This Morning..

This morning while I was dropping little man off at daycare, I witnessed one of the older infants pushing him around, pulling him back by his shirt and not letting up. I'm pretty sure I had a moment of over-protective mama (like a mama bear with her cubs) and it took all I had not to walk over and take his hands off my little guy.

I stood watching it for a while. Cruz was playing with some blocks and this bigger infant (yes, mind you, we are in the older INFANT room) kept pulling on his shirt - pulling him back, pushing him forward and making little man even more unbalanced than he already is, close to toppling over.

I realize now it wasn't a big deal and the other kiddo didn't know what he was doing, but it gets me thinking of how I'm going to react when Cruz comes home from school and tells me another kid was mean to him, called him names, pushed him, you name it. Let me just tell you, it won't go well. I've already experienced moments of extreme sadness (& slight anger) when my sister told me about times her son, Kayden, had been made fun of for a stocking hat he wore to school and came home crying about it because they were so mean - I wanted to find that little kid and teach him some manners. Or the time her daughter, Dayvaney, was basically unconsoleable because her best friend at school told her she didn't want to be her friend anymore. Or worse yet, the time the principal at Kayden's school called him out in front of the rest of the kids in his class and told him he couldn't wear his hair that way (and didn't have the common sense to tell his parents instead) - dude, he was six, its not like he does his own hair. And THEN when Kayden had the sense to talk it through with Tessa and come up with what he thought was a solution and shared it with the principal, he was told "No, that won't work. That's not a good idea." and it made him even more upset.

Situations like this, while small, definitely get me thinking about all of the stuff we're going to have to deal with. What is the best way to handle these situations? How would parents react to being confronted with this about their child? How do I ensure I'm instilling good manners into our little guy so he doesn't turn out to be one of the bad guys? What if....what if...what if...