A heavily pregnant mother has spoken of her anger after her two-year-old son was punched in the face by another child at a soft play centre in South Wales. Jasmine Willcox, who is eight months pregnant, was watching her toddler play in the under-3s section when a boy of a similar age struck her son.
Ms Willcox said the centre was quiet, with around 10 adults and 10 children present. After the punch, her son held his nose and pushed the other boy away. She initially thought the children had resolved the issue themselves, but then the younger boy brought an older brother, aged around five or six, into the baby area.
The older sibling grabbed the back of Ms Willcox's son's t-shirt, prompting her to rush over. 'My instinct was just to keep saying no,' she said. 'I'm like, don't touch him, don't touch him, having to parent these kids that are not my kids.' The older boy claimed her son had pushed his little brother, to which she replied: 'Yeah, he punched him in the face first, so you need to back off.'
Ms Willcox then stood guard over her son until the brothers left the area. She later discovered the children were with their grandparents, who had witnessed the incident but did not intervene. Another parent told her the younger boy was autistic, but Ms Willcox dismissed this as an excuse. 'I don't think that's a good enough excuse to just let it happen,' she said.
She shared her experience on TikTok, where commenters largely supported her. One parent of two autistic sons wrote: 'Never an excuse... I follow him everywhere. Where he goes I go.' Another said: 'No body hits my child for no apparent reason and gets away with it.' A third added: 'These kids still need rules, boundaries and consequences.'
