The Ballard Bunch

Miss Tate is at the age of tripping, falling, bruising and tears and Miss Mama is have major anxiety over it! Yesterday was a prime example...

Earlier in the day Shanna and I took the kids to lunch - their usual haunt, Mickey Donald's. They were having a great time playing and were getting along famously with each other (Shantell and Braeden are great about watching out for little Tatum). Remember me previously mentioning how I can't stand the moms that don't watch their own kids? Again. This one little boy was a terror! First, he's in the basketball area pinching and pushing my daughter. I watched from a distance to see what she'd do - she just stood there looking at him like, "No you didn't." He kept at it and his mom didn't say anything. Tatum finally started to scream at him (she's not a hitter, though, so screams are pretty nasty). He still kept going so I went in and said, "Tatum - next time he pinches or pushes, you do it back." That got his mom up, well at least looking in our direction. She still ignored the issue. He went and did it while I was standing right there so I looked at him and I said, "If you don't stop being mean, McDonald's will make you leave." Putting the fear of the manager into a kid did the trick. At least for awhile.

A few minutes later there is this cute little girl - maybe 3 or 4 carrying her croc shoes around. He comes up, yanks them out of her hand and starts putting them in the cubbies. She's crying - again no mom around - and looks at me with sad little puppy dog eyes. So I walk her over and show her where they are in the cubbies. He sees this and gets pissed. He runs up to us, grabs a shoe and runs into the playground and hides it - coming out laughing. Damien, I swear, people. The kicker is, when he left, the little girl was with his group and she got in trouble for not having her shoes. Yelling-how-stupid-could-you-be, trouble. I wanted to cry for her.

Maybe I'm out of line for intervening and telling this kid to stop pushing and pinching and for helping her find her shoes, but I feel like sometimes kids need people to advocate for them and I felt so sad for this little girl. I'm sure this happens to her at home all the time - he terrorizes and she somehow gets in trouble for it because she's little and timid and doesn't speak up. I know, I'm the mom that other moms hate at the playground, but I'm not the type to sit by and let things happen. Kids do need to learn to solve their own issues and I'm all for that, but sometimes it's too much and they need a little mom step-in. And I'm happy to do it - especially if my kid is the one being terrorized. On the flip side - in an instant I would discipline Tatum if she was bullying - I don't deal well with that either. Kids need parenting, plain and simple.

And now I'm off my soapbox.

After that we met up with Amanda and took the kids to Gardner Village to see the Halloween Witches. It was cold and windy, so we didn't stay long, but the kids got a kick out of them. Just as we're at the end of the displays, Tatum swats something and starts screaming bloody-murder. She got stung by a bee! Her poor little hand was swollen in seconds and she was so sad! She survived and the swelling went down pretty quickly in the car, but I felt so bad for her. She had absolutely no idea what was going on - she was fine and then all of a sudden *bam* pain and swelling. Poor little thing.

Our last stop was Children's Place to look for a costume for Baby Kehl. Shanna had seen an ad for a lion costume that she wanted to get for him. We had the babies out feeding them bottles while we looked (they'd had a long day, too) and Shantell, Braeden and Tatum were walking around. Minding themselves pretty well playing near the display a few feet away from us. I guess I was pretty distracted because a few minutes later I can hear Tatum crying, but it's muffled. I look out and she's standing outside the doors with her little hand smashed in them. The saddest part was her face pressed against the window and the weight of her own pushing on the door making her hand hurt worse. She didn't understand that if she stopped pushing, she could pull the door open and free her hand. Mother of the Year. She must have walked out with other people leaving or something because I have no idea how she got out otherwise. I'm usually overly strict with her being right by me and this is why. Everyone was fine in the end, but I was pretty freaked out that she'd gotten outside. Lucky, as mean as it sounds, that her hand got caught or she may have totally wandered off.

Anyway, she fell asleep pretty early yesterday - no blaming her after the day she had. Being pinched, pushed, stung and stuck, my little Tate is beginning to be quite the handful. But at least she has a mom that is aware. :)