{The Grateful Project} Days 6 and 7: My little man

We had a bit of a nasty encounter yesterday. Without going in to too much detail, it was the sort of situation where one is forced into defending their child and their parenting all at once. 

Apparently Marley had grabbed a little girls arm. She didn't cry or protest, but her mother happened to see it whilst I was looking away. Apparently that incident makes my child a 'bully' and me a 'neglectful parent' who cant watch her kids. 

Its not the first time Marley has been involved in an incident in a playground. And its not always Marley that is being the 'bully', often it is he who is the unfortunate victim. Its not ideal, but it is life and when you take your child to a place where they will interact with other children, it is pretty much a given that some kind of incident will occur. Most parents seem to understand this. 

We all try and watch our kids and teach them as best we can the right way to act in social situations, but no one can watch their child every single second, we do have to blink! 

And when you are the parent of two children, you have to watch both of them, which means looking away from one to look at the other. 

I don't take her 'neglectful' comments too personally. I know I'm not a neglectful parent but when someone threatens my child or bullies them, I suddenly feel this lioness instinct rise up inside me, and god help anyone trying to hurt my cub! 

Thankfully, I kept my cool and decided to leave. There was so much I wanted to say to her though. Apart from the abuse I wanted to hurl her way, I wanted to tell her that she had Marley all wrong! Yes he had acted a bit rough and that behaviour is not acceptable,  but there was so much more to him than just being a typical boisterous boy.

I wanted to tell her how smart and funny he is. And how incredibly sweet he can be to me and to his sister. He is so loving and affectionate and can be so gentle. He is friendly and polite and thoughtful. There is so much more to him than 'that kid that grabbed my daughters arm'. 

first day of kindy

camera shy??

hanging out with George

BMX bandit

He is never boring, always intense, often unpredictable and constantly questioning and challenging. There are days he makes me want to pull my hair out and yell and scream. And then there are the days when I cant get enough of him and all I want to do is lavish him with kisses and cuddles and tickle fights. 

Everyday I am grateful to have this little guy in my life. 

Lisa xx