Today after I picked up the children we were spending some time outside in the front of our house. My son was riding his bike and my daughter was watering the flowers. There were some kids playing street hockey around the corner from us. My son would ride on the sidewalk to the end of the street, turn around and ride back to our house (all in visual range of course). Then, all of a sudden, he dropped his bike at the end of the street and came running back to me, visibly scared to death.
"Mommy, Mommy- the boy playing hockey just said that he was going to kidnap me, take me to his house and KILL me!!"
"WHAT?!"
"Mommy- I'm scared"
"WHICH BOY?!"
Let me clarify this for everyone. I am a MOTHER. When something happens to my babies, when someone threatens my babies, it brings out the toughest in me. I'm usually a calm person. I'm usually very composed. This however, was completely uncalled for.
So, I walked to the end of the street and went up to the group of boys. I approached the one that my son pointed out and asked him:
"Hey- did you say anything to my son?"
"Yes- I said hey - you"
"Are you gonna tell me the truth or are you gonna expect me to believe the lie?"
"Well I said I was gonna take him to my house..."
"I think your exact words were I'm gonna kidnap you, take you to my house, and kill you..."
Silence. Then, I guess he realized that his friends were watching and decided to show off major attitude. He gave me some eye rolling face. That REALLY ticked me off.
"Listen kid. Don't be rolling those eyes at me. Listen to me and listen really well. You are not to approach my son again. If you so much as go near 10 feet of him, or breathe a word to him, I'm going to haul your pathetic butt off to jail. What you did is threaten my son. That's also bullying. There are laws in this country against that, and those laws don't give a damn that you're under 16. So trust me, don't you DARE mess with me or my son again. You got that? And don't you roll those eyes at me."
"Yes ma'am".
"That's better. And another thing. If I so much as hear that you bullied another kid, I'm gonna come back to have another chit chat with you. You got that? Don't be threatening little kids or pushing them around. This doesn't apply just to my son. If I see you doing or saying anything like this to anyone again, I won't let it go this easily. Kapeesh?"
"Yes ma'am".
And then I walked away. I must admit. I did feel a bit guilty. But what the heck? Threatening to KILL my son for no reason at all? Come on! I know it might have been a slight over-reaction. I would have gone easier on him if he didn't do the eye rolling thing. But really, he would have just done this to other children. When I got back in front of our house, my kids came running up to me hugging and saying "you're the best mommy in the world. We can tell you anything and you always make it better". I guess that will last a couple more years :)
I just hope my children never grow up to be the ones picking on little kids. I hope I'm as tough with them as I am with the ones picking on them.
I did leave today's conversation sure of two things:
1) That kid will think twice before picking on someone else
2) If my kids encounter another bully, they will be telling me about it
Well, not bad for accomplishments. I know I could have been softer, but still, I think it turned out ok, for now at least...
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