That is annoying, but if I expected moms and kids to rule anywhere, it would be Disneyworld 
Disney is a sanitized version of life and their own rules are a little crazy about things like smoking. So if you’re going to get an overreaction anywhere, it would probably be there.
By the way, am I the only one who originally read the thread title as “I shot the bird of a young child”?
“Oh no! You killed Tweety!”
No.
Am I the only one so puzzled over the pig euthanasia that the rest of the OP was rendered near moot?
Wow. I think you’re overgeneralizing a ton in this post. I agree that the mom should have reacted more appropriately, but so should the OP in the first place. To extrapolate that the child is being brought up poorly and to call the mom a “crotchpdropping, doublewide stroller driving, overprotective, overindulgent momzilla” seems like an enormous overreaction to the whole incident. Do you see this particular incident as being a broader representation of moms in general? If so, I would have to respectfully disagree.
I know that this is not the popular view in this culture, but I believe that respect is something that children owe to adults. Period. The business of respect being earned is something that comes up later, amongst equals. To my way of thinking, any child that accosts an adult like this is automatically in the wrong and needs to be corrected. Hell, when I was growing up this was a given and you can bet that adults other than my parents did not hesitate to pull me up if I needed it.
So yeah, I think that mother was raising that child poorly and is an indicator of the general trend in society.
The child didn’t accost her, though. In the OP, she said the mom was strapping the kid into the backseat when the kid made her remark. Still rude, but not as much.
I still disagree with you that one can determine that the kid is being brought up poorly from that one indcident; however, I do agree that kids need to respect their elders.
And I don’t see this as the kid “accosting” an adult. The kid made what he thought was an accurate statement, something that was probably learned from his mom or dad or both. It doesn’t sound as though he was trying to accost the adult - just tell his mom what he knew to be true (even if it was incorrect).
I get what you are saying, but that kid broke the 4th wall. Just not done and an act that calls for correction.
I think the opinions of both sides have been covered pretty well. So I just thought I’d share that my immediate reaction after reading the OP is that the scenario as described would make a great character introduction for some sort of badass in the opening scene of a movie. Denis Leary comes to mind. 
The pig had been a lifelong smoker, it was a mercy killing.
(LM works in animal research)
Wow, I haven’t thought of Denis Leary in forever! Good choice.
Lobstermobster: Welcome to San Francisco, huh? A year back, I was sitting on my porch (note: MY PORCH) and a fat woman with a shirt stained with ketchup, walking two of those freakish, Grim Reaper looking Afghan dogs walks by. She fake coughs. “That’s a disgusting habit,” she says, “put it out.”
Excuse me? Is a disheveled woman who needs an effing bib to eat a hamburger telling me to stop enjoying a legal cigarette in the sunshine? So I say “No.”
“Enjoy killing yourself,” she says and takes her Afghans away. Of course, half way down the block, one takes a dump in the street and she keeps walking.
So good luck smoking in this place. You can always use the great line an Texan ex-boss of mine used to use:
Nosy Prude: “You know those will kill you?”
Righteous Smoker: “So will butting into other people’s business.”
Kids and moms own the world at Disneyland? Say it ain’t so!
Next thing you know, the little buggers will monopolize sitting on Santa’s lap at Christmas.
Perfect example of my earlier thesis.
Another yes vote for LM’s action. In my youth, if I’d have said that to a stranger, I would have gotten a nice backhand right in the piehole.
And then my folks would have punished me.
They don’t own the hidden away smoking area clearly marked as a smoking area.
It was also just an example, I’ve run into other places. You know how there can be a room full of people and the cat will always gravitate towards the quiet one who doesn’t particularly want a cat on his lap? Mommies are like that. They’ll sense there’s someone alone, standing twenty feet away from everyone else, minding his own business, and they’ll immediately haul their kids over there. “Cough, cough. Oh, you’re smoking. Cough, cough. Hold your breath children, the smoking man is trying to kill us.”
After reading your OP, I don’t see how the child was being a total asshole. If I had to choose between 7-year-old or 23-year-old about who was being the jerk in this situation, I would guess the 23-year-old.
I too would be unhappy with an adult giving my child the bird, but I wouldn’t approach the adult about it because I have found that trying to teach adults politeness is a lost cause. I would just explain to my kid that shooting the bird was rude and the adult was very ill-mannered.
Well, I see that you disagree with the OP then:
And from what I read in the OP’s description, I don’t think that the child “accosted” the adult. The child repeated something to her mother that her mother presumably has told her (and something, to be honest, which is true): smoking is bad for you.
nonymouse, if you think that children need to treat adults with special consideration, then I would assume that it follows that adults need to treat children with special consideration too, and shooting a kid the bird is wrong.
Agh! I spent a long time searching for that one, only to find you beat me to it. :smack:
Yeah, whatever. The kid’s gotta learn what happens when you stick your face too far into other peoples’ business. That’s how we all learned it: by sticking our faces in other peoples’ business, and getting flipped off (or the verbal/physical equivalent) enough times to realize it was a bad idea. The idea of shielding the child from obscenity is utterly ridiculous: (1) I’ve yet to be convinced that it would actually accomplish anything, or prevent any specific problem, even if it worked; (2) the kid’s going to learn the naughty words and naughty gestures eventually, and then he’s gonna learn how to hide them from his mom. That’s how I did it, that’s how you did it, that’s how the OP did it and that’s how Cecil Adams did it.
Then don’t teach your child that. Teach your child that they can’t expect the rest of the world to react as nicely as they would, and they have to assume that people aren’t going to take everything in stride.
Seriously, do any of you guys remember being a kid? Maybe the girls lived in a delusional world of niceness and candy, but us boys aimed to out-offend each other on a daily basis. That kid’s going to get stuffed in a garbage can in a few years by a bigger classmate if he doesn’t learn when to keep his mouth shut–getting flipped off is a much easier way to learn.
I’m having trouble figuring out where the various parties’ ethnicities and sizes come into play here.
Bullshit. They’re a perfect teaching opportunity: mom can later say, “Remember that lady who was rude to you earlier? She was angry because you said something mean, but she shouldn’t have reacted that way.”
I don’t want to be played by Denis Leary!! I want Jeanine Garafalo. I sorta look like her anyways.
You guys all know I have verbal diarrhea right? I can’t stop myself. If I realized this anecdote sparked this much conversation I would let you know everytime I flip my shit in public. The time I threw a bag of Mcdonalds back through the drive-thru window bc the order was wrong and hit the dude in the head with it. The time I gave a 30 minute angry lecture to a waitress who accused me of putting my own hair in my food to get a free meal? All lobster classics
This reminds me of another time walking down the street smoking and some guy says “Those things are killers!” and I just screamed back “THATS DEBATEABLE!”
Usually the best approach to the anti-smoking people is let them believe you truly dont think there are any risks involved. Likes its a conspiracy.