To the Moon

It was a momentous day in parenting. For the first time, a child of mine showed up at home with a referral from school. Apparently my son punched a kid on the bus. I told him I was proud of him and took him out to dinner.

Now, before you call the cops or something, let's back this train up for a second. I am probably the most peace-loving hippie you know. I don't own Birkenstocks, but other than that, I'm there. I believe in diplomacy instead of war, I think we overspend on the military and underspend on education, I compost and recycle, I have a garden, I shop farmer's markets and use CFL light bulbs. My kids always say please and thank you, they are hyper-polite to servers and they do not smash bugs. So why am I totally okay with Declan smashing a kid's face in on the bus? Because the little fucker deserved it.

Everybody seems to be concerned with the rash of bullying going on these days, and they should. It's horrible. But you know what? It was horrible when I was in school, too. I'm not going to go all "back in my day when I walked to school eleventeen miles every day uphill in the snow sharing shoes with my brother" crap on you, but the fact is that people have always been horrible to each other. Do you know why it didn't get as far when I was in high school? Because if you were a jerk for too long, someone would eventually kick your ass and that would make you less of a jerk. If it didn't guess what? Yep. Ass kicked again.that process was repeated until the system worked.

The kid that Declan punched is most certainly a jerk. He is constantly mocking other kids and pushing them around. He demanded a candy cane from Declan, and when he didn't hand it over, the kid shoved him off the seat onto the floor. Declan came up, grabbed the back of the kid's sweatshirt and started throwing hooks to the face. The kid had a bloody lip and I'm guessing a whole new attitude about my son. I tell my children that they are never, under any circumstances, allowed to initiate a fight or to be mean for any reason. But, they are allowed to defend themselves and each other.

So, this peacenik treated her son to Chinese for beating a kid up on the bus. You know what? I bet he never has a problem with that kid again. Referral? Worth it. And they still are not allowed to smash bugs. A Mom's gotta have her standards.