Wee Baby Stuff

I know that this is not strictly a Wee Baby issue, but it's something that it can't hurt to have a game plan for for the future. Discipline or the lack of it. Here's what happened and my question is "What would you do?"

Yesterday we were in our common-area back garden with Dilly and Teddy, there were a few people out, most of whom we knew and one little boy of about 7 that we didn't.
The 7 year old raced around, doing 7 year old stuff, which was fine. Until He picked up a rock the size of my fist and chunked it at me, as hard as he could from 4 foot away. Hard enough to lodge it into the space between my arm and my body.

"HEY" I shouted.
He looked around furtively at the person he was with, who was talking to someone else and hadn't noticed.
He started to take off.
"You WAIT" I said. He waited. Eyes darting away.
"Look at me" He looked, turning bright red.
"Throwing rocks is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. It's DANGEROUS and you could REALLY hurt someone."
"Sorry" the kid mumbled very quietly.

I didn't say "That's OK" because it really really wasn't, but he darted off and hid behind one of the landscaping rocks. The person who he was with finally looked up and as he sunk to the floor and curled in a ball.
"He threw a rock at me" I told her, she looked embarrassed and said to him "Ok, you need to apologise." He sunk further and completely ignored her. She wheedled him, "Come on honey, you need to say you're sorry". Nothing. More pleading.
Eventually, I told her that he had already apologised and she went back to her conversation.

Now I get that she wasn't this kid's parent, BUT, saying nothing? Really?

I think probably one of the few times I ever got spanked as a kid was for tossing pebbles at my brother and sister (I'm not saying that spanking is the answer, in fact, I'm pretty sure it's not).
But I do think that there should be consequences to a kid's actions. Telling a kid that what they did was wrong is OK with me. I'm even OK with that same kid curling up in a ball behind a rock. Because when you screw up you should own it, and feeling bad for a while won't kill you.

But if it was my kid throwing the rocks, and who knows, in the future it might be, I would be the one doing the telling, and I would be the one taking then home, "RIGHT-THIS-SECOND-MISTER".

And I would do the same for any kid in my care, and I HOPE that anybody else would do the same if they happened to be looking after Teddy and he behaved like that. But really, my aim is  that nobody else should HAVE to discipline my kid, I want him to know, without trying it out, that throwing great big rocks at people is NOT OK.

So, that's the story. Do you think I as too harsh? That I should have let his carer deal with him? That I should feel bad for making a 7 year old hide behind a rock?

Please do leave a comment, I would love to know what you would do.

• moral
• dilemma
• discipline