Gavin immediately took to these two boys who I swear looked 3 and 4 years old. While he really wanted to play with them they were clearly already friends and didn’t want Gavin intruding. That is until they decided to play “pirates” and make Gavin the evil bad guy. They grabbed these sticks almost as big as they were and began saying they were swords and swinging them at him. While when they were being mean I just ignored the boys and encouraged Gavin to play away from them. But now they were physically trying to hurt him regardless if they were just “pretend” playing. I looked around still no parents around and no one looking in their direction either. So I scolded the 2 boys telling them that the sticks were unsafe and they needed to take them off the playground or at least keep them away from Gavin. They gave me dirty looks and went off to the other side of the playground. They always kept me in sight. After about 15 minutes of these boys swinging sticks at other children a man appears. Clearly the parent of the 4 year old. Takes the sticks away without scolding them and walks away to the other.side.of.the.field. What?!?
So now these stickless boys slowly creep by towards Gavin. I don’t want to be the mean mommy obviously these boys are only 3-4 years old and just lack supervision so I let Gavin run around with them for a bit more until he comes running to me and hides behind my legs and I realize these 2 little boys are now throwing ROCKS at my boy.
At this point I really don’t care how old they are. I scan the field for the dad of the older one and he is watching the game not at all aware of what is going on. The mom sitting next to him, both backs to the playground. I spin around snatch the rocks aways from them. I tell them if I catch them being mean or threatening to harm anyone I would not be happy and they were to stay away from Gavin. They run off. Five minutes later I finally see the dad of the 3 year old come over. He cries on demand, points at me. Dad walks over. Tells me quote “who the hell do you think you are to yell at my child! You should be ashamed of yourself” I simply fake laugh tell him that he should be ashamed of the fact that he has left his 3 year old child unsupervised for the last 45 minutes while they hit people with sticks, threw rocks at them, and bullied everyone. I also state at this point I did not scold the boys but was protecting my child from them. I get a nasty look and he calls me the “b” word.
At this point I am just in awe that this fully grown man is yelling profanities at me on a child’s playground at an elementary school during an 8 year old’s soccer game. I grab Gavin and head to the other side of the playground knowing at this point this man is just plain off his rocker. Luckily instead of following me he stomps off muttering under his breath. Leaving the small children behind yet again unsupervised. Obviously the manner in which these children are acting are only a response of what his parents portray as acceptable behavior and know no different. It’s rather sad really.
Seriously? I don’t get it? I don’t get how people can just leave their children unsupervised who are so young. I could easily of just shoved the kid in my car, he wouldn’t have noticed. He didn’t as much scold the boys for harming the other kids and didn’t seem surprised when I stated it. The hardest part was that these weren’t older kids picking on little ones. These were tiny little boys who should have been too naive on how to bully in the first place. I was just left speechless.
What do you do or what would you do if put in that situation?
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