Little Bullies

May 23, 2006 | Category: Family, It's a Trip

My son has been raised, both at home and at school, under a code of rules. And while he can throw a punch that would land you on your aunt fanny, he adheres to this code and treats people, by and large, respectfully (at least as far as I know).

This has worked for Bear socially as well as morally - his is very popular at school with all his classmates (who attended his birthday party in record numbers) and with the teachers.

But the world isn't just bright and civilized places.

Which is why there is a certain park near our home that I avoid. It is close by and the crowd of kids there is rough. Almost feral.

The kids taunt each other and swear openly. Little kids, as young as 2 or 3, find themselves the targets of fistfuls of gravel and bark tossed from above. Boys hunch at the top of the plastic climbing wall and try and push down the kids who are trying to make it to the top - resulting of falls into the hard bark and gravel from heights of 4 or 5 feet.

And I have no idea where their parents are. There were 7 adults for the 30 or so kids that were there.

Yeah, it's all "Lord of the Flies" at that playground.

It was so beautiful today that I forgot all my reservations and stopped there with Bear after school. Dummy, dummy me.

There was a group of kids who Bear thought looked about his size, so he approached to play with them. They threw bark at him and teased him about his "clown hair".

I found him, arms wrapped around his knees hiding under a plastic shelter. He looked at me with sad and confused blue eyes.

I sighed. "Fight back," I advised.

He nodded seriously, dug up a mound of dirt and gravel, marched up the them and bombs away.

The next thing I knew, they were all the best of friends.

Which was also a problem. Because these kids were bullies.

They were trash-talking the other kids, shoving each other, and taking risks that scared the hell out of me. And then out of a kid who looked about 4 years old, urging another boy to keep up - "C'mon, asshole!"

I threw my purse over my shoulder and marched up to my son and said "Time to go."

Bear ignored me.

Finally, I grabbed his arm. The other kids then began trying to pull him away from me. Shouting at him that they would rescue him from the mean woman. One of the kids pulled his sweat pants practically to Bear's knees as he grabbed his legs off the ground.

My son;s body was in a tug of war with me at one end and 4 little children on the other and he went from laughing to scared but it didn't stop.

Finally, I shouted for them to stop immediately. The 4 looked at me defiantly for a long moment before stepping away. I had a moment of sheer outrage and panic.

Then I took my son's hand and we marched out. My heart thudding a mile a minute.

I need a valium. Seriously.

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