Fortunately, it's not Hanley that is the biting toddler I am referring to but unfortunately, Hanley was on the receiving end of a bite from a toddler...
Here's the story:
One of my best friends and I took our kids to our local malls play area. It was packed with kids and their moms on this early morning. Our kids are playing, going down the slide, running around, climbing on things, etc. Hanley was standing in a play boat when this little boy, probably in between 2 and 3 years old comes up to her and grabs a hold of her by her shoulders. She was trying to get away from his grip so I started making my way to her to help and to tell the little boy he needed to be gentle. As I was getting closer, he had pulled her into him and had his mouth on the side of her chin/jaw area. I honestly thought he was trying to kiss her, as I even said out loud "aw Hanley, he's trying to give you a kiss". At this point, she started crying and again, I still just thought she was upset because she couldn't escape this grip. So I picked her up and took her back to where I was sitting and the boys mom had came and got him as well and took him back to her seat. Much to my dismay, she had teeth marks on the side of her jaw line... That mean little boy wasn't trying to kiss her, he had full intentions of biting her and that's exactly what he did!
So my question to you, especially anyone that is a mom of a smaller child, what would you have done?
It's very easy to hear the story and be enraged and say you would have done something to the little boy, but if some random adult in a play area were to put their hands on my daughter, I may not be here, in the comforts of my own home, able to write this...
Do you see the teeth marks and take your kid to the parents to show what their kid did? Do you let it go and watch out for that same kid? Do you say something to the kid? Do you leave? I don't know. If Hanley bit some other kid and I was unaware of it, I would want to know; not by a screaming parent, but rather to be aware of the situation and the fact that she did that so I could watch for it in the future.
Personally, when this happened to Hanley, it all happened so quick and I didn't even realize it had happened before she had her kid away from mine, all the way at the other end of the play area. I decided to let it go and just watch out for him. I felt sad for Hanley that this little boy targeted her and wanted to be so mean.
If this had happened to Aubrey, I would definitely tell the boys mother and probably end up leaving.
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