Your post would carry a lot more weight if a parent did instruct their 7 yr old child to try and retrieve a hat from an adult. That is putting the child in harms way for no logical reason. Surely even you can see that.
Mine carries the weight of personal experience. My parents told me to go get my property back and I did. If the person had been a savage and made a move to harm me or did in fact harm me, I have no doubt that my father would've neutralized him. In my case I approached the man alone but my parents were nearby and as was always the case with me, they kept a close watch on me. If you are wondering why they did not keep the man from taking my toy in the first place, allow me.
My parents raised us all the same but as with formal schooling, I got special Ed./attention. My parents told me that they were not always going to be there for me. One day I would be a grown up and have to take care of myself as best I could. If I was fortunate and married and had children of my own, I would be responsible for their safety and well being but would still have to teach them the truth and ways of the real world.
Perhaps your parents did not do as mine did. Fine.
I sometimes have people question me as to what gives me "the right" to a handicapable parking placard/license plate. I sometimes give them the truth of my physical problems but more often than not I simply reply that I am a "registered democrat". Most of my mid-western family are just that.
So then. Have you ever protected someone you don't even know from a crazy person or not? I can tell you this. Crazy is scared of crazier. And they are terrified of bigger, stronger and crazier. And when they are not then you have to be Josey Wales with a vengeance.
Bullies have their place and sometimes they just need to be put in it. Buzards gotta eat same as worms.
