A miscommunication occurred during my work in Kidzania Singapore last year. I started a role play activity with a group of six and instructed them to wear a vest. When I was helping the younger children wear their vest, I suddenly felt a forceful slap on my back. This gave me a rude shock. It turned out that a Japanese-American seven-year-old boy was the perpetrator.
I immediately stopped what I was doing and asked him if he hit me. He nodded and I observed that his mother was waiting outside the establishment. I told the children in the activity to give me a moment and approached his mother. After telling her that her son slapped me on my back, she looked perplexed and told her son off on the spot. Her son then turned and stormed out of the establishment without apologising. She followed him and there was nothing I could do besides continuing on with the current activity.
During my break, my supervisor asked to see me. She told me I received a complaint from a Japanese mother for upsetting her son. I told her what happened truthfully and she said she was surprised as this was the first complaint I received at work. She empathised with me and told me to find the duty manager the next time something like that happened.
I felt indignant about this incident and started wondering how I could have better handled it. Maybe I should have asked the boy to explain why he slapped me. Or maybe he was just not aware that his actions were socially unacceptable. How would you have reacted in this situation?
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