Mama Bear

I promised to list the 25 things I hate about apartment living, but instead I'm going to focus on just one... Parents who don't parent their children. Living in the apartment, there are a lot of children who live in a relatively small radius. I'm not one to let my kids out of my sight, but I'm trying to get better at not being to obsessive about this. This weekend, I decided to branch out and let the kids play outside without me. I did however, keep a seat right by the window. The first thing that happened that made me question my decision was that a neighbor child decided to start throwing hard things at people just to see if he could hit any of them. Unfortunately, McKay was the target. I heard her crying before I saw her. All Moms know that particular sound in their child's cry that tells you, it's going to be bad. I saw McKay and her mouth was covered in blood. She had busted her top and bottom lip and scratched her gum. I could feel my blood boiling but kept my cool as I explained to the neighborhood kids the dangers of throwing hard and heavy things with so many people around. Next, I was looking out the window and saw a 10 year old child pick up a 4 year old and throw him into the scratchy bushes. Without thinking, I called to the 10 year old and told him I couldn't believe I just saw him do that. He told me "Well, he hit me first" which then prompted a 5 minute lecture from me on how the other child was smaller than him and if he had a problem he should use his words, etc. Moments later I heard profanity fly from several children and I decided I better go outside for the rest of the afternoon. As I was sitting outside, a parent came out and was leaving to go somewhere. She told her kids to come and get in the car and they told her "no". After a few minutes of this back and forth she finally said "ok, but don't you be @#% bad cause if you are I'll beat your @#$. I thought are you kdding me? It's no wonder we have the societal problems we have in our country. I'm so grateful to have tools that teach me how to teach my children. I'm so thankful for my knowledge of the divinity of my children. I'm so proud of them and for their desire to truly choose the right and be good kids. I know that I have things to improve on in my own parenting, but it's a great eye opener to see what can happen to kids who don't understand where they've come from, who they are and where they are going in this life and the next.