Part Two

Pain: what I almost inflicted on a 6-year-old boy. Grrr.... Now I know what my mom means about the "Mother Bear" in you flaring up.

But, the best part of this story is not what I did (or wanted to do...), but what Seth did!

So we were at a park. I was sitting on a bench watching Seth play on the play structure a little ways off—he had made some new friends and they were having a great time. Suddenly I see some punk 6-year-old (or so...) sitting at the top of the twisty slide, pushing a littler kid down. I'm not sure if he thought her terror was funny, or if he just didn't notice the terror and thought going down a slide is surely fun...? I also thought it was probably his sister.... 

At any rate, when Seth made his way over, the kid hauls off and shoves him down the slide. Seth flops all around while he twists down, unable to keep his balance, and landed hard on his butt in the sand. He was clearly a little traumatized by this unexpected assault.

I keep sitting there, waiting to see what he'll do first.

He gets off the slide. He marches under it so he can be on the side where he can look up and see this kid's face. And he points a finger at him and says very, very forcefully:

DON'T!

DO THAT!

AGAIN!

PLEASE!

Waving his finger on each word.

Haha! And, I'm telling you . . . . This mother heart sighed a little sigh! And I thought, this kid's gonna be ALRIGHT.... Way to stand up for yourself, kid! He didn't exact his revenge. He didn't start bawling for his mom. He didn't run away, too scared to go back....

In fact, a couple minutes later, he went to go down the slide again, with the kid still staking out the push-people-down spot!

Seth starts to shimmy past him—the kid sitting down was only a little shorter than Seth was standing up, and he was also occupying most of the space.... He puts his hand on the kid's shoulder (hahaha! that killed me!) and says: "Now don't push me down. ...ALRIGHT?"

[This is my heart swelling with awe.]

And Seth actually sits down to try again, with this guy right at his back.

[Pitter-patter my mother heart.]

And this KID!!!

The kid PUSHED him AGAIN!!

[The pitter-patter was over!]

I was off of that bench SO fast...! It was really kind of funny, because I didn't even notice myself decide to get up. By the time I was thinking to myself, "that little PUNK!" I was already halfway across the sand. Stomping. And mad. And ready to bop that kid on his punky little head. 

My fury alarmed me. Hehe. (Somewhere inside—somewhere under the rage—I really laughed over it, too. :))

About 3/4ths of the way there, I realized that bopping the kid or throwing him down the slide was not going to be acceptable, and I literally stood there taking a couple deep breaths before I talked to the kid. I said something like, "Excuse me, he asked you to please not push him down again, and you really need to do what he asked. He doesn't want you to push him down the slide. He TOLD you this, you LITTLE PUNK!!" No, I didn't really say that last part. ;-)

[At which point his grunge-biker dad (this surprised me... :)) came over and shouted, "BOY! You keep your hands off of people!!" And I thought, whoa.... I sure hope he doesn't actually get bopped.]

So, anyway, I adore this story. I was surprised at the fiery rage that flared all through me in about a billionth of a moment. And Seth surprised me with his awesome, awesome finger-wagging, standing up for himself in a direct but polite enough way: "DON'T! DO THAT. AGAIN. PLEASE!" And his willingness to try again, put his hand on the kid's shoulder and say, "now don't push me, alright?" There are so many things to love about the whole exchange.... :) I just love this little guy. He's a fascinating and beautiful person to me. :)