Mother Lion Roars

Let me set the scene for you. We'd just arrived at the beach. I was still putting sunblock on myself and Claire. Nathan decided to introduce himself to a little girl in the water by splashing her. I've told Nathan not to do this, but he's three, I have to remind him everyday. Meanwhile, the father is telling his daughter that she should splash Nathan back. I don't like this advice, but I need another minute, and acknowledge to myself that Nathan would deserve it if she splashed back. She's at least five, maybe older. Nathan dumps water from a scoop onto her head, and then splashed her a third time before I can get down to stop him. The father responds to this by splashing water right into Nathan's face.

I lit into him. My voice carried across the whole beach, and probably into town. Dan could have heard me in the kitchen. "He is three, he was just playing. You are an adult, SIR." (I kept saying sir, but in the really sarcastic way that would get me kp duty in the army)"If you have a problem you come see me, you do not splash a THREE year old in the face." etc, etc, etc. He argued that he was trying to teach his daughter to stand up for herself, and I yelled back that he was teaching her to be a bully. He thought that was pretty rich coming from the mom of the boy who started things.

But my point was the same that schools have been making for years. That you don't respond to bullying by fighting back, you teach kids to leave the scene and go to an adult. When Nathan or Claire get splashed, knocked down or generally run over by older kids, I remove them from the area. Does he think that if Nathan had hit his daughter, he'd be justified in hitting Nathan?

So we removed to the opposite end of the beach, and spent an hour waiting for my heartbeat to slow, and wondering if I was going to have to deal with the father during the swim class we'd come for. I mentioned it to the swim teacher when she arrived (who I've gotten to know slightly) and she'd heard about it from the lifeguard on duty. The guard thought I was gonna clock him, and felt that he would have deserved it. I'm probably going to be the talk of the lifeguards for a few days.

Okay, I think I finally calmed down now.