Sometimes being a Mom is tough.
I'm not talking about the long hours, the loads of laundry, or the insane responsibility of not forgetting any of your children when you go out.
I'm talking about the moments when your baby isn't treated kindly.
When they get glimpses that not everyone will always be nice to them.
This past weekend we had a little shindig for Gabe.
Josie was so excited for all the guests to show up.
When the first family showed up, their 6 year old started to play with Josie.
Then another older boy came.
They tried to all play together, but the older boys decided Josie's toys were too "annoying" so they headed outside.
I watched Josie follow them around for over an hour.
They were running away from her and hiding from her. They went in, she came in, they ran back out.
She didn't seem to realize they were trying to get away from her.
It took everything I had to not tell her to just play with the babies.
It hurt my heart to watch her be on the outside. Shunned and teased without even knowing it.
Her innocence was almost crushing me.
That night, we were talking about all the fun we had that day and she looked up and said, "Those sneaky boys sure were sneaky! Running all over and I just couldn't catch them."
She told me they told her she was a bad girl but she knew she wasn't.
All I could say was that she was right, she wasn't a bad girl and that if kids aren't playing nice she might want to just not play with them.
All day today she's been talking about Those Sneaky Boys.
In her mind, it was all a game. The way she sees it, they were playing with her.
Just a Sneaky game.
But I know a day is coming where she will put two and two together and figure out that she is not welcome in every group.
And that is going to be awful.
I want her to always be included. I want her to feel free to be herself, as goofy and crazy as that might be.
I don't want her feelings to be hurt.
I went to bed last night thanking God that she didn't realize that the boys were actually being mean to her.
Being a Mom is tough.
2 comments:
Poor baby.....kids can be cruel. Thank God she is too young & innocent to realize that they were just being mean & immature. My cousin was visiting not too long ago with her little girl & a boy that was also visiting rudely snatched a tennis racket out of her hand & said she was to little to play. I was glad to see my 15 & 12 year boys old stick up for her. My 12 year old said "she has just as much right to play as u do" & he gave the racket back to her =)
Sometimes we see children that are being a bit unfair or cruel...it's important to step in if you feel you must, but usually they work things out. Most important of all is to teach our own children to be kind and to be fair. You are so right, being a Mom is tough! And you do an awsome job at it!
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