I’ve never left a playground in tears before… or upset. This was a HUGE first for me.
Let me set the scene…
Alexander, my 3-year old is obsessed (beyond obsessed) with being Indiana Jones. He wears the Indiana Jones hat and jacket every single day. I mean, literally… every single day. My mother-in-law bought him one for Halloween, he wore that one to shambles, so my mother bought him a new one. So we’re on Indiana Jones costume #2 since October.
Like every other day, Alexander wanted to wear his costume to the playground. I was fine with that. He loves to run around and sing the song (Dah… nah, nah, NAH!) and have me call him, “Indy.” It’s something that just tugs at my heart because it’s so cute and so innocent and he’s so “real” with it. I know someday he won’t be “Indy” anymore, and I will have such an amazing time relaying all the stories back to him… which, of course, he may deny — but thanks to my FLIP, he can’t. 😉
So the playground. The boys were blowing bubbles and chasing them. Alexander was doing his Indiana Jones moves and singing… when an 8-year-or-so old boy started laughing at him. Alexander, who’s a pretty bold 3-year old, told him he was “Indiana Jones.” The boy began laughing harder and called his younger brother over. His younger brother looked a little older than William, so I’m assuming he was about 6-years old. Well, these 2 brothers proceeded to laugh and make fun of MY Indiana Jones.
I saw it happening from about 30 feet away, so I immediately went over.
Alexander kept insisting he was Indiana Jones.
They kept INSISTING he wasn’t and kept laughing.
I was horrified. These 2 older boys, making fun of my 3-year old son. You know when you’re heart actually feels like it’s breaking? That was mine. I had sunglasses on, and underneath them I had tears in my eyes. The kind of tears where if you blink, you won’t be able to stop them from pouring.
I told Alexander to come back with me and play with his brothers, and told the boys, “He is Indiana Jones, MY Indiana Jones.” And then I couldn’t help it and said to the boys, “Where’s your mother?”
They answered, “She’s not here.” And they were off to another area of the playground.
Fortunately, Alexander didn’t have any idea he was being “taunted”… he just went off playing again and singing. But… his older brother William made it clear in the car on the way home that those boys were “mean.” And you know what? I didn’t dispute it. They were mean. They were rude. I wasn’t upset at all with William making that statement.
I only got upset when Alexander agreed with him by saying, “Yes, William, they were freaking mean.”
Just the laugh we needed after that… but, oh my God… not the kind of word he needs to be repeating!
And for those boys out there… I did feel like lecturing them on kindness and picking on little kids, but I didn’t. I figure kids like that will eventually get theirs. My main concern was getting my little Indy away from them and playing again with his brothers and the other little kids chasing bubbles and going up and down the slide. Innocent things. Like having an imagination.