'You're very stupid': Mum caught verbally abusing child in public while tutoring at Buangkok

It's common for parents to get frustrated when teaching or tutoring their child, but one woman has drawn flak from netizens for vulgarly reprimanding a girl in a public space.

Taking to TikTok on Saturday (Aug 31), a parent who only wanted to be known as Mrs Lu shared a two-minute-long clip of a mother telling off her daughter while teaching her math, deeming it "mental and verbal abuse".

The 44-year-old tertiary lecturer told AsiaOne the incident occurred at a rest area in Buangkok Community Club on Friday evening.

In the video, the woman can be heard telling the child: "You better use your brain. If your brain never wake up, you better tell me... I help your brain to wake up (sic)."

When the girl later appears to answer a question wrongly, the woman, who was initially calm at the beginning, becomes agitated.

"I'm going to tell the whole world you're very f****** stupid," she says, to which the child supposedly replies "okay".

"I'm angry now... You want to piss me off right?" the woman continues. "You tired not my f****** problem okay. I don't give a damn (sic)."

Mrs Lu told AsiaOne she was waiting for her child to complete their tuition lesson when she heard the mother admonishing her daughter, who appears to be about 10 years old.

She filmed the clip about 20 to 30 minutes after the telling-off started and showed it to the staff at the community club to stop the woman.

However, she was purportedly informed that the staff could not do anything about the situation and advised to move to another area if she found it too loud.

"[After that], an old lady and I were talking in Chinese and tried to hint the mother that it was not nice to teach and scold her child in public," recounted Mrs Lu. 

"She heard what we said and told us to 'mind our f****** business'."

'No patience, don't teach'

The mother's harsh words drew flak from netizens, with one commenting that it was "pressuring" the girl.

"And parents like this wonder why their children are still not doing well in their studies. When parents act like this, children will be more scared to ask anyone for help due to this," said a TikTok user.

Another opined: "No point [being good in math] if you destroy the child's morale and confidence by publicly shaming her this way. As an adult it's not the formulas that will haunt you but words like this."

"No patience, don't teach," wrote a netizen.

However, some netizens defended the woman.

"I think it’s not very nice to video shame the mum like that. She might not be doing the right thing but I’m sure all mums are trying their very best," said one.

Added another: "I think we should not pass judgement on her unless we know her situation. At least she is trying hard."

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com