Bully

It happened. 

A profound moment in parenthood that I dreaded.

Or one of them at least.

This moment was so much different than the disgusting parenting moments, which I also dealt with yesterday...he peed all over his soccer jersey - you know the one that is a dress on him.  He didn't  want to miss a second of the game so he held it too long and once he made it to the tree to pee,  well he didn't pull up his shirt and - flash flood all over his jersey.

I tried to contain my laughter as I juggled squirming Jovie on my hip and tried to help him take his jersey off.  Once his jersey was off, he sprinted his string cheese body across the field to put on a new, dry shirt.  He played the rest of his game among his red jersey wearing teammates as the lone brown shirt guy.

I needed this parenting laugh after the start to his soccer game.

We had to get to his soccer game early for team pictures.  There was about 45 minutes between pictures and when the game started so the kids were all playing soccer, coach-less. Paul and I were watching Ryk, cause we are hovering parents, while we  played with K and J.  Thank goodness we are hovering parents because our little R came walking down the field.  He had this little face that just broke my heart. 

He didn't even need to say anything, his body language was a clear giveaway.

"They said I'm mean."

And he was crushed, and so were we.

I wanted to scoop him up, and go tell the bully of the team to stop...which is why it was a good thing Paul handled this situation.

P responded with "why did he say that?" And encouraged Ryk to go ask why, and then rejoin his teammates.

See not only is Ryk the smallest player, Ryk is 2 years younger than everyone on his team, so he is an easy target to be picked on.

So my brave little guy marched back to join his teammates.  P and I kept a close ear on the situation...and Ryk's smile perked right back up.

Such a tender guy, our R.

He learned to stick up for himself, deal with a bully, and he lived through it.