Mum's post about calling the police on another parent is going viral- but not for the reasons you think

Mum-of-five Megan Orr Burnside recently took to Facebook to share a traumatising experience she had with a child. 

But the child was not her own. 

She shares an account of seeing a mother struggling with her 10-year-old son. The pair were beginning to get violent, so she called the emergency services: 

"He was screaming and she was so angry and frustrated. We watched her get him in the car and there was a lot of physical fighting in the car. It looked like she was hitting him as well, so we called the police."

When the police arrived, Burnside realised that she had made a terrible mistake: 

"We then got a call and they told us that the boy was autistic and she really struggled with him, and she had even asked for the police's help in the past to deal with him because he was very violent. They said they have been helping her and she's doing the best she can." 

Burnside said that she felt terrible for not offering to help, instead of judging from afar: 

 "In my eagerness to protect the child, I neglected to offer help to the mother." 

It was a lesson the Burnside never forgot, and she had the chance to apply in a store, years later. 

She noticed a mother with two small, crying children, struggling in the checkout line. Burnside approached them and helped to calm the frazzled toddler down. 

What happened next took her completely by surprise: 

"The mother was so frazzled and apologised. She told me she worked nights and she couldn't even think in the day. I know there were other things going on, but in that moment I told her I understood what it's like to be overwhelmed. I told her she was a good mum. I told her everything was going to be okay.

She cried, guys. She CRIED as everyone else watched her struggle with her burden."

Burnside continued to say that just a few years ago, she would have reported the mother to the authorities instead of offering to help, but a recent incident had changed her perception. 

A good friend of hers had been reported to the Child Protection Services. 

The friend, Burnside said, is an excellent mother, "she is the kind of mother I want to be like." When the authorities were called by a neighbour, she was "very sick in bed with a respiratory infection" and was unable to look after the children: 

"I don't know what this person observed that they thought was a problem. Maybe her kids were running around without parental supervision? Maybe a parent wasn't feeding them so they were foraging for themselves? I am sad that the person who called her in didn't ask how they could HELP HER." 

Burnside concluded that instead of instantly calling the authorities when something doesn't look right, we should instead offer to help: 

"I know there's a place for the authorities to step in, but I feel like we have become a culture who watches for faults instead of opportunities to help. We have become more separated and condemning, instead of compassionate and loving and serving. If we helped more, we would have to call the authorities less." 

She says that she accepts that she was once part of the problem, but is now trying to mend her ways: 

"When people are overwhelmed they need help, not condemnation. I know I have been guilty for doing this very thing and I see clearly how I probably perpetuated the problem instead of helping to uplift and assist others." 

It costs nothing to help one person, especially when it's a fellow mum. We're all in the boat, sisters!