It was Euty.
Hmmm,
Alright, frig it. I’ll take the leap…
Given what you describe I think someone should have used the woman for a trampoline. She was way wrong. The child wasn’t even being disrespectful.
BUT!
but…
I do believe a child should have her/his little ass handed to him for real disrespect…like: “I won’t eat roastbeef and you can’t make me. You can cram it!”
Now if my child said that to me I’d have to build a handicap ramp up to the house so she could get in and out of our home. But what if a stranger reached over and swatted her on the ass? See now I didn’t do it so I can’t get called for child abuse (which I think is totally fucking stupid). All I have to do is not press charges and no crime is committed (I didn’t do it and I ain’t pressing charges on the stranger) and my child is disciplined at the same time. Hmmm, maybe on to something here.
Model-Shipwright, we are not talking about what you described.
There have been plenty of threads about corporal punishment. Do a search or start your own. The OP was about an unwarranted assault, on a child, by a stranger. Let’s keep discussion confined to that.
I imagine Model-Shipwright’s vitriol will earn him quite a bit in the way of response. Fear not, Vixenation, your thread shall not be hijacked. I opened a new thread where we can all tear Model to little tiny pieces. Or I can be whooshed, one or the other.
[url=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171465]Model-Shipwright, come on down!**
Ah, poo. Been up too late.
My god I would have killed her. Long standing rule of my life is that I, and only I, am allowed to annoy, pester, swat, disgust, embarass, or yell at my little sisters. Any one else doing or attempting to so these things will be hunted to the ends of the earth and tortured. (My parents get a pass. Most of the time.)
Assaulting a child is wrong. Assaulting a child not under your care is criminal. (Assaulting a child under your care is criminal, but the bar is higher.)
Hug the sis for me, poor kid.
Thank you so much for all of your kind words, everyone! I talked to my sister today on the phone and told her that most grown-ups were really nice, that my friends here had been thinking of her, and that the lady was wrong. She said, “That’s okay, she was crazy anyway.” 
I am not looking for a fight, and I am not saying what the older woman did was right but, in the interest of fighting ignorance, I feel I have to point out that what she did was quite common when I was growing up. I guess most of you are either younger than I am or just don’t remember what it was like, back then.
It used to be accepted that, if an adult witnessed a child misbehaving and the child’s parent did not, or the parent witnessed it but did not discipline the child, it was perfectly acceptable for the witnessing adult to discipline the child. It was even expected; almost an obligation to the community. The idea being that it was everyone’s job to see that no more “juvenile delinquents” were created, and “backtalk” was the first step down the road to delinquency. And, yes, any form of “talking back” to one’s parents was considered misbehaving, at least by some people. My parents were not like that, but most of our neighbors were.
A slap was not considered assault; it was considered discipline. Although, I believe this would have been considered a bit of an overreaction, even back then. A verbal chastisement would probably have been considered more appropriate, where I grew up. Times change; some people don’t. I suspect this lady is still living in the fifties or sixties. And, no, I am not saying she was right.
I’m going to second what Davebear said. Even though it is now unthinkable, when I was a kid I remember my father telling my football coach (I was about 10) that is he needed to he could just kick my ass (in a very literal sense). I am forty now.
I’d never hit a child, my own or someone else’s. But I would, and have, disciplined children that are not my own. In one case I grabbed one and took away a weapon. The child’s mother thought this was assault and threatened, in the most foul and nasy manner possible, to sick her thuggish Baltimore policeman husband on me. Since her adorable little brat was about to brutalize another, slightly smaller child with a five iron I didn’t regret my decision, although I’d guess that I could have possibly been arrested for intervening. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Vixenation, sorry about your little sister. It might help to explain to her that although it doesn’t pardon their actions, older people generally grew up in a different world.
It’s a shame that the cops weren’t called on this lady, but I fully understand. I know exactly how it is, that in the heat of the moment, you can be just too damned surprised to do what you’d do if you only had a moment to think about it.
Vixenation, I’m glad your sister seems to have bounced back from the experience. And since you live in northern Virginia, let me invite you to join our local gatherings, if you’re so inclined. (Our last one was at a restaurant in Tysons Mall, coincidentally.) Look for threads in this forum with “MAD” in the title; it’s short for “Mid-Atlantic Dopers”.
And you thought that crazy old ladies* in the mall were dangerous… 
Now available in multiple cat models
Davebear and ShibbOleth, I’m only 19, but I’m definitely aware that people used to act this way. In fact, that was one of my first thoughts when I heard that it was an older woman. But I thought such behaviors were kind of antiquated and frowned upon now; that’s why it came as such a surprise to me.
Thanks for the invite, RTFirefly! Right now I’m in Northern Maryland at school, but I’ll try my best to join you all sometime. 
Vixenation, you are aware, your sister might not be. It might help that she understands this, if you or your Mom haven’t already discussed that with her.
And Maryland is such a wee state (as long as you’re not traveling East-West on I-68), maybe you can make it down there sometime.
Maybe the old broad was just taken aback that a little girl didn’t like roast beef! <JK> She might have had 60 years worth of undigested beef in her colon (like the PETA billboards say).
Of course I’m just joking, don’t think for a second I condone an old lady hitting your sister for any reason. The old lady needs to be in a place where all she gets is bread and water (yeah, I know they get more than that in jails, it’s just a figure of speech).
I was born in the fifties. If a stranger had slapped me as a child my father would have had a fit. If they were lucky.
If they were unlucky my mother would have been the one they had to deal with.
You don’t hit someone elses child. Period.
Hear Hear!!
I see that there are really three separate issues here.
1.) No one has a right to hit someone else’s child/children shouldn’t be hit period.
2.) Your sister wasn’t even misbehaving (what was up with that??)
3.) Do strangers have a right to “discipline” misbehaving kids?
1 and 2, I am in total agreement with. I rarely spanked my kids past the mild little swats they got as toddlers. And neither of them got spanked at all past age 8 or 9. As for a stranger to SLAP one? Good grief.
Now as to three, I disagree with some of the other posters’ assertions that you don’t even have a right to say anything to a child not yours. If a child is being a total brat, particularly if the stranger is being affected, that stranger should have a right to “the look” or even a “where is your MOTHER”? or “Behave yourself”!!!
(quick example, in the sauna at the college the other day 3 little pre-teens were running in and out every 30 seconds, I finally had enough when one stood there with the door open chatting to her friends about how she was too hot and going to take yet another shower. I said “Girls! either in or out, you’re letting all the heat out opening the door all the time”! Apparently their moms had left them off too early for open swim and they were bored and kiling time).
When people my age were kids, it was a very common and accepted (and often gratefully received by weary moms) practice for acquaintances, distant relatives and even strangers (in those days generally other moms) to give a child a short quick lesson in manners by way of the aforementioned “look” or “verbal correction”.
You imagined wrong…
And I concur with davebear and shibboleth, I’ve had many a next door neighbor whip my ass for mouthing off or other things. I deserved every one of those ass whippings. Don’t mean to hijack, clearly this case is different, even IMHO.
I highly disagree with the old woman’s actions. It’s none of her business.
Furthermore, I do not believe that “I don’t like roast beef, can we have something else too?” is disrespectful. The girl was merely making a statement of her dislike, and a request for something else.
Now, if she had said, “Mom, you stupid fucking bitch. You know I hate roast beef, and if you even think about making it, I will shove the whole damn roast up your ass and bury it in your appendix!”…that would be a little more disrespectful.
Fuck. Stupid broad.