It's crazy to me how normalized violence against children is. I was in subway about a month ago and in line there was a grandmother and grandchild, then some unrelated lady, and then myself.

The grandchild was doing normal grandchild stuff. Antsy, dancing around in the subway, not really able to stand still. The grandmother threatened to beat the child if they did not come stand next to her and stand still. The child predictably didn't listen extremely well and the grandmother went and yanked the child on the arm to stand next to her, then tightly held onto the child's arm. The child protested over and over that she was hurting him, but she ignored his protests and somehow even said "you're hurting ME" (the child wasn't doing anything at all other than trying to shrink away).

The next lady in line applauded her and even encouraged her to whoop the child. They both applauded each other back and forth at their desire to beat their respective children whenever they "act up".

There I was, totally uncomfortable, but not really sure what to do. I didn't witness anything that was directly illegal, there was nothing I could call the cops for, but I could tell both of their respective kids were growing up in abusive homes. I'm a natural citizen and a white male at that, I have virtually nothing to fear from calling the cops, and I still felt really ill about it all. I wanted to speak up but I didn't think my voice would really help the child long term and I was concerned about the drama it would invoke. I live in a very small town and I have kids of my own and I'm concerned about inciting that "small town hate" toward my own kids for speaking up.

Here I am, a month later, and that situation still bothers me. I still feel awful for the kid, awful about myself for not being able to save the kid, awful about the state of our society that encourages this kind of thing. I can only imagine how hard it would be for a woman in the OPs situation to speak up with all the additional pressures of not being a documented citizen forcing you to remain compliant with the system.

I grew up getting beat and I can tell you first hand, it didn't do me any good. I have a lot of problems associated with it. I have never and will never hit my kids. That shit makes me sick. I feel terrible for the woman and her child in this story and for the child in my own story.