Bullying
I write this post with a heavy heart. I took the kids to McDonald's tonight so they could play while Dustin went to mutual. We got there and Baylee immediately made some friends. I'm so proud of her! She was having so much fun running around with them. Tate thought it looked like fun, too. He tried to follow them into the big play place. It broke my heart to witness my 18 month old baby get bullied already. Fortunately, it was mostly verbal so I don't think Tate was too affected. Hopefully.
So at our McDonald's there is an encased spiral staircase of sorts, as pictured above (behind the dancing cutie). That's where a lot of the kids climb to the top of the play place where all the fun things like slides and robots are located. And that is where Tate climbed into to follow his big sis. Also where I witnessed bullying situation number one. I had a hard time letting Tate out of my sight, especially since I knew a freak out was bound to happen. Tate was sitting on the stairs, not very high, kind of blocking traffic of older kids going up. I saw a little girl who couldn't be more than two years old, barely three tops, try to push her way past him. As she pushed her way past him she had some mean things to say, too, apparently. She told him, "No, don't be in here. Go away." As she pushed him and made her way past him on the stairs. I was seriously floored by this! I cannot believe how much bullying goes on and we often don't even recognize it. And how young it starts, for goodness sake!
I was very upset and kept a close eye on Tate (and this little girl) though he seemed quite fine, really. Baylee eventually encouraged Tate enough to get him to climb all the way to the top and across the whole thing into the robot. Then she tried to get him to go towards the slide and they were stalled in a tunnel. I watched as an older boy went up the other side where you can climb in a box shape up big huge triangle steps, opposite of the spiral staircase. The tunnel my kids were in practically connect these two ways up. So this boy, probably about 8-10 years old, climbs up and just starts yelling. No words, just loud noises. A kid on the other side of the tunnel starts yelling with him. My kids are sandwiched between the two yellers and my kids do not like loud noises. I hear Baylee yell, "Stop! He doesn't like that!" I know I shouldn't necessarily be proud of my child for yelling, but I'm dang proud!! Sure enough the yelling stopped and I hear Tate wailing now and Baylee yelling, "Mom!" to let me know Tate is upset. I tried telling Baylee a couple times to help Tate get to a way out, help him down. To which she still replied with, "Mom!". I finally climbed the enclosed death trap to rescue my baby.
I'm so so proud of Baylee. My shy, little girl who often won't say a single word around anyone, but stood up strongly for her little brother. I tried to make a big deal out of it by giving her lots of praise and a treat to top it off.
My heavy heart doesn't come from this instance alone, but many instances I've encountered lately. I never realized how bad it is and how common it is these days. I feel like I grew up before the day and age of bullying. I don't remember being bullied or really bullying anyone. Of course I did grow up in Utah, where the cool thing in high school was to be nice to everyone. I hope by seeing these situations and having my eyes opened a bit, I can learn from my three year old. Learn to stand up for those around me, and learn to be nice to everyone no matter what! A quote I heard from a friend a couple years ago, that I've always loved and tried to keep in my mind is: "Kindness is always in our power, even when fondness is not." Something that I'm definitely working on.
Enough of my two cents, here's some pictures of my sweet little things.
So at our McDonald's there is an encased spiral staircase of sorts, as pictured above (behind the dancing cutie). That's where a lot of the kids climb to the top of the play place where all the fun things like slides and robots are located. And that is where Tate climbed into to follow his big sis. Also where I witnessed bullying situation number one. I had a hard time letting Tate out of my sight, especially since I knew a freak out was bound to happen. Tate was sitting on the stairs, not very high, kind of blocking traffic of older kids going up. I saw a little girl who couldn't be more than two years old, barely three tops, try to push her way past him. As she pushed her way past him she had some mean things to say, too, apparently. She told him, "No, don't be in here. Go away." As she pushed him and made her way past him on the stairs. I was seriously floored by this! I cannot believe how much bullying goes on and we often don't even recognize it. And how young it starts, for goodness sake!
I was very upset and kept a close eye on Tate (and this little girl) though he seemed quite fine, really. Baylee eventually encouraged Tate enough to get him to climb all the way to the top and across the whole thing into the robot. Then she tried to get him to go towards the slide and they were stalled in a tunnel. I watched as an older boy went up the other side where you can climb in a box shape up big huge triangle steps, opposite of the spiral staircase. The tunnel my kids were in practically connect these two ways up. So this boy, probably about 8-10 years old, climbs up and just starts yelling. No words, just loud noises. A kid on the other side of the tunnel starts yelling with him. My kids are sandwiched between the two yellers and my kids do not like loud noises. I hear Baylee yell, "Stop! He doesn't like that!" I know I shouldn't necessarily be proud of my child for yelling, but I'm dang proud!! Sure enough the yelling stopped and I hear Tate wailing now and Baylee yelling, "Mom!" to let me know Tate is upset. I tried telling Baylee a couple times to help Tate get to a way out, help him down. To which she still replied with, "Mom!". I finally climbed the enclosed death trap to rescue my baby.
I'm so so proud of Baylee. My shy, little girl who often won't say a single word around anyone, but stood up strongly for her little brother. I tried to make a big deal out of it by giving her lots of praise and a treat to top it off.
My heavy heart doesn't come from this instance alone, but many instances I've encountered lately. I never realized how bad it is and how common it is these days. I feel like I grew up before the day and age of bullying. I don't remember being bullied or really bullying anyone. Of course I did grow up in Utah, where the cool thing in high school was to be nice to everyone. I hope by seeing these situations and having my eyes opened a bit, I can learn from my three year old. Learn to stand up for those around me, and learn to be nice to everyone no matter what! A quote I heard from a friend a couple years ago, that I've always loved and tried to keep in my mind is: "Kindness is always in our power, even when fondness is not." Something that I'm definitely working on.
Enough of my two cents, here's some pictures of my sweet little things.
Wearing my Elmo pants.
Playing restaurant.
Playing drums.
Playing "Go Fish".
We love Perry around here...
Look at what we made!
And I love it. Though we have too many books.
Walking to check the mail, he has the key and everything.
Checking out the huge, awesome tree that you can walk in.
Just regular Tate, all Fausett perhaps...
Boy, you must be an Agrelius! Never seen the resemblance until this picture.
Mouth full of blueberries from Chef Baylee.
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