Parents allegedly beat daughter at HDB void deck; passerby tries to stop them

A resident in Singapore was shocked to find parents beating and "aggressively hitting" their own child in public. The passerby even shared that he tried to stop them but to no avail, as the couple dragged their daughter away. 

The unpleasant incident was shared on Facebook by user Jackie Tan on Friday (Sept 3), who found the behaviour of the parents unacceptable.

Many netizens seemed to agree with him, so much so that his post went viral. 

Parents allegedly beating their child in public

In his post, Mr Tan uploaded photos of the parents who were allegedly beating their child at a Housing and Development Board void deck.

The images show the couple handling their daughter who was dressed in a teal shirt roughly. The father could also be seen grabbing the child by her arm while her mother held her ears.

After witnessing the mistreatment of the child, Mr Tan wrote, "Every parents [have] their own ways to teach their children but I can never tolerate parents hitting their kids in public [sic]."

Stranger tried to stop parents from hitting their daughter

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Concerned for the child's safety, Mr Tan reported that he approached the couple and asked them to stop. 

But once he confronted the parents, they allegedly shouted back at him. They told him that she was their daughter and moved on to drag her away. 

"When we approach you to ask you to stop, you proudly shouted she's your daughter, yet you aggressively hit her in front of us [and] drag her away. You'll turn old in [the] near future," wrote Mr Tan. 

Passerby assures own kids he would not do the same to them

Mr Tan's wife and kids were also there with him to witness these parents hitting their daughter. This prompted the kids to question him on whether he would do the same to them. 

He wrote in his post, "My poor kids saw everything and whispered to my wife, 'Will papa do this to me next time?' I gave her my assurance this will never happen."

While we all have our own ways of disciplining our children, as parents we should also be cautious of our children's mental well being, especially when outside. Shaming and/or using violence is not the solution and neither is it a good way to discipline children.

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In fact, researchers from UCL saw that kids who had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were subjected to poorer outcomes in life as compared to those who did not.

The most common ACEs are parental depression, harsh parenting, smacking, use of force between parents and parental alcohol misuse.

As for this particular case, we can only hope that parents use it a lesson and spare their children from public embarrassment and violence. 

If you suspect anyone is suffering from domestic abuse, you can report it to the police or call 999 in cases of an immediate threat. You can also contact your nearest Family Service Centre or call other helplines as listed below:

• NAVH: 1800 777 0000
• AWARE: 1800 777 5555
• Samaritans of Singapore: 1800-221 4444
• Singapore Association for Mental Health: 1800-283-7019
• Care Corner Counselling Centre (Mandarin): 1800-353-5800

This article was first published in theAsianparent.