Any childfree by choice?

[AK907]

One friend I quit talking to because I felt she was borderline (verbally) abusive toward her kid, and I couldn't criticize, because "you (I) don't have kids, you (I) just don't understand." She once told me, after screaming at her toddler--this happened all the time--to never have kids.

Yup, this reminds me of a time we took my wife's little brother to the store. He was about 3.5-4 years old or so. He is hands down one of the worst behaved kids I've ever met because of how he is babied and allowed to have whatever he wants (to the point he was even bottle fed until 5 years old because he wouldn't eat normal food). Anyways, he was throwing a major temper tantrum (ie kicking and screaming on the floor, running down the isles knocking stuff off the shelves, etc) in the store and when we grabbed him and told him, "No!" we were verbally attacked by a group of people. According to them this was abuse and we had no right telling him, "No" and that he should be making his own decisions and should be allowed to "express himself". Since when is a toddler capable of making his own decisions and since when is it acceptable to "express yourself" by acting like a wild animal in public? Had it have been me when I was his age (circa 1988) my mom would have dropped my drawers and lit me up right then and there and I wouldn't haven't seen my Legos for a week! I knew better than to act like a little jerk because I knew I wouldn't get away with it. It might not have made much sense to me then, but it sure does now.