To flick or not to flick

I heard on the radio not too long ago about a guy who flicked his three year old niece in the face because she was being mean to his new baby. Everyone who called into the radio station was outraged over this incident and said they would go over and beat the crap out of this guy. I don't see the huge deal.

Now, I don't think you should flick kids in the face, but in the big scheme of things it could have been worse. I mean, he could have punched her in the face. Or kicked her in the head. For that I would go beat the crap out of the guy. But flicking? No. I'd say, hey dude, can you not do that again? And that would be the end of it.

I don't have children, so maybe that's why I don't understand the significance of the event. Kids get annoying. Flicking hardly seems the worst thing you can do when they're being annoying and aren't listening. But like I said, since I don't have children I probably can't fathom the situation in its entirety.

So I started thinking, who would have to be flicked to provoke rage in me? If you flick my dogs, I won't mind, as long as you don't flick them in the eyes and you're not doing it to annoy them and you're doing it because they're doing something annoying, like incessantly licking you. If you flick one of the kids in my family, I'd say hey that's not cool, but I wouldn't freak out. If you flicked my better half or my parents, I wouldn't mind because they would handle the situation themselves. If you flicked my grandpa I wouldn't mind because he would rip your face off.

And then I got to my grandma. If you flicked my grandma I would go from mellow to enraged in half a second and be on the attack. Not because you hurt my grandma, but because my grandma is one of the sweetest, most kind and wise ladies I've ever known. If you flicked her, she'd say something like, "Go ahead, I can take the daggers you throw at me," and not do anything to retaliate. Which is exactly why I would freak out. You don't kick nice, wise old ladies.

So who would you freak out about if they were flicked?