Life and Times
I can't believe it. The youngest child informed me when he got off the bus that he was going to have to be a car rider for a couple of days. He got kicked off the bus. For fighting! I was horrified.
Of course, I sat him down and asked him exactly what happened. The story I got was that he hit another boy on the bus. I asked him why. He shrugged and said he didn't know. I read him the riot act and grounded him for a week.
Now I feel like a heel. My husband asked him what happened a little later that evening and I stopped just outside the doorway to listen. Baby Boy told him, after much dancing around the topic, that a boy on the bus had been picking on him. This had apparently been going on for a while with escalating violence. Baby boy never told the bus driver, me, or my husband.
Finally, he had had enough and hit the other child back and wound up beating him up. Baby Boy just turned six and has asthma. The other child is ten or eleven and much larger and heavier. He lives just down the road from us and Baby Boy is friends with his younger brother.
We had always tried to impress upon both boys that starting fights was not allowed and they would be punished for it. They were also told that if someone was picking on them to tell a teacher, other person of authority, or us. I don't know why he thought he had to hide the fact that someone was picking on him.
He'd also been told that he was allowed to defend himself. He shouldn't start a fight but he didn't have to just stand there and take it either. Again, I don't know why he felt the need to hide the fact that that's what he was doing this time.
Baby boy didn't tell the bus driver what was going on and I don't know how it happened that he got in trouble for hitting this child this one day while he'd been getting hit and tripped and picked on for days. My oldest boy goes to a special school and so doesn't ride the same bus but Baby Boy had apparently told his brother what was going on. Dear Boy never thought to tell us what was happening to his younger brother until we asked. His mind just doesn't work that way.
Tomorrow we're taking care of it.
I never had to deal with this or, at least, I don't remember ever having this problem. It breaks my heart to know that there are children out there who thinks it's okay to hit other children because they are upset. It is also disturbing that if Baby Boy hadn't been kicked off the bus, we'd not have known about it for who knows how long. How much worse would it have gotten before he told us? I don't know but I hope now he knows he can tell us things like that; that we want to know so we can help.
And it may be completely wrong, but I am proud of Baby Boy for standing up for himself and whipping the tar out of the other child. Perhaps that boy will think twice next time around about trying to beat up other children. I can always hope.
On a completely different topic, I saw a Burger King commercial today with a storm trooper blasting one of the ovens to get it to light. I got a flash of Chewbacca (sp?) wearing a full body hair net and flipping burgers. Now, I'm not sure whether this was from another commercial or not, I don't watch TV enough to know. Either way, it was a very strange visual.
Watched Bones and My Name Is Earl tonight. They are two out of five or six shows that I watch. Everything else on TV is just background noise for the rest of my life.
And I've now completely exhausted any topics of conversation I might have. Where did my life go? I know I used to have one. I can just vaguely remember it. It used to be fun, I think. I used to do stuff: movies (and I still haven't seen Serenity), shopping that wasn't just for groceries, dancing- no, wait, I don't dance. I'm sure I used to do other things though, once upon a time.
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through fanfic.
Of course, I sat him down and asked him exactly what happened. The story I got was that he hit another boy on the bus. I asked him why. He shrugged and said he didn't know. I read him the riot act and grounded him for a week.
Now I feel like a heel. My husband asked him what happened a little later that evening and I stopped just outside the doorway to listen. Baby Boy told him, after much dancing around the topic, that a boy on the bus had been picking on him. This had apparently been going on for a while with escalating violence. Baby boy never told the bus driver, me, or my husband.
Finally, he had had enough and hit the other child back and wound up beating him up. Baby Boy just turned six and has asthma. The other child is ten or eleven and much larger and heavier. He lives just down the road from us and Baby Boy is friends with his younger brother.
We had always tried to impress upon both boys that starting fights was not allowed and they would be punished for it. They were also told that if someone was picking on them to tell a teacher, other person of authority, or us. I don't know why he thought he had to hide the fact that someone was picking on him.
He'd also been told that he was allowed to defend himself. He shouldn't start a fight but he didn't have to just stand there and take it either. Again, I don't know why he felt the need to hide the fact that that's what he was doing this time.
Baby boy didn't tell the bus driver what was going on and I don't know how it happened that he got in trouble for hitting this child this one day while he'd been getting hit and tripped and picked on for days. My oldest boy goes to a special school and so doesn't ride the same bus but Baby Boy had apparently told his brother what was going on. Dear Boy never thought to tell us what was happening to his younger brother until we asked. His mind just doesn't work that way.
Tomorrow we're taking care of it.
I never had to deal with this or, at least, I don't remember ever having this problem. It breaks my heart to know that there are children out there who thinks it's okay to hit other children because they are upset. It is also disturbing that if Baby Boy hadn't been kicked off the bus, we'd not have known about it for who knows how long. How much worse would it have gotten before he told us? I don't know but I hope now he knows he can tell us things like that; that we want to know so we can help.
And it may be completely wrong, but I am proud of Baby Boy for standing up for himself and whipping the tar out of the other child. Perhaps that boy will think twice next time around about trying to beat up other children. I can always hope.
On a completely different topic, I saw a Burger King commercial today with a storm trooper blasting one of the ovens to get it to light. I got a flash of Chewbacca (sp?) wearing a full body hair net and flipping burgers. Now, I'm not sure whether this was from another commercial or not, I don't watch TV enough to know. Either way, it was a very strange visual.
Watched Bones and My Name Is Earl tonight. They are two out of five or six shows that I watch. Everything else on TV is just background noise for the rest of my life.
And I've now completely exhausted any topics of conversation I might have. Where did my life go? I know I used to have one. I can just vaguely remember it. It used to be fun, I think. I used to do stuff: movies (and I still haven't seen Serenity), shopping that wasn't just for groceries, dancing- no, wait, I don't dance. I'm sure I used to do other things though, once upon a time.
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through fanfic.