It’s pouring rain again. Yesterday was wet enough without rain. You’d think that so much rain would have me a bad mood, but I’m kind of bad-mooded out right now. The swish of windshield wipers was rather soothing this morning. The snow is nearly melted and what remains is dirty and soppy. The fields, denuded of snow, fold ice in their ridges and look swollen. Half-frozen impromptu lakes surprise you in low places.
We’re meeting Martin’s teacher right after work to discuss the teasing and borderline bullying that Martin has mentioned to us. There are a couple of boys in his class who need to be pinned with their shoulders up against a wall and hissed at. Better to deal with this now than let it get to the point where Martin doesn’t want to go to school. The other day, Anders dropped him off while I was home with the cougher, and as they came through the gate, a pack of older boys approached from the other side. Martin slowed down noticeably, while keeping the boys in his peripheral vision. After the boys had gone on, Anders asked Martin what was up, and if he was scared of them. They had apparently cornered Martin and his little girlfriend, Ebba, recently on the playground and forced them to kiss each other. I get the feeling it wasn’t very playful. 🙁 In addition, there are a couple of boys in his class who have called him names and tease him regularly.
While I KNOW that this is a part of childhood and something that nearly every child deals with at one time or another, my mother bear instincts are surging right now, and I want to bang heads together. Why must the gentle and sensitive kids suffer because the rowdy and tough kids aren’t dealt with firmly and their behavior is, in fact, encouraged, or at least ignored, much of the time? argh