After lunch today, I took McKenzie into a little indoor playground area at her school. There were a few kids, siblings I believe, that were playing "crocodile." For whatever reason, this game sounded fun to McKenzie and she walked up to them and exclaimed, "I'm a crocodile!" Seriously, she is not shy. Because of mine and Brant's reserved natures, this blows me away and makes me quite proud of her. Unfortunately, the kids told her she wasn't a crocodile and refused to let her play. McKenzie was devestated. She started crying and I told her that she could be a pretend crocodile if she wanted to be. So, she dried her tears and told the kids again that she was a crocodile. And again, they yelled back that she wasn't. At this point, there were some flailing arms exchanged and I pulled her out. I explained to McKenzie that those kids weren't being very nice and she should find someone else to play with instead. To my surprise and delight, she did just that. She played for a few minutes with another little girl. However, the two croc kids kept running up to McKenzie and screaming "Rarrrrrh. You aren't a crocodile!!" in her face. I watched this happen a few times and was so proud to see McKenzie turn and walk away. After the little boy did it again right next to me, and I saw the look of fear and annoyance on her face, I said to McKenzie (within earshot of the child's mother and grandmother), "Just walk away if you don't want him doing that to you." Finally, the child was told by his mother to leave McKenzie alone.
On one hand, I was so proud to see McKenzie gather herself and walk away from these not so nice kids. I also tried to talk to McKenzie about how it made her feel to not get to play and how she should always let other kids join in her games. Did any of it sink in? Who knows. I'm sure it won't be the last time I have the opportunity to teach this lesson. On the other hand, I was very annoyed with the other mom involved. You can't really blame the kids for being mean. They were 3 or 4 years old. And most likely, McKenzie has been mean in a similar way at school or something. But I can blame the mom for not paying enough attention to her kids. If I saw McKenzie acting that way towards another child, I would have removed her from the playground immediately and disciplined her. This mom was too busy talking to see her kids screaming in my child's face. Not ok. And the little girl threw her socks at Annie. Whoa. It took everything in me to not do anything more than say, "DO NOT throw things at her." I am not a perfect mom. Never have been. Never will be. But I do my best to keep my kids in check when they are around others. Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to just watch and let your kid fight a battle. But this mama crocodile will step in when the time comes!
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| DO NOT mess with my baby girl...ahem, baby croc! |
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