When our kids were turning 8 & 5, I had a birthday party for them (Their birthdays are a day apart) at one of those indoor play places. My husband was deployed at the time, therefore he was not in attendance. Several of my military girlfriends and their kids came and helped make it easier for me and a lot of fun for the boys.
During the middle of the party, when all the kids were running around like wild animals, and climbing through those tunnels, my oldest son comes walking up to me, holding his hand to his eye and crying.
I thought to myself, "Oh no, he's had a run-in with one of the other kids at the party."
He took his hand away from his eye so that I could see and I was literally shocked because his eye had already started to turn purple and swell. He had taken a hard hit from someone, no doubt.
I asked what had happened, and he told me some kid he didn't know had hit him. I wasn't sure what was going on, but other kids from our group of party invitees confirmed his story. It seems some bigger kid was trying to bully the younger ones and my son attempted to diffuse the situation by getting his friends out of harm's way and then walking away. The bigger kid then shoved my son down, pressed his knee into his chest and punched him in the eye!
We got my son some ice for his eye, and one of my girlfriends brought back a manager with her so they could try to find out what had transpired. We relayed the story to her and she wanted to know where to find the guilty party so that they could have a little chat with him. Of course I hadn't seen this happen, so I didn't know what the kid looked like, but all of the kids in our group said they could pick him out.
Turns out the bully was hiding out in the tunnels, I suppose hoping no one would rat him out. He finally came walking over to us, accompanied by his mother, who proceeded to try to talk for her son. She said she thought the incident must have been an accident because this kind of thing had never happened before. She figured that her son must have accidentally kicked my son in the face as he came down the slide. Hmmm... I'm thinking this kid definitely KNEW what he was doing. If he shoved my son down and pressed his knee into his chest to hold him there while he then proceeded to punch him, I think he'd probably done this kind of thing before.
I just looked at the lady and told her my son had a very different version of what had occurred, and that this was his birthday party, therefore we weren't going to let this ruin our fun. The lady had her son apologize to my son and the two of them stood there looking at one another, not knowing what to do next. I told my son that he should shake this boy's hand, and he looked at me as if I'd lost my mind, but he did it.
Later my son asked me why I'd suggested he shake this bully's hand. I told him it was the right thing to do and I felt sorry for the boy. He obviously had some issues we didn't understand and if his actions were any indication as to what kind of person he was, he very likely didn't have many friends and must be one sad kid.
We actually ended up saying a little prayer for the kid that night and it turned out to be a great lesson for my boys. First of all, one should learn to duck a little faster, right? :) Okay, that was only PART of the lesson, but it's good, sound advice just the same.
My son ended up with his first big shiner, and of course we had to email pictures to Daddy. Every day or two we'd send a new picture, showing the next stage of the black eye. Cool stuff!
The big guy even had a black eye for his soccer pictures, which made him look like a real bruiser!
So instead of referring to his 8th birthday party as the "BIRTHDAY BASH," we call it the "BIRTHDAY BASH-ING."
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