to justify hitting, then so many people wonder why boys and girls end up in abusive relationships later in life. it's because they're taught from an early age that "if s/he hits you it means s/he likes you." bugs me as much as "boys will be boys" and "kids will be kids." ugh.

I've NEVER heard that when a guy hits a girl it's because he likes her. I don't know that society can be blamed entirely for domestic violence. It's rather frowned upon nowadays and yet it still occurs.

@TahoeFMler Seeing children, or anybody, being bullied is never a MYOB situation. It may not always be wise to personally interfere, sometimes it is better to consult others and seek outside help (police for example.) But it is NEVER okay to see somebody being bullied and do nothing about it.

#22 I'm surprised you've never heard it. I know that when I was younger whenever a boy was mean to me or pushed me around I was told that it was because he liked me. Plenty of other girls are told the same when they are young and it's often teachers or sometimes their parents who tell them that.

Guess my sarcasm is off tonight...jeez. Lol... And #20 I don't think that's why people get into abusive relationships. I think it has to do more with they don't see their self worth and they cling to someone even if they're being abused...and they don't leave because they're too weak minded or too scared and want to be able to "change" their partner's ways. ...at least this has been true with the girls I've helped. Anyway, this got more serious than I expected. Can I retract my former comment and not get yelled at now please? :p

@36, i knew you were saying it jokingly, but that's part of the problem. it's all played off as something funny, but it's no funny to be mean. and i know abuse victims dont stay in bad relationships because they believe abuse =love (although sometimes they do) but what i meant is that when it's made into something less serious, people grow up justifying being abused, physically or mentally. "oh, they're just teasing", etc.

God forbid you ever look back at some of the comments on fmls from 2009. Everybody was mean back then (and they thought it was hilarious). You'd have a field day. The fml crowd of today is (for the most part) more compassionate and insightful...rather than just, "lol UR suxh a looser. Ydi lololol!!1!" Or perhaps we all just grew up. (;

#8 if you were being bullied would you want somebody to step in? If someone was hitting my kid I'd want somebody to step in. That whole if they hit you it means they like you thing is bullshit.

What is wrong with you 4? The OP didn't do anything wrong and kudos for trying to stick up for someone being bullied. Sometimes, you just can't let things be and in this case it didn't work but that doesn't mean it wasn't a noble thing to try.

I agree. Very sad, little sods.

I love hippos! OP, you should have just reminded them how deadly a hippo's bite is...

Oh, you say the same thing I did...and you didn't get a lesson on abusive relationships. How unfair. Lol

that's because of the haha at the end

it's also because the stuff about abusive relationships has already been said.

Yea I was lucky, some people must not understand that hitting in a flirty way doesn't even hurt the other person, hence it's not "an abusive relationship" I friendly punch my boyfriend all the time, as a 100 lb girl I don't feel like I'm abusing my 180lb boyfriend, society is just so sensitive now that they've blurred the truth between fun and games and an actual problem, sorry you got "the speech" because of something I've been doing since I was 4, but obviously I must have been an abusive toddler as well as I have my first crush a cute punch, the horror.