It seems lately that I just can't help, but get myself right into the middle of a fight. "What?!" you ask, "Another fight?!" Well, yeah, sort of. Let me just tell you what happened two days ago.
I was standing outside in the freezing cold, waiting for Eli to come off the bus. I might be a bit overprotective, but I feel better knowing he's safe. So, I see him hop off the bus and come walking slowly toward me. As I'm watching him, I'm also watching the rest of the kids get off the bus. I thought it was strange that quite a few of them were waiting right by the bus door after getting off and not going home right away. It seemed as though they were waiting for something. I continued to watch them, interested in what they were doing, while I was still waiting for Eli to get to me. Finally, Eli was by me. I would have turned to go then, but the object of the children's attention had finally made it to the bus door and I wanted to know what it was.
Well, it was another kid. There were about a dozen kids waiting for this one kid and what happened next was not what I was expecting. One of the kids outside grabbed the kid inside the bus and pulled him out. From there, that solitary kid ended up in the middle of the dozen kids and all I could see at that point were arms flying all over the place and it looked to me like the kid was getting beat up. So, since I was the only adult outside and I didn't think the bus driver could just leave the bus to do something, I ran over there yelling, "HEY!! What's going on?! KNOCK IT OFF!!" My heart was pounding while I was running in the snow the 30 yards or so to break up what was going on. Someone in a car honked their horn at the kids too. They probably thought the same thing I did. "That kid is getting the crap kicked out of him by 12 other kids!"
I get over there and all the kids just stop and stare at me. The solitary kid just looks up at me in surprise and says, "We were just fooling around." I replied, after catching my breath and trying to calm down, " WELL IT DIDN'T LOOK LIKE IT!" After another second or two of all the kids just standing there, staring at me, I yelled to all of them, "GO HOME!" and they all quickly turned and went.
Then I walked back to where Eli was standing, waiting for me and I was shaking due to the rush of adrenaline. I hate that feeling! I know I did the right thing, even if they were really just fooling around and I made myself look stupid. I was not going to just stand there while some kid got beat up by a bunch of other kids.
I tell you this story not to toot my own horn, but more to remind myself to not be afraid to get involved when it's appropriate to do so. So, the next time you happen to be presented with a situation like this one, you can just think to yourself, "What would Becca do? Oh yeah, that's right. She would jump in head first! She's crazy!" Maybe I am, but at least my craziness makes for interesting reading.
2 comments:
Go Becca! I did the same thing at the pool one day. Kids were "playing around" and it looked like it was getting heated. I had my daughter there, who was only 2 1/2. They were threatening to fight and I didn't see their parents so I walked up to them and told them they needed to not fight and shouldn't even be here without their parents because they didn't look old enough (had to be 14 to be at the pool). They informed me they were old enough and I told them I didn't believe them (the oldest looked 12). I said if they didn't cool it I would call security. I walked away proud of myself, but 2 minutes later one of their parents walked into the pool area. I still think I did right too. ;) Although a few weeks/month later we got ding-dong ditched, but that's okay. I apparently turned into the apartments mean lady. Oh well!
You did the right thing! Good for you! Too many times "just fooling around" ends up with someone getting hurt, even if it is just fooling around.
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