Last night at suppertime we went to the mall because we had a showing at our house. We were in the food court, and Ryan and I were eating, and Ty was kind of wandering around our table, not too interested in eating but very interested in his surroundings. There was a table two tables over that had four toddlers at it. Ty wandered over there, first sitting on a chair at the table beside the toddler table, and then he walked up to their table. He was just standing there watching them giggle, and then this boy who was about 3 started pointing his finger at Ty and telling him no, even though Ty was just standing there. I decided to sit back and watch this play out. The little boy then got out of his chair and approached Ty and was fake punching him! And Ty, being all of 18 months old, just kept standing there, watching as this boy got closer and closer with his fake punches. Now, if Ty was the older boy and behaving like this, I would be intervening and telling him to apologize and that's not nice. But this boy's mom, who was sitting at the next table, just kept texting or whatever she was doing and was oblivious to the goings-on. So I went over and looked that boy in the eye and said, "He's not hurting you." Then I scooped Ty up and brought him back to the safety of our table. Like, honestly. That whole scene bothered me the rest of the night ~ that and the fact that the people who were supposed to come see our house never showed up or called.
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3 comments:
Some people leave their brains and manners at home when they go out. That little boy will probably grow up to think he is within his rights to "bully" children smaller/younger than he is. I think I probably would have opened my big mouth and said something (I might regret later) to the Mom/lady(?) with him. Poor Ty....he was just trying to make a friend!!
Don't let this particular scene bother you because you (and Ty) did exactly the right thing. I find myself acting as playground/playgroup police all the time. Just yesterday I was waiting for a chance to yell at two boys who were hitting each other while one's dad just read a paper. They eventually almost bumped into a younger kid so I shouted "HEY! Stop that now, watch out for the little ones." Once they figured I was an authority figure they played more carefully and gave me a wide berth. Still, wtf with the dad? What a loser.
You handled it very well, Mama. Sorry about the house showing...
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