Having a child throw a tantrum in public can be one of the most horrifying parenting experiences. Any parent who finds themselves in the situation often would like nothing more than sympathy and understanding from others as they try to calm their child.
A security guard on the KRL Commuterline was recently accused of hostility towards a mother and her tantrum-throwing son after a video of the incident went viral.
The clip, taken by an onlooker on a Bogor-Jakarta train on Sunday afternoon, begins with a woman trying to comfort her screaming son, who appeared to be upset that he was awakened from his nap.
A security guard then approaches them before he and the mother have an inaudible discussion. The woman and her son soon disembarks at the next station, with the video suggesting that they were ordered off the train by the security guard.
Amid public outrage towards the security guard, KRL Commuterline spokesman Leza Arlan yesterday clarified that their employee was actually trying to help the mother.
“Our officer tried to help the mother to calm her son down, but to no avail,” he said.
The security guard also defended himself on Instagram, saying that it was the mother who decided to disembark the train so as to not bother other passengers with her son’s blood-curdling screams.
We sure hope the KRL Commuterline and security guard’s version of the story is indeed what happened that day, because we can’t imagine how difficult it would be to calm down a child while surrounded by hostile people.
