The Playground Bully

So what do you do when you are at the playground, you see your kid trying to interact with some kid on the playground, and then said kid goes off to tell other kids that your kid is weird? Yet, your kid hasn't heard this conversation so for all he knows, all is right in the world.

I took my son to the park on Saturday morning and he sees this kid and immediately runs over to him. Hey let me see your shirt!! my son said excitedly. I am not sure what my son's response was to the shirt but he looked and then just ran away at that point. I think the kid was wearing a typical Angry birds shirt. One of the many dozen angry birds shirt that my son doesn't have.
The kid then goes over to his buddies and says " Keep that kid away from me. He will ask to look at your shirt and then he will tell you that he doesn't like it. He's weird."

That last part stung me. My mind told me to back off, this is not the first time that Jack will encounter little snots like this kid on the park, and it will not be the last. My heart however wanted to march right over to the kid, tell him that I am that "weird kid's " mom and tell him he has the worst manners on the planet. I am sure if I did that, then I would become the "weird mom on the park who can't take kids being kids and will hunt your kids down if they say something bad to her kid." Bring it suburban moms. I grew up in the city. That alone should make you back off.

alright, easy there.

My heart broke knowing that this can happen to Jack, but maybe only next time someone might say it to his face. My Jack at this point in life doesn't really care if kids don't want to play with him sometimes, but he will understand someday. I couldn't enjoy myself that morning. I was feeling so sad for my son, and tried at best to keep him away from the park instigator. As we walked home, I did have a conversation with Jack on how to introduce yourself to new people, always say hi first, followed by a "do you want to play?" Maybe saying let me see your shirt is a good intro too, but never tell the kid that you don't like it. Although my kid is a huge angry birds fan, so why would he tell the kid he didn't like it? Park instigator has bad manners and is a liar!!!!

As I told this story to my husband later on, he laughed about it. Which made me feel a little better and also made me realize that I was boiling so much for an incident that Jack never knew took place. It wasn't even an incident, just something one kid said, only once.

I am not sure what to do if this happens again, do I just sit back, watch kids being kids and have my son learn to stand up for himself should such words are thrown at him? Or do I walk over, and tell the kid that has the worst manners in all history and that he should go to charm school?