Day 46 - Beware

Let me just confirm your suspicions, that me posting twice in one day, is not always a good thing.  I haven't gone out to exercise yet (other than my usual two mile hike back and forth to school).  This was something that happened when we got to school and I needed to vent it out somewhere or I was going to explode.  I will completely understand if you wish not to read it.  Maybe I'll post something happier after I go run for an hour.  Thanks for understanding.

 

Venting Post = Beware

Have you ever had those times, as mom, when you just want to scream?  Not because of what the kids did or didn’t do, but because of the way people around them treat them?  Sometimes you hear about something someone said about your child, or made fun of the way they dressed a particular day or made fun of an answer they gave in class.  Kids can just be so cruel sometimes.

Today was just one of those days.  As you know from one of my earlier posts, JT is still learning how to ride his bike.  He is far from mastering the skill but is making great strides towards being able to ride for more than a few seconds at a time. 

Yesterday was walk/ride your bike to school day and the police came and were registering bicycles and giving out free helmets.  JT’s been riding his scooter, but we thought it would be a great opportunity for the boys, so I strapped back on the training wheels.  Yesterday turned out great.

Today was a different story.  When I was riding with the boys, RJ decided he was going to be whinny all the way to school.  Brother was beating him and he just didn’t like it.  JT was, as usual, faster and arrived at school a few minutes before we did.  I usually just leave them at the bike rack, but I wanted to make sure JT was at school safely so I decided to look around.  I found him sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast all by himself.  When I asked him why he hadn’t sat outside where I could see him, he told me that several of the kids had made fun of his training wheels.   His eyes started to tear up and he didn’t say anything after that.  Right then and there I wanted to find those kids and really give them a piece of my mind.

Didn’t they know that he’s someone’s son?  Didn’t they know that he hasn’t had the chance to ride a bike like the rest of them?  Didn’t they understand that he’s having a hard time with it?  Didn’t they understand that at one point in their lives, they didn’t know how to ride a bike either?  Didn’t they understand that they were hurting my son’s feelings when they said those cruel things to him?  Didn’t they understand that he has a hard time fitting in as it and that saying things like that only make him feel worse?   Didn’t they understand that he has a mom who loves him, who will probably spend the rest of the day crying, wishing that she could erase this black mark they’ve put on his already fragile ego?  Don’t they understand that he is a child of God?  Don’t they understand that they are too?  Don’t they understand that Heavenly Father loves them all and if they’d only take the time to love each other, faults, training wheels and all, that this world would be a much better place?

But I can’t.  I can sit here and cry, but that won’t do anything but make the manufacturers of Kleenex richer.  So I did the only thing I could do.  When the bell rang, I pulled him aside and told him that no matter what happened at school, that he had a mom who loved him.  Then I told him that I was going to take his bike home and replace it that afternoon with his scooter.  He smiled and for the moment, that had to be enough for me.