About a year ago, I wrote about how Jonah was terrorized by a Hispanic kid at the park. Basically the kid told Jonah he couldn’t play on the slide because he was white. I don’t know what Hispanic kids have against Jonah, but it happened again the other day.
(Please keep in mind that I know all Hispanics don’t have it in for my son. It just so happens that every time he’s been bullied in a public place, it’s been by Hispanics.)
We were shopping Salem, which isn’t one of Jonah’s favorite activities. As a reward for being good, we promised to take him McDonalds so he could play in the PlayLand there. This trip also serves as a reward for me; if I’m good on the shopping trip, I get to eat at McDonalds. Rachel knows how to keep her men in line.
So Jonah’s playing on the play structure when a little kid comes over and starts watching Jonah. Apparently the kid wanted to jump in the exact same spot Jonah was jumping, because he puts his hand on Jonah’s chest and tries to move him out of the way. It wasn’t a hard shove, but the point was clear. Jonah stood his ground and just looks at this kid quizzically. So the kid shoves him a little harder. Jonah’s clearly confused, but doesn’t do anything. So the kid shoves him again. At this point, Jonah comes running over to us. He’s not upset, but he doesn’t want to be shoved anymore. The kid follows him over to us, and stands there defiantly. Rachel is trying to keep it together, because the kid’s mom was no more than five feet awa y from the shoving incident, yet did not say or do anything. Loud enough so that this kid and his mom could hear, Rachel says “it’s ok Jonah, he wasn’t playing very nice, so we just won’t play with him. We’ll go play over here.” The kid proclaims to Rachel that “he can play nice,” and Rachel says “ok, prove it.” At this, the kid kind of laughs and runs off, clearly no longer interested in Jonah or us. Jonah plays around a little more without incident, and we get up to leave.
As we are leaving, the kid’s mom gives Rachel this death glare, as if to say “How dare you say my kid doesn’t play nice.” Of course, much like when the shoving incident occurred, she did nothing.
The lesson here is simple: Parenting isn’t that hard. All you have to do is put down your French fries every once in a while.
