The Mama Bear in Me. . .

Okay--so here's the situation.  .  .
We have a great street with lots of kids--Camden is the youngest and the ones that are around his age are, of course, girls.  The kids have all played together over the past year or so, and they go through their normal ups and downs as all kids do.  It's hard for me to keep my mouth shut most of the time, but I do--for Camden's sake, he needs to learn to work out some of the typical social issues out on his own.  I do get tired of hearing him get pushed around and bossed around, and I get tired of hearing them tell him they aren't his friend b/c I won't give gum out to the whole neighborhood-but again-he has to work this out.  They are kids, they don't mean it, but it still hurts my heart a little when people are being ugly.  Jason did tell me the other night that he really heard him standing up for himself to one of the kids and he was proud of him.

BUT TONIGHT.  .  .I don't know if it was the discussion of bullies that I had with a girlfriend, or if it's just that I don't want my kid to get pushed around or treated badly (let's face it, do any of us? ) but I had a MAJOR Mama Bear moment.  .  .
So we got home from t-ball and it was late--well, late for the kids, it was almost 8--and the little girl that Camden had been playing with earlier came scooting down--I hear her say to Camden "We've had such a good time without you here.  .  ."  I think to myself--I'm going to let that go, surely I couldn't have heard her correctly.  .  .So, I get out start unloading the boys and such, and I hear again "We've been having such a great time without you.  .  ." That does it, because at this point I realize Camden doesn't know that what she is saying isn't nice--he's too sweet to understand that sometimes people do and say things just TO BE HATEFUL.  .  .
I whipped around and said (very calmly and even toned, yet VERY stern):
"What did you say?"
---silence, silence
"What did you say?"
-- um um I was just filling Camden in on what we were doing while he was gone
"Did you tell him you 'had so much fun without him'?"
--yes
"and how would you feel if he said that to you" (still holding eye contact here--I even made it a point to take my sunglasses off so she could see my eyes)
--(eyes down) bad
"I am not going to have you coming down here and talking ugly to my little boy.  I like you and you are a very sweet girl and a special friend to Camden, but if I hear you talking like that to him again you aren't going to be allowed to play with him--do you understand me?"
--yes ma'am

she retreated VERY quickly, and I did start feeling a little bad about it--but y'all, I'm not going to have people talking ugly to my little boy.  He is such a sweet and sensitive soul, and I'll be danged if I'm going to let someone treat him like that.  She knew what she was saying to him, she was trying to be ugly.  .  .I think that's what chapped me so bad.  As I rehashed this to Jason he agreed that I did the right thing, I was proud that I stayed calm (that's a tough one for me), and I KNOW without a doubt that if I heard Camden talking to someone like that I would've done the same thing to him.

Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you...




Have I mentioned that Evan is CLIMBING?????  EEK!