I guess I opened myself up to the hard questions, huh?

That’s definitely a tough situation. My heart would go out to the little boy, but truth be told, I would not intervene. Why? Because it’s not my battle, and making it my battle would likely backfire causing more suffering for the child.

Sort of like helping a chick out of its shell rather than letting it peck itself out, you end up harming or killing the chick.

Not an exact analogy, but it gets the point across. Who’s battle is it then? Who’s going to intervene for the child? It would be best if one of the silent family members did so. It would be better, but highly unlikely, if the adult man could see the fear in the child’s eyes and stop his own childish behavior.

If a stranger were to intervene, especially one with no social authority, then you risk becoming embattled by the entire family. Now how would that work out for the child when everyone goes home? Not only are they afraid of the one adult, but now they’ve seen the rest of the family stand up for the child-man and know that they have no allies among loved ones.

Pure speculation, I know. But just wanted to highlight a possibility. The key question I always ask myself, is this my fight or is this someone else’s fight? I have no solid answer and it always depends on the various contexts of the situation. In that particular scenario, I would choose not to intervene, because I believe I would most likely make it worse and take away from someone closer to the child’s opportunity to stand up against the child-man.

Hope that makes sense! I don’t claim that it’s the right answer, just my answer.