After all the prepping, would he like it? Would he cry? Would I cry? We all went to the school this morning to meet his teacher and of course, to watch his reaction. It was a big day for him! But of course, the anticipation was more on our part than on his. Mr. Cool walked in, said his goodbyes to the four of us, and he walked away calm, cool and collected to go play with the other kids. Uneventful - whew!
All went well with the four year old... but what I didn't expect were the events of Isaiah's first day back at school.
When I left work this evening, I made my daily call to Danith on my hour drive home from work. Danith said that Isaiah had something to tell me when I got home, and it wasn't good. After saying this, did he think I would wait until I got home to hear the story?! Absolutely not!
Isaiah got on the phone right then to tell me what happened at school. Long story short, a kid was bullying him and his friends on the playground today. They were playing catch, and another boy took their football and ran off with it. They ran after him and got the ball back, and then they took off running. But apparently the boy pushed his friends and even was choking one of them. When Isaiah turned around and saw this, he ran back to help him, but the bell rang and the bully let go by the time he got there. (I could be chopping this story up, it was much longer when Isaiah told me).
What do you tell your child in a situation like this?! My first instinct was to ask, "did you beat him up?!". As a parent, you want to make sure your child is capable of taking care of himself, to make sure that he'll be okay when you're not around. But I had to stop myself and not let my protective and defensive instincts get carried away. I held back, remembering that I'm trying to raise a thinker, a peacemaker, a mature and responsible adult, turning a boy in to a man, and one with integrity and smarts.
We went over scenarios. What if HE was the one being choked? What if the bully had pushed HIM instead? What if he had caught up to the bully while he was still choking his friend? I don't know if my advice was "right", but I tried to maintain all of the principles and values and morals that I want him to be mindful of when he reacts in a situation like that. And of course, we talked about what to do in situations when those tactics don't work out so well.
At the end of the day, I can't be with him 24/7. I have to trust what we've taught him (gosh, so soon?!). He handled today with a lot of maturity. I'm so proud of how he responded, even to the teachers questioning him, and to the other kids riled up and wondering what happened. His response to those kiddos, "eh, I don't really care to talk about it." And that was that -- God I truly hope that was.
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