Close to where I live is a great indoor soft play centre where I take Burton fairly regularly, to play about knowing that if he falls over it isn’t going to hurt him! It’s amazing how much more confident he has become since I first took him shortly before he turned one, and now much he enjoys going there now he is more mobile! (even if he did manage to get behind the food counter twice when the door was left open!)
Yesterday while we were there, an incident happened which made me feel very protective of my little man and made me think about the battles he will face growing up and how I will want to help and protect him, even if he must fight them on his own.
The ‘incident’ occurred whilst we were in the area especially designed for children under 3 years of age which also allows any adults who are with those children. There are times, particularly whenever Funderzone is very busy, that a lot of older kids come bulldozing into this area and run a riot and almost knock the little ones over. This drives me mad and I often find myself politely asking the bigger children to play elsewhere, and if I get cheek then I inform a member of staff to come and have a word (yes, I have become a grass!). To be honest I expect a bit of cheek from the older ones, but today a I was faced with a much younger specimen of cheekiness!
Burton was happily playing and watching the other children around him making noise and playing near him when some boy aged probably 3 or 4 suddenly pushed him with his head sending Burton to land head side up in-between some soft play towers. Burton was fine although he couldn’t turn himself back without my help and he did look a little shell shocked at this boy’s sudden contact. So I asked the boy to please be careful because my little boy was only a baby, to which I just got an indignant stare in return. So a few minutes later Burton was climbing up a ramp and the boy and his sister were at the top messing about. When Burton got to the top, the little boy shouted at him to “go away” right in his face! So I told the boy not to speak to him like that and explained that Burton had every right to be there and why would he want him to go away? The boy replied “because he is smaller than me!” so I said “well maybe you should go away because you are too big to be in here!”.
Little s**t!
So as I watched my baby being treated a little unfairly, I felt a pang of anger towards this boy and just wanted to protect Burton from being hurt, as any mother would. I appreciate that it is just boys being boys and that children get a bit carried away when they are over excited, but I really wanted to push that little boy when he had done the same to Burton! It made me realise that there will be times when I won’t be there to help protect him, as he faces his own battles that life throws up along the path to adulthood and beyond. I know you cannot wrap them up in cottonwool, but yesterday gave me my first taste of (over?) protective mummy mode!
Does anyone else remember their first taste of mummy to the rescue moment? Please share x
Thank you xx
Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence, or so I find. I used to experience this with Amy when she was little, even though she was bigger than most kids her age she still got picked on. But you need to remember that the child has probably had no discipline at home and has no idea how to act in the company of other children. That’s the parents fault in my opinion. And where were the parents anyway?
Yes, you’re right, Little shit, indeed. We had two at Amy’s first school and I kicked up such a fuss on more than a few occasions. It lost me friendships but looking back on it all now, I couldn’t give a toss, because really, my daughter doesn’t need friends like that.
Take care – you’re not alone.
CJ xx
Oooooh, I do and it was at one of those indoor play areas too. I also learned to ask the big kids to leave the baby area or grass on them. 10 year olds belting around the under 5’s area is dangerous as far as I am concerned so I never had any difficulty saying so.
Recently I had the same issue with my middle fella where a young child was shoving him around. After a few goes I really nicely told the Mum (who was sitting miles away having coffee) if should could just explain to her son about how it was upsetting HRH. To be fair, she took him away for a while and brought him back and understood that I wasn’t criticizing her or her child. Some people wouldn’t so I am quite careful about what I say:)
It is a scary moment when you realise that you can’t always protect them, it never really goes away either as there are lots of those moments! Jen
Thank you for sharing your thoughts x
The little b*st*rd! And where was his mother? God, some children can be so vicious. I can picture the look on his face because it’s the look that was on The Boy’s face about a month ago now when a couple of female friends of his were physical with him. He’s never experienced pushing, pulling, biting, hitting, scratching or smacking before, and his little face was honestly shocked that anyone would want to hurt him. The very first time another child was mean to him was when a friend’s 3year old waited until his mother was out the room, bent over and nutted my 4 month old son on the nose. I almost killed the little ****** there and then!
Please excuse my language Jenny, you can tell I get very incensed about this.
Thanks for linking up to ShowOff ShowCase
I agree with The Boy & Me – where was his mother? I can get pretty protective too, in fact maybe a little childish when I have great pleasure in telling a couple of girls in the street (with a smug grin on my face) that ‘No, Hanna isn’t playing out, she’s playing in the garden’….as they have only come round to call for her as they want to get their hands on my daughters friend, who she is playing lovely with in the garden, and leave my daughter out, as they usually do. I used to happily invite them all in until I noticed that the ‘others’ would entice my daughters friend away & not let my daughter join in.
I never saw myself as one of those protective Mother’s but you just can’t help yourself when you see your child go from happy & laughing one minute to chin wobbling sad the next…
That boy will get his comeuppance one day when Burton get’s some back-up from his little brother!!
x