Bullying

A couple of days ago one of the neighborhood kids dropped one of our chickens.  She is Aidan's chicken, and our sweetest one, Pippi.  But this girl just suddenly let her go, one of her legs went off to the side when she landed, and now she's limping.  I was standing there with Aidan watching her struggle to walk around the run and Aidan wanted to leave because it hurt him to watch her.  I told him that this is what Mommas do and he replies, "Momma's just sit there and watch your child hurting when you are helpless to fix it and you want it to stop?!"  Yep, pretty much.  But we stay there so that you know you are not alone, even if we can't fix it.

Momma Bear is going to come out of hibernation and lumber off to the principal's office today. Chris and I have never requested a meeting with the principal before.  But these 5th grade girls have been making school miserable for our son.  We've tried on our end to help him come up with strategies to resolve the issues, but it continues.  On one hand I feel angry and protective, but that wars with compassion in my heart.  Because I've been around enough to understand that life is not lining up to hand those girls roses.  I understand that some of their home lives stink, that what they really need is nothing that the school can give them.  I get it.  I do.  I know that they are longing to feel loved and accepted and nobody wants to be on the outside so they all gang up together like a pack of wolves.  But I don't know of anyway that I can help the root of their pain, and the fallout is landing on my boy.  And Aidan's not the only one who's being badgered.   I was mentioning this to a friend the other day, and when I said that I had missed middle school because I was homeschooled, she told me that I had gotten a free pass out of hell.  Really?

We're trying here to raise a man of integrity and courage and honor.  I know sometimes he has to fight battles on his own.  But I also know that he's still a boy.  Nobody messes with Chloe.  And the few times that someone has, she has simply crooked her finger for her big brother and he's showed up and that was the end of it.  Sometimes as parents, I think we need to sit and wait, and sometimes we just need to show up.