Keeping the Peace

I had an opportunity to stop, what could have been a very, very ugly fight between two boys.

I was out on my patio and I saw one boy in the parking lot, who I shall name "Martin" for the sake of this blog post, and another boy "Gary" outside with my twin boys begin to have words. There was one tall girl with Martin and another young boy about 7 or so watching the events transpire.

Mind you, I am on the second floor. So as soon as words turned to fists I yelled to my boys to walk away.  Surprisingly they did as I headed out the front door and down the stairs.

Martin continued using obscene words and pounding poor Gary's head and his back. I saw a maintenance guy just drive right past these kids not saying a word. I walked over to where they were after making sure my kids were okay, and I said "Hey, what's going on here?" The girl was just standing there and looks at me and says "I didn't do anything" and I said "I know, I was watching the whole thing from my patio." I hear Martin get one more "asshole" out of his mouth before looking at me trying to explain his actions while speaking 100 miles a minute.

"Calm down," I said slowly.  First of all we needed to get out of the parking lot and onto the sidewalk. Gary is fixing his baseball cap and Martin is fuming still. He starts saying "He started it! He..." and before he even got the next word out, I interrupted him, put my hands up and said, "Stop right now. It doesn't matter who started it. I am a person who does not believe that violence is the answer. We use our words around here, not our fists."

He looked at me, a bit puzzled by my statement.

"You are a good kid Martin.  You've helped me take out my trash and offered to help with my groceries.  There is no need for you to harm another person because you are angry at them. Use your words."
This is a lesson I teach the toddlers at the school where I work.  So certainly a 5th grader can grasp this concept.  I even spoke to him in the tone I use with my children at work.

At this point the blood pressure of Martin and Gary is slowly coming back to normal.

I explained to Gary that he didn't need to smack the basketball out of Martin's hand. And I then reiterated to Martin that if he is upset, he needs to tell a parent or walk away.


I hope that my words had some positive impact on this young boy. I know I cannot save him, he has to save himself. But I'm hoping that when things like this happen(and this wasn't the first time this boy has done something and I had to brush in as role of protector) he will think twice before lashing out at another child. I doubt it, but one can be hopeful.

Then later on that day there is a group of girls who were throwing rocks at my boys. I told the boys to come inside. I got my thoughts together, because I didn't want my anger spilling out onto these girls and I went back outside. I asked them "Who threw the rocks at my boys?" This young  girl, about 11 or 12 comes walking towards me hands on her hips and says "I did". Okay young lady, lower the attitude, I'm not going to attack you here. So as calmly as I could I said "Well, what happened?" She proceeds to tell me that my boys started it, and my son tried to hit her. She said my other son was calling her friend with a pair of glasses a nerd. Then she said my son's friend threw her bike on the ground and the handle bars fell off. Thankfully she was able to fix it. The other girl said "When you first moved here we always talked to your son. He was nice. Now since he has been hanging out with Gary he's gotten mean.  I don't want my boys hanging out with this kid, but as any parent knows you have to let them learn the hard way sometimes, because the more you say "you can't...(insert here)"...the more they rebel and do it anyway.

Then I looked at the one girl who was wearing glasses and I told her "You look like a nice kid. Why would they be mean to you?" She shrugged her shoulders. I looked back at the first girl I was talking to and I told her, "I'm sorry about your bike and I'll talk to my boys.  Please, though, if they ever do anything to try to hurt you, come and get me and I will handle it, okay?"  They all nodded and I walked away.

It's hard keeping the peace around here.

Especially when I have boys who, through no fault of their own, are exposed to the "don't walk away, defend yourself or you are weak" mentality of someone who shall remain nameless going through their heads.

I am hoping that by showing them using your words and not your fists can be a positive thing.  They see it. As much as I tell them, I think if they see it enough times they will listen to my advice and not bully other kids.

I am trying, so hard, to keep them safe and sane.

Not easy a lot of the time, but I do this because I love them.

And I want the best life possible for them.

When Sleep Isn't An Option...I Blog

I don't have a great following of followers here.

However, even if I am just talking to air, the fact that I can blog about anything under the sun makes me happy.

Writing for me is therapeutic. When I'm depressed, I blog. When I am happy, I blog. When I just want to ramble about nothing really important to others but important(or hilarious) to me, I blog. Like that movie "Field of Dreams" famous line says "If you build it, they will come".  My thinking is "If you blog it, eventually they will find it, and they will comment and follow you."

So for now, I sit here with the 3 lovely followers I have in the hopes that quadruples over the next year.

One can hope so anyway.

I feel like one of those local cable talk shows that are on in the wee hours of the morning. You know how it is, when insomnia kicks in and you have a choice of HSN, the P90x or hair replacement informercials, live National News, or reading random blogs that have no source of information, other than perusing one's life on a monitor at 2 a.m.

I've been up since 4 this morning. Put on a pot of coffee and sat here wondering what to do next. I played a game of Cubis, perused Facebook(which wasn't very exciting to say the least), and I thought about cleaning and organizing my apartment. But that's all it was really, just a passing thought and nothing more.

I know in about an hour I'll start feeling tired, but then I'll have to get ready for work, wake the kids and really start my day.

Now I can hear this stupid cable commercial for the local cable company. Why do they make these stupid commercials so loud anyway? Clearly I already have their services, so why bother me with their annoying ads? I think if you are already a customer these commercials shouldn't even be allowed on your TV as part of your service contract.

I've got no other random thoughts at the moment. So I guess I will just mosey off of the puter here and grab another cup of coffee.

I have a feeling it's going to be another long, long day for me.

An Angel to Rescue Me

~Magickal Graphics~   I absolutely love, love love this picture.   When I look at this it reminds me of my own angel, who rescues me from the loneliness of singledom.   A man who is thoughtful, compassionate, strong and knows how to comfort me when I need a shoulder to cry on.   There I stand on an island of stones, alone...frustrated...amid the storms in my life, and he appears out of nowhere to rescue me.   I know everyone tells me "You don't need a man", but as I've said before, they aren't single...they have a man already.    Easy for them to say.   To have a man to laugh with, share the days events with, and cuddle with would be such a blessing.  A man who would treat my children as if they were his own.     I can dream, can't I?   Am I allowed to want love in my life, despite the opinions of many married friends?   Sure.   I'm human, I have feelings, I have a heart and desires, and my utmost desire is to be truly loved just ONCE in my lifetime.  Truly loved, without conditions, by a good man.   Not by the men who milked the cow and left it out to pasture so to speak.   I have other things on my plate right now, so it's not like I'm looking for a man, but it would be so lovely to have an angel appear out of nowhere and kindly save me from myself.   Because truth is, being single sincerely sucks.