That "little brat", that is a child and any child at that age are selfish little beings, that's who they are. CATS are all feral territorial animals, and expendable.
The parents should know what could happen.
The cat could have done real harm to the kid, scratch or bite him, but didn’t. It was only trying to prevent another slap to its head.
But I agree, lots of people have pets that should in no way be in the same household as small children. Certain dog breeds tend to be a lot more tolerable to abuse than others.
Now that I think about it some more, the kid may have been reacting to something the cat first did to him.