Bullies Already

Recently my family and I took William to the mall to play at the indoor toddler area. We have taken him to a few different ones and he has always had fun and loves being around other kids.

However this trip was not a good one. Within a few minutes of playing an older little girl started following William around and telling him he couldn't play with certain things. Well he is one and had no clue what she was saying so I just watched as he went about his own way. She then came up to him and slapped him in the face! I immediately jumped up and went over to my son. He didn't cry or get upset he just looked puzzled. The little girls mother saw what happened and she handled the problem immediately, telling the girl what she did was wrong and put her in timeout. So we went on playing.

Not 10 minutes later a little boy started following William around. He soon started to come up to William and push him slightly. Of course his father was not watching, he was too busy texting the whole time. Then as William was about to climb up to go down the slide the little boy grabbed him by his pants and yanked him down! It just so happened that the little boys father saw this, since it happened right in front of him. He scolded his son and went back to texting.  I started to think maybe we should leave but my mom picked up William and moved him to a different area and she was playing with him so we stayed. Yet again a few minutes later as William was standing in front of my mother doing nothing but watching the other kids, that little boy came up and shoved William backwards and he fell and hit his head. Needless to say we were furious! The father had no clue. 

My son cried his eyes out and kept looking back at the little boy trying to figure out why he did that. My mom was about to march over to the father and say something, but I told her we would just leave. But I did go tell that little boy what he did was wrong and not nice. His older sister saw and after figuring out what happened she went and told her Dad. Well he came over and yanked the boy up by his arm and started yelling at him.

It became quite obvious why the boy had a behavior problem. His father again went right back to his phone. 

So my 14 month old still doesn't understand mean kids. And as a parent I'm left wondering what do other parents do in these situations. Times are different we have to fear other parents lashing out at us if we comment on their child's bad behavior or worse a physical altercation. So I ask other parents with more experience what would you / have you done in the same situation?