Ok. We all know that maybe I am a little overprotective of my children. These are my babies after all. I will be their biggest supporter, cheerleader, encourager, protector.... the list goes on and on. I also realize that my job as their Mom is to prepare them for the next stage in their life. So dealing with bullies will most likely be their next stage in life as they enter school on a more regular basis.
Let me take a step back. With this nice weather we have been having, we allowed Jack to go outside and play with his friends without us. One of the boys is 7, and keeps a really good eye on him. As long as they stayed on the hill in the front yard and didn't go on the street we were okay with that. So naturally, Kelly perched at the living room window (watching them from that angle), myself at the dining room window (making sure all angles were covered and that even though we weren't in arms reach of our little guy- we could see him). Did I also mention we had the windows open so we could hear? Overprotective much?
Jack's friends had a girl cousin over, so she was playing with them as well. I peg her age at about 6. I noticed that everyone has started trying to push each other over in a game of King of the Hill. By this time they were on the neighbour's front yard hill. This little girl pushed Jack down about 6 times in a row. Jack got up every time and tried to push her down. His size was definitely a factor in not succeeding. Game over.
They migrated ACROSS THE STREET to our other neighbour's front yard. Not impressed, I yelled to make sure to get off the street. 5 minutes or so of their back's turned to us, Jack starts making his way home alone. Weird. Then I notice he uses his mitt to wipe away a tear. Don't panic Mom. Maybe his eye was watering from the cold? Then he wipes a tear from his other eye. Jack is crying. My Jack, who is one of the most social kids I've ever met, who wants to play with friends or strangers or whomever at all times, is leaving the crowd in tears. My 3 1/2 year old. By this time I'm on my feet, getting ready to rescue my son when I noticed his friend run over to him and patting him on the back. Then he waved for the rest of the crowd to come over, and that little girl bully started patting him on the back.
This was good. Whatever was said and done was forgiven, because instead of B-lining for his safe home, Jack turned around and joined the crowd once again.
Now for me, it took EVERYTHING in my power not to run over to that little girl and push her down in the snow (possibly face first) to teach her a lesson on who's kid to pick on. If I had done that though, or even just yelled at them all for being mean- Jack would have missed out on his first lesson. Sometimes you will face bullies. Sometimes you will be the smallest and get left out. Sometimes it just doesn't seem fair.
And to watch him forgive and continue on definitely made me a proud.
When he came in, we casually asked him what had happened and he said he started crying because that girl was being mean and kept pushing him down. Then we asked him if he still had fun, and his response "YEP, I had fun!". So I guess his first lesson of King of the Castle, went fairly smoothly. Makes me just a tad less nervous for him in school.
