Challenge the parents' child rearing methods

Someone really ought to do something about that you thought to yourself, squeezing the bench's armrest to release a little is the pent up frustration you felt for the child's unjust situation.

"Is everything alright?" The lady blandly asked, and you walked past her.

"Sir!" You called out to the father before he could make it far, catching up to his brisk pace and walking alongside him as you talked. "I'm no professional on the matter but the psychological damage you're inflicting on that boy surely outweighs any perceived short-term benefits, would it not?"

He grunted uncomfortably from the unexpected verbal attack but remained silent to allow you to continue, slowing his pace a little. The woman following without saying a word.

"If you'll think back to your own childhood you'll know quite well this sort of child rearing doesn't teach anything less than how to get away with a crime!"

He paused his walking to break into laughter.

"HAHAHahahah you really believe that load of nonsense? I recall feeling real bad for my mistakes and I'm far better off for it. I'd expect better from a man such as yourself, usually it's the women who go soft. Here's the cold hard truth to the matter: without fear keeping humanity in line, we resort to chaos. Spoiled children are everywhere these days, without them we wouldn't have the problems we have surrounding us. I'm raising my boy to be a real man, one who fears consequences enough that he'll follow the rules and play an important role to society."

You thought his words over for a few seconds, then proceeded to verify your suspicion.

"What made you most afraid?"

"Why, the Lord's holy word. Hell is the mightiest of fears, and so the most effective tool to keep humanity in line. Notice the children who lack spiritual teaching are often immoral, heartless bastards. They do not feel remorse for their actions, they are psychopathic."

That explains it. You thought to yourself. He's a God fearing man, and so he puts the fear of God in his child too.

"Remorse cannot be engineered by religion, it comes naturally from healthy interaction with other people. He was learning remorse right over there with the other children," you pointed towards them. "The fact that you have to resort to the fear of God means one of two things. Either he hasn't had enough play with others to learn conscience, or he knows subconsciously that your rules don't make sense, and so he can't help but disrespect them."

The man was growing angry with you now, you could see it in his eyes. He wanted to kill you, he associated you with his own pain, his own regrets on punishing his child. You opened a wound which he has hid well behind the great black book.

"You're dead wrong. You don't know the first thing about raising a kid. It takes patience, commitment, and an iron fist."

And he forcefully grabbed the boy who'd listened through the whole thing and marched away.

You may have made things worse, but at least you tried. The woman who'd witnessed the whole thing gave you a strange look.

"Are you his wife?" You asked bluntly, and she nodded.