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Hamburg police mediate 3-year-olds' tricycle spat

December 6, 2018

A parent called the police after two toddlers got into a fight over a tricycle. Hamburg police cleared up the dispute without making an arrest and told parents to encourage children to resolve conflicts themselves.

https://p.dw.com/p/39YWV
Child on a tricycle
Image: picture-alliance/D. Schoenen

A mother in the German city of Hamburg was so distraught by a fight between her child and a fellow kindergartener on Wednesday that she called the police. The two 3-year-olds had been fighting over a tricycle, local media reported.

"There was screaming and scratching," when the mothers came to pick up their children, public broadcaster NDR reported.

When officers arrived at the kindergarten in the city's Winterhude neighborhood, they sat down with the managers, the toddlers and the children's mothers to address avoiding similar problems in the future. Police said later that the situation was resolved and that no one was arrested and no charges were filed.

In a statement to the media, police stressed that such conflicts between small children are normal and that they should be encouraged to learn how to resolve these problems amongst themselves.

The head of the kindergarten, Franziska Larra, told the local Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper that the incident involved one boy and one girl and that at least one child had scrapes on their face.

Larra said that the situation was uncomfortable, and added that it was "unusual to have involved the police."

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Elizabeth Schumacher
Elizabeth Schumacher Elizabeth Schumacher reports on gender equity, immigration, poverty and education in Germany.