The Revenge

Nothing much happened today, it was a good day, pretty uneventful, the highlight was that we went for some ice cream after picking Lucas up from daycare. But I had time to think about this blog and how maybe years from now Lucas and Matias, when they are older, can read how their life was like at an age that they probably won't remember at all. That is what motivated me to cheat a little and not write about something that happened today, but something that actually happened a couple of days before I started to write this blog. I wanted to write this so future Lucas and Matias can read it.

I'm going to write about the first and only time until now that Lucas was bullied and how proud his reaction made me. As every kid his age, he has been pushed, hit, bit, etc. by other kids at daycare and I have thought nothing of it. It's usually just kids being kids. But this time it was something different, it wasn't innocent kid-play. We were at a 4th of July BBQ at a friend's house, it was really crowded and we really did not know most of the people there. Lucas and Matias were the only children at the party until a couple older kids arrived. They must have been around 5, and for some reason one of them (The ringleader) took an instant dislike towards Lucas. Lucas, being the great and noble kid I know him to be, got excited that other kids he could play with were there and tried to engage with them.

At first when he tried to play with them, they started saying go away we do not want to play with you "poopy baby" and they would run away. Lucas would take this as an invitation to play and would run after them laughing. I saw Alegna getting concerned but I downplayed it saying it's just kid stuff, they don't want to play with a smaller child and Lucas does not know any better and is having fun anyway, let's let them be. But then they started to get violent, they hid and ambushed him by throwing some cornhole bean bags that hit him on the chest and made him fall down. Lucas started to cry and came to me asking me why had they done that to him. I was kind of pissed but I just calmly told him that they didn't want to play with him, maybe he should find something else to do.

So now Lucas is playing in the yard by himself and they approach him again. This time they are trying to punch him and kick him. The good thing is that Lucas did not cower, he was trying to defend himself as best as he could against these two bigger kids. He firmly stood his ground and yelled "No Thank You!" and "I Need Some Space!" like they have taught him at daycare. He was doing all the right things, being non-violent but standing his ground. I went to get him before the kids could react and hurt him. Then we started to talk and he asked me why were those kids so mean. I just told him that some kids were just like that and that sometimes it was just better not to play with them. But, then my anger got the best of me and I added, but next time that a kid that is bigger than you tries to hurt you, kick him in the nuts as hard as you can. This got him all excited, now he felt that he was a superhero that had to kick the villains in the nuts. Alegna gave me a face and I had to calm him down. You will only do this if they are bigger and they are coming to hurt you, don't go and fight them.

I tried to keep an eye on him for the rest of the party but I got distracted for a moment and it finally happened. I saw them from far away approaching him, Lucas did not run, he did some sort of Karate stance and actually tried to kick them, but they were stronger and between the two pushed him to the ground. Lucas was crying when I got to him. I was angry and proud but it all suddenly turned to embarrassment when he said in full volume "Dad, I tried to kick them in the nuts like you told me to, but I couldn't!" I said that's OK and took him away.  That was the end of the party for us, we better just leave and never see these kids again.

This experience calmed me down a lot. I think we are teaching him the right things like being confident and kind which are better weapons against bullying than kicks to the nuts. He got beat up this time. I think it is an experience we all need to have sometime to know that it is not the end of the world. You must know pain so you are not scared of it. I think he'll be ready next time.

What did I watch?
Chimes at Midnight: All Shakespeare movies are kind of the same, they usually stick very closely to the material and the language and you can't really fail with that recipe, but then why are you even trying to redo the exact same thing again and again? I do feel that I should praise the battle scenes in this movie, they were raw and violent at a time when movies shied away from that kind of violence, but the violence is not glorified like in current movies, it is shown as absurd and unnecessary.

The Leopard Man: This was the third movie of the Tourneur-Guest partnership that kind of invented the low budget horror movie genre. It is almost a rehash of the much better Cat People.