Mama Bear on a Rampage

Today the boys and I went to the park for a picnic and some fun in the sun. We had a nice lunch and the boys enjoyed climbing around on the play structure and laughing together. They went down the slides, swung on swings...well B did anyway since M is still not fond of swinging...climbed up ladders, crawled through tunnels and chased each other. Then we played in the sand and the real "fun" began.

There were a bunch of kids at the park today as it was President's Day and the weather was nice and sunny. M and B were playing nicely together in the sand pit when a boy sat down next to M. This boy proceeded to pick up a shovel and pour dirt over M's head. M just sat there with his mouth open in shock and I went into "Mama Bear" mode. I, very nicely and calmly, asked the approximately four and a half year old spawn-of-the-devil to stop pouring sand over M's head. This "cave-boy/demon-child/get-away-from-my-son-you-monster-boy" looked at me with what I can only describe as pure malice...I know, weird for such a young person...and picked up the shovel with sand and once again poured sand over M's head. Mind you, M had never even spoken to this child so I'm not really sure what had set off this child. Once again I asked the boy to stop pouring sand over M's head. He looked straight at me and, with the snottiest voice I've ever heard from a little child, said, "He's not YOUR son. I'll do what I want." And started to pour sand, once again, over M.

Pissed is a mild term for what I was feeling at that point. How dare someone abuse my sweet M. That honor is reserved for me only:) I turned to smart-mouthed-butthead and said, "First of all, he is my son. Secondly, you may not speak to me or any other adult like that." I know, how old am I now? When snot-nose picked up the shovel yet again, I demanded to know where his mother was and stormed over to her. I told her what had happened and she came over and gave the riot act to her little monster. He was not very nice to his mother either, which for some reason, made me feel a little better.

Anyway, M was not really traumatized. He just shook off the sand and kept playing with B. I wish I could say that the little boy learned a positive lesson from this. I wish I could say that in the future his mother will actually sit facing her son on the playground rather than chatting with her friends with her back to her son and having no idea where he is or what he's doing. I wish I could say that M learned a valuable lesson from this experience...I did tell him that he's never allowed to speak to adults, or anyone else, the way that boy spoke to me. However, I don't think any of these things happened. I think instead, that M taught me a lesson. Just keep on playing, after all, it's just sand.