Mama Bear

To use Sarah's terminology, the Mama Bear in me came out with a ferocious roar today. I am still stewing about it and I probably handled it all wrong and caused my daughter lifelong damage.

We were helping in the school vegetable garden and I sent Madison to play with a classmate. She came back a few minutes later perfectly happy. I asked her why she wasn't playing and she said, "Oh, she sent me away so she could play with her other friend'. I was seriously annoyed but she really didnt seem upset. That night we talked about stuff like if someone isn't nice to you go play with someone else, focus on friends that are kind, be kind to others. Madison is really perceptive and I know she read between the lines that Mommy thinks this girl is a (you pick the word). Whoops, there is the Mama Bear coming out again. So today we were back at the vegetable garden and the same girl did the same thing. We tried to get Madison to do stuff with us but apparently making raised beds and shoveling compost wasn't too interesting. She asked me to walk her over there, and as I did, the same girl was telling Megan she wasn't allowed up on Magic Mountain ( the sledding hill in the park). I called the little girl down and had a talk with her on how she would feel if anyone told her she wasn't allowed to play. I was calm and hopefully pleasant, but inside I was like ' you are scarring my child for life!!"

I think the reason it bothered me so much is that I still have vivid memories of Mandy Williams and Jessica Graham bullying me and it has been 26 years. And whenever I see or hear about them, I remember it. Let this be a lesson to you- you too can hold grudges for 26 years! And when you are forced to go to a wedding shower at one of their houses as a grown up, you will not like it but fortunately your mother won't like them either even though she will still make you go.

So now it has been like 3 hours and I still am stewing and really want to talk to Madison about it again but Jason has banned me from it. He says it happens to all of us, and she needs to work it out for herself because we won't always be there to intervene. Incidentally he told me not to intervene in the first place. Ugh, I just don't know the right way to handle it the next time or the next or the next. I guess one positive thing to remember is that I had it happen to me and I grew up to be a happy person married to a happy person, producing happy children which is all that matters in life.