What a draining day!

I woke up this morning thinking it would be a day much like any other. But a day in the life of a mother never is just a mellow day.

We had an incident yesterday in church that left us a little shaken. A parent of one of the kids was helping out in Bug's Sunday school class. We have seen this parent around and had a few run ins with him as his son and Bug are also in the same 1st grade class. Let me just preface this by saying (in the most Christian like way I can) that this man is not a very pleasant man to be around. He has little patience with children and especially mine. In his opinion his son can do no wrong. What is sort of funny about this, is that his son is just as rambunctious and high spirited as Bug is. They (for the most part) get along really well. But like all kids this age they do have silly little dramas and they do squabble. They sort of have a love/hate relationship.

Thus far it has always been my opinion to let kids learn to fight their own battles until they seek my help. Or tattle and then I have to get involved. So I have stayed out of their squabbles.

Then enters this Father. Now a little in his defense...I do enjoy talking to his wife. She and I have become friends just by proxy. We drop off and pick up kids at the same time and our kids are in church activities together. However.....this Dad is always rude to me and makes a point of asking me questions like "So I wonder what Bug did to my kid today" or " It sure would be nice if Bug didn't teach my kid such terrible behavior" or "gee...maybe if you didn't have so many kids you could get his behavior under control". (Ok I added that last one in. but that's the way he looks at me. It feels like that is what he is thinking. He is an only child and has a only child so that makes him an expert of child behavior)

Well let's cut to the chase here. So yesterday we go to pick Bug up after the church service and his teacher pulls my husband aside. Apparently this guy was helping out with the Sunday school class and had seen enough of Bug's "behavior" and decided to take matters into his own hands.

He took him aside , got in his face and yelled at him telling him" not to ever talk to his kid again." Now to a 6 year old this was really traumatic and really shook Bug up. He said that the way he was acting, he thought he was going to punch him or something. The teacher told us that she was really uncomfortable and thought this was very inappropriate.

We were LIVID!!!!

So we calmed Bug down and reassured him that whatever he did, no matter how bad, did not warrant that. We felt awful that this happened. Especially at church where we are taught to resolve things peacefully and talk it out.

So we got up today and I had to go in and talk to his teacher and let her know that Bug and this other boy can't have any contact. It seems so ridiculous, but I honestly just don't want to provoke him. After this, I would be scared to think what he would do to Bug if he found out that they were still talking.

So my husband gave this man a call tonight and told him "Look, the boys won't talk as long as we can help it. We have done everything we could do on our end. ...Oh and by the way....don't you EVER talk to my kid again unless it is in a heart felt apology. If you have an issue with him....you come to us. " Big man!!! Scaring the pants off a 6 year old child! He didn't even believe that Bug was bothered by the whole thing. He didn't say he was sorry or anything. He had no idea what he had done. He told my husband "sometimes you just have to speak sternly to boys" My husband was like "Yeah ok fine, talk to your own boy like that but leave mine alone!"

I'm trying really hard here just to turn the other cheek. But it gets tricky when your kid is in the middle of it. The mama bear in me just wants to rip this guys eyelids off. But in the meantime all I can do is just sit back and pray that he will realize what he has done and apologize so that the boys can be friends again. Because out of all of this...Bug really only had one friend at this school and now he lost him. Thats the saddest part.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.