Someone was mean to my baby!!!

I had the shocking experience of a couple children being mean to Z at the library last week. I'm not going to rehash the whole situation on here, but the gist was that two kids were harassing Z and taking toys and books away from him every time he tried to look at something. I don't want to call too harsh of judgment on their mom in a public forum like this, maybe she was just having a bad day and felt like she couldn't deal with disciplining her kids, but she basically just sat by and did nothing to intervene.

Ultimately, I resolved the situation by speaking very firmly to the two children, but the whole ordeal had my brain spinning for days. It started with outrage towards the other mother for not teaching her kids to be kind to other children, especially a younger child, and for not intervening and instead forcing me to discipline a stranger's child to protect my own. Then, I was upset with myself for not confronting the other mother and forcing her to interact with her children. Finally, it was just the terrible realization every parent has to face eventually: we can't always protect our kids.

Someday, Z will be in school and there will be bullies on the playground who are mean or say hurtful things. Except I won't be there to whip out my "firm" voice and scare the pants off of those little hooligans. My deepest fear is that Z won't tell me about something like that and will suffer in silence. I pray that he will know that he can come to his Mama and Papa to help him. I hope that we will be able to teach him how special he is and that those kids being mean is not a reflection of him, it's a reflection of something sad or hurt in their lives. I hope that he will be confident enough to let those moments slide off of him and kind enough to keep offering that sweet smile to everyone around him. Please, let him be brave enough to not hide the hurt and to not hurt back.

When we chose Z's name, we chose it largely for the meaning: defender of mankind. We liked that it was strong and sounded like a super-hero. Truly, I hoped in my heart that giving him that name would lead him to become a protector of others. That he would live up to his moniker and be the kid who stands up to the bullies and says, "That's not okay." I will keep praying and hoping for this, and hope that I can be the kind of mother that will make him feel like he is that hero.

We believe in you, little guy.