When witnessing a child being...

[Luba]

yelled at, put down, or any form of unloving 'abuse' by a parent...would you intervene...if so, how?

[TKDLady]

Unless it was obvious physical abuse and depending on where it was I probably wouldn't. Being yelled at or what appears to be unloving may just be a part of a whole that you don't know about. You may be viewing something out of context if you know what I mean. I don't think parents should be that way in public but I know I have blown up at my kids at a park or in a store but it was something that built up. I certainly wouldn't have wanted someone to come up to me and tell me I was being a bad parent because they certainly don't know the whole story and they don't know me. I realize that isn't the case always and there are parents out there that deserve to be hung up by their toes and stripped of all parental rights but unless it was obviously turning out to be beyond normal adult/child frustration than I would leave them alone. Just because you yell at your children or swat them on the butt occasionally doesn't make you a bad parent. It happens, we all have bad days. It is how you deal with the aftermath and how you are most of the time that counts. One bad day doesn't wipe out the years of loving parent/child relationship.