I really didn’t think that bullying was going to become an issue. Naive on my part, I’m sure. But to be able to witness it, and fight the urge to jump in to my kids defense has been hard.

We haven’t even really talked about it, or played through scenarios on how to handle it.

When Miles & I come to school to pick Elijah up, we always stay and play a little on the playground. There are two play structures, one for small kids and one for bigger kids. They are separated by a blacktop, so I can’t watch both areas at the same time. Which is okay, both boys want to be on the bigger play structure.

On Monday, an older boy, probably first grade, maybe second grade, saw Miles playing and confronted him. He mocked Miles’ t-shirt, called him a baby and laughed saying he wears diapers. Miles defended himself, but ultimately ran to Elijah to tell him what the boy said. Elijah proceeded to get in the kid’s face and say, “my brother is not a baby, he’s 3. He doesn’t wear diapers”. The kid blew him off, and I told Miles just ignore him, play somewhere else.

Wednesday afternoon, it was a repeat of Monday. He saw Miles, mocked his clothes, and called him a baby. This time, Miles gave him the evil eye and said “I hate you. You’re a meanie” The kid didn’t have a response, but he looked in Miles’ direction, Miles reminded him, I hate you. The boy retorted with “don’t call me a meanie. If I see you on this playground again and you say you hate me and I’m a meanie, I’m gonna tell your mom”.

The kid was called away, and I told Miles, if you don’t want to be near that kid, just move away, play somewhere else.

I can’t wrap my mind around why this boy is going out of his way to pick on Miles. I’m trying to walk the line between letting my kids fight their own battles, and being a helicopter mom.

I open it up to you dear readers, any advice you can give, any similar experiences, please share it with me.