[DoreenMichele]

I learned this big time as a parent: If the only solution you have is guaranteed to make it worse, it's better to stand there and watch it burn than to put out the fire with gasoline. The piece I wrote about it (titled The Hand Licking Incident) did well on HN if you want to read a variation on this theme.

[loa_in_]

I actually remember reading your story!

It's a good read, because these things happen every day around the world but the world usually finds people too dumbfounded in this to learn from it, much less write a cautionary tale!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18842009