Chapter 12 - My mother’s slap
Estelle’s conduct went to police because venue security had captured enough of the confrontation.
She struck Percival.
Clear.
No serious injury.
Bruised cheek.
No dental harm.
No fall-related injury.
Misdemeanor child battery.
She accepted pretrial diversion.
Why no conviction immediately?
No prior record.
Single strike.
Minor injury.
She agreed to:
Anger-management education.
Community service.
No unsupervised contact with Percival during diversion.
Successful completion would resolve charge without conviction depending local procedure.
Then me.
I slapped Estelle after seeing her hit my son.
Was she still attacking him?
No.
I had pulled him away.
So my own strike was not clean self-defense.
I accepted separate misdemeanor diversion.
Same principle.
I told Percival:
“Grandma was wrong to hit you.”
He nodded.
“I was wrong to hit Grandma after you were safe.”
He looked confused.
“But you mad.”
“Yes.”
“Mad means okay?”
“No.”
May you like
Good.
That was the lesson.
