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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/ShelLuser42 on 2024-09-05 05:25:52+00:00.
Hi gang!
(edit: now with tl;dr at the end)
Backstory
I live in a town in the Netherlands with a university and a few years ago my gf's cousin got accepted as an overseas student. My gf is Japanese, her family (father, mother, her sister and herself) moved to the Netherlands while she was younger. Her cousin still lived in Japan when she applied, got accepted and is now living in a student room in the Netherlands. We don't really have dorms here like in the US, but the building she lives in is maintained by the university itself.
Said cousin is doing quite well for herself, got good grades and is well on her way to get her diploma. Partly because of this the overseas family decided to have their vacation in the Netherlands this year, both for leisure and a bit of a family gathering.
This story takes place during the family gathering. My gf's parents and the cousins parents plus yet another family had a meeting in a restaurant in my hometown. They had 2 little kids in tow (sisters), these looked like 8 or 9 or so to me but my gf later told me that they are actually 11 and 12 but did look younger than they were, probably also because of their school uniform (at least that's what it looked like to me, I really don't know).
Anyway, the idea was to catch up with the family and my gf was asked if she would be willing to keep the two young kids busy for a few hours since she was the oldest of the lot... my gf and me are in our 40's, her studying cousin is around 25 and as said.. the two kids are around 10 (11 and 12). My gf didn't mind but did ask me if I wanted to come along as well. Her cousin didn't mind (the three of us had met a few times before already) and well, it was all about keeping the young kids busy anyway.
Oh, for the record... the two young kids basically only speak Japanese, they do understand bits of English and can even speak some but it's mostly Japanese. My gf's cousin speaks both Japanese and English and has even learned quite a bit of the Dutch language as well (seriously... for the few years she's been here it's IMO quite impressive). My gf speaks Japanese, English and Dutch and as for me... Dutch (obviously) and English, but over the years I also managed to pick up a decent bit of Japanese as well and I can often (not always!) understand the general jist of things, as long as it's not too quickly spoken or too complicated.
So basically it was all English and Japanese between us.
A bully shows up
We took the kids for a walk through my home town and they were quite interested, but when we went past a playground... that also quickly got their attention. So the three of us decided to go sit on a bench and let the kids have some fun. There were several activities like an air balloon castle, swings, a sandbox for younger kids to play in... just plenty of things to do. The two wanted to go into the castle which was fine with my gf as long as they made sure to only use the entrance/exit which was located on our side so that they wouldn't get lost and we could keep track of them.
The three of us talked quite a bit but also kept eyes on the castle. So... around 15 or so minutes later I spot the two again by accident near the exit with a little kid in between them. I have no idea but I'd say she was around 8 or so? I can't really tell exactly what's going on but I did see the kid point to the area of the sandbox and that's where the three of them headed next.
Before I can say anything to my gf a young lady walks up to us and asks (in Dutch) if we have seen a little girl passing by. This seems way too coincidental to me so I ask: "Is she wearing a pink dress by any chance?", the woman's face lights up as I tell her that she seems to be with my gf's younger cousins and I point to the sandbox.
But when we look over we now also see an older boy near the girls (I'm not good with guessing ages, let's just say that he was bigger than them?) and he's clearly harassing them. The small girl is visibly crying but also comforted by one of the two younger cousins while the other is keeping the boy away from her.
We all walk over to the sandbox just when the boy manages to shove one of the cousins out of his way and he's clearly trying to bully the young girl (in the pink dress), but now stopped by the other cousin. Which is when we arrive. The woman who is with us berates the boy and tells him to stop picking on young children. But the little brat clearly isn't very impressed.
The incident
Next moment his mother (so I assume) storms over yelling, and she has every appearance of a Karen. Or... a "Tokkie" as we tend to call them over here. A little argument ensues, mainly between the mother of the girl in the pink dress and our Karen/Tokkie. It goes back and forth but it's apparent that according to his mother the brat did nothing wrong by picking on a girl half his own size and this "fine" example of a mother even has the audacity to blame the other mother for "raising such a weak little 'c-word'". Basically... "Dat krijg je ervan als je domme huppel 'katjes' opvoedt".
And then the Karen says: "Kids will be kids, just let them sort out their own problems already!", but she does take the boy with her as she walks away. The mother gets ready to grab her kid and leave, but in the mean time the girl has completely calmed down and is actually having a great time with the two cousins.
Unknown to anyone else yet at this time my gf decides to comply with the earlier suggestion. First she asks the mother to reconsider leaving because the kids are having so much fun together. My gf also comments how amazing kids are because... they clearly don't speak the same language yet they seem to understand each other just fine and are having a good time.
The mother agrees and my gf now addresses both her cousins in Japanese. And it sounded very serious to me, something about the tone, the way she talked and also looked at both girls ... even a bit sternly. They both nodded, and clearly said "haaai", aka "Yes ma'am!". I think I even saw a small head bow, but I'm not too sure.
Our little group goes to sit on a bench nearby and for the next 5 minutes nothing happens. We're just having some smalltalk.
Then the bully returns.
The mother of the small girl wanted to stand up but gets stopped by my gf who tells her that she has nothing to worry about because her kid is completely safe: "Just watch, trust me on this". The mother is visibly uneasy but does remain seated.
Which is when I noticed that the behavior and stance of the two cousins has completely changed. They seem much more confident and relaxed. The boy starts making a fuss while one of the cousins stands up, points to him and yells something at him (in Japanese, obviously). He, once again, tries to shove her out of his way but this time.... she's faster. She steps aside, does something with her leg and gives him a huge shove. Next moment he's eating sand. No, literally.. he gets up visibly angry while his face is covered in sand.
This time he becomes violent and actually tries to hit one of the cousins with his fists. Yah, tries... She evades one attempt, then grabs his hand, spins it around and the next moment the boy finds his arm twisted behind his back and he starts screaming.
The other cousin now also stands up, pats the young girl on her head, makes another move and once again the boy gets shoved to the ground, this time by both cousins. Hard.. When he looks up the other cousin actually makes a moving gesture as if she wants to kick him but without actually moving her legs or anything. She's obviously just threatening him.
My gf pokes me with a huge grin on her face and tells me: "Surely that deserves a point for self restraint, don't you agree?". She's visibly loving every moment of this.
Apparently the boy isn't totally stupid and he runs off, while one cousin immediately turns to the young girl again who is clearly still having a good time. Not at the least upset with the bully.
"Wat was dat in godsnaam?!!", the mother asks... Oh, sorry: "What the hell was that?!", she asks. My gf tells the mother that her cousins are taking the same self defense classes as she and her sister once did, and that she had decided to "pull ranks" by telling her cousins that it was ok for them to actually defend themselves ...as long as they didn't overdo it, of course.
The mother wanted to know more about these classes but unfortunately for her my gf had to tell her that the actual school was located all the way out in a suburb of Tokyo so... not something her daughter would be able to attend.
Mommy returns with a "BOA" (guard)
We're chatting some more for the next 10 minutes after which the bullies mother storms over to us with a "BOA" in tow. BOA is Dutch for "Bewust ongeschikte ambtenaar", errr... sorry: "Buitengewoon Opsporings Ambtenaar" which basically means so much as a being a deputy but without the proper training nor having any weapons. Generally speaking most of them usually handle ticketing people.
He tells us that he has gotten a complaint from the woman about "people beating up her kid" to which the mother of the young girl immediately snaps: "Whatever happened with letting the kids sort out their own problems?".
Now, the funny thing is... apparently the whole spectacle didn't really go unnoticed and before we could say or do anything someone else...
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/1f9etwa/just_let_the_kids_sort_it_out_themselves_ok_then/