Parenthood

Yesterday, Jeremy had his one-year checkup.  This particular doctor’s visit came along with four shots, two of which were injected into his leg muscles.  In spite of keeping him dosed with Tylenol, we have a very cranky baby on our hands, even today.

This is actually the first time that Jeremy has gotten vaccinations at the doctor’s office.  Until this year, Caterpillar insurance did not cover any injectables, including required kids’ shots, so I usually just took the kids to the Health Department, which resulted in about $200 worth of out-of-pocket savings.  However, I think that the new health care bill required CAT to make some changes in what they cover, so now we have the dubious pleasure of not having to make two stops to complete a well-child visit.

In any case, Jeremy is very healthy.  He is still in the upper percentiles for height and weight, and, despite his finicky eating, the doctor told me that Jeremy is clearly getting enough calories.  So, carrying around a 25 pounder because he’s not feeling great is not such a big deal!

Another interesting story to come out of yesterday is that I had to go confront some junior-high kids at our local park who were bullying my two kids and our neighbor’s child.  If Charlotte and Elijah stick together, I have recently started letting them go to the park that is behind our house by themselves.  I send our third phone and give them stern instructions about coming and going together.  Yesterday, two neighbor girls also went with them.

I was sitting in the backyard with Jeremy when all four kids came running back with a jumbled story about big kids, cigarette smoke, mean things being said, and pushes away from playground equipment.  Evidently, this group of three boys and a girl had started mocking Elijah as he had shouted instructions for whatever game the kids were playing.  Elijah had shouted for the group to go up on the “blue tower,” one of the play sets, and a boy had shouted, “Yeah, let’s go up on the tower!”

Only when he arrived at the aforementioned tower, Elijah was standing at the entrance, and the kid grabbed Elijah’s arms and tried to move him out of the way.  According to Elijah, the kid reeked of cigarette smoke, which I think Elijah found more offensive than that fact the kid was touching him.

A little bit afraid, the younger kids decided to go play by the swings.  The same older kid shouted, “Yeah, let’s go play on the swings!” and started running toward my kids.  Even more afraid, the four younger kids decided they needed some adult intervention, so they ran home to get me.

I might have been OK with how this all went down if I hadn’t found out that someone had put their hands on my child.  So, with Jeremy on my hip, I march back to the park with three of the four kids who had originally been there.  (One neighbor girl had to leave shortly, so she didn’t go back.)

All the way to the park, Elijah kept saying, “You’re gonna teach them a lesson they’ll never forget!”, jumping up and down all the while.  “They better learn not to smoke or treat us that way.”

After straightening him out on exactly what I could and could not do (which included confiscating cigarettes or forcing the kids to wear a nicotine patch), we got back to the park.  As I approached the group who had messed with my kids, Charlotte, Elijah, and the neighbor girl ran off, evidently not needing to witness the upcoming altercation.  One of the junior high kids said, “Look, a mom.”

And it went from there.  After assuring them that I was, indeed, a mom and a mom of two of the kids with whom they had messed, I eventually got the ringleader to admit that he had touched my son, but he couldn’t really explain why, other that that he was messing around.  I explained to him that it was never acceptable for a person his age to lay hands on a younger child, particularly my child.  Furthermore, I didn’t think that I should have to be afraid of my kids getting picked on by older kids just because they wanted to play in the park.  The junior high kids agreed that was true, and our conversation ended. 

As one who intensely dislikes confrontations, I was shaking and I’m sure my neck was bright red when I finally walked away.

I stuck around for about ten more minutes, which was long enough to run off the four who had caused the trouble.  Surprisingly, Charlotte and Elijah opted to stay a bit longer, even though I had to go home to feed Jeremy.

So, of course, I spent much of the rest of the evening replaying events in my head.  Did I handle that well?  Was I Christian about it?

Sigh.  Some things about parenthood I really could take a pass on.  And I’m sure I haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

And that was our day.  Four shots in the leg and a confrontation at the park.  You gotta love it!