A good ol' punch in the face!

We had our first experience with a bully last night. We ventured to the swimming pool for a fun evening out as a family. However; everytime we decide to go out swimming it isn't exactly fun. Always it is for the same reason: Gavin! He is a maniac in the water. No rest for the wicked. He jumps, dives, splashes, runs and falls. The boy has no fear. Back to the topic at hand: "The Bully".
Seamus saw a friend of his at the swimming pool (Rylin), and wanted to go hang out with him. Of course, I am always a little skeptical, but he does know how to swim, and he can venture out 4 arms lengths without his overprotective mom, so we allowed him to play with his friend. My sixth sense was taking over. I could tell how this kid (a friend of Rylin's brother) was talking to Seamus that it wasn't going very well. Within a couple of minutes Seamus had come back to us in tears. "Mommy" he cried, "let's just go home!"
"What did that kid say to you?" Scott protested.
"He called me a baby!" Seamus cried out in between tears.
"Well, I woulda just told him to get lost!" was Josey's response.
Needless to say we decided that it was best to leave the swimming pool and go for our Strawberry Sundae treat at DQ. We tried to advise Seamus on the best course to take to be with bullies.
"There will always be bullies, Shay," I tried to reason with him, "and the best thing to do in that situation is say 'Whatever'. That will Shut them up fast. And, the most important thing to do is remember it has nothing to do with who you are as a person!"
"Yeah, "Scott added, "Just ignore them, or laugh and walk away. You're better than those types of people."
I was feeling pretty proud of how well Scott and I were handling the situation, and then my husband leaned over to me and whispered, "I'm not gonna tell this to Shay now, but if they persist a good ol' punch in the face always settles up those situations!" Now isn't that some great advice!
As a parent you always want to protect your children. I went to bed last night and was upset that some jerk of a kid could in a moment bring my cheerful little boy to tears! Imagine all the tears and heartache that as parents we will face with our children in the years to come. It is part of life and lessons learned, but I wish the lessons could be learned without the expense of heartache for my boys.
On a drier note: it was a beautiful, spring-like day today! Gavin and I went for a walk and the older boys went with Gramma Donna and Grampa Ross for a ride to Lakelse River.
"The cops came and stopped Grampa" Josey exclaimed " and it wasn't cause he was driving bad!" I quickly found out that the 'police (politically correct word)' were doing random checks. Nothing out of the ordinary. Kind of funny that they weren't stopping Grampa for his 'bad driving'!
Jonas wants to be a police officer when he grows up. "And even if you do something bad mommy, "he explained on the way home from school, "I'd have to have you put in jail."
"Well I sure hope I don't do anything bad, " I answered.
"But mommy, you really know that I wouldn't even put you in jail if you did something bad!" Oh, the love a child has for his mother!!Priceless...
Gavin has been out of sorts today and Jonas has a bad cold. This probably means I am in for a long night ahead of me. I must go and do the '10 second tidy' before my husband comes home.
I leave you with this quote: "Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning."-Psalms 10:5
I think that I may need to repeat this Psalm to myself this evening. Oh crap, Scott's coming through the door!
Gotta Run!
Enjoy your evening!
Jenny la Tortue