The mean boy at chick-fil-a and how I put him in his place- sort of.

So Friday school was called off for ice, yes we probably had some ice up in trees that could have proved deadly. It was nice having Ritchey home with us but by Friday night we were going a bit stir crazy, yes folks, it takes less than 24 hours to get me ansty, I'm a get out of the house at least once a day gal. So we headed to Chick-Fil-A, a mother's dream. Clean, good food, playground, and free newspapers and free refills of awesome lemonade, plus I always have a free coupon for something there. Anyhoo, we set our kids loose in the very small playland there and sat inside with them. Most parents were outside of the little play around in a booth having a nice quiet date while Ritchey and I decided to take part in the hysteria of the room, really, mainly for Sophie's sake, she is a little young to let loose on her own, and she wouldnt' have let go of my leg anyway. And Parker saw a boy from his class there too, so that was fun. So anyway, to the point of my story. There was this little shrimp kid, maybe 3 years old, going around terrorizing everyone. Literally would just go up to a kid and hit them, or push them down, or spit on them. Out of nowhere. So soon after we got there, we saw a dad come in from his outside of the room playground date with his wife. He saw the kids just push his son down. The pint-size bully ran under the little steps while the dad was trying to talk with him. Ritchey and I are just fidgeting at this point, kind of awkard. The dad tells the little boy to come on out buddy, nice and polite, the kid doesn't, so the dad says, right as the bully's mom comes into the playland, "I'm not asking you to come out, I'm telling you and if you don't I am going to pull you out," Ouch, really awkward now, the wife of this guy was mortified. Anyhoo, the mom of the bully basically told him to play nice then left the play area and went back to her paper. At which Ritchey and I sat there and watched in amazement the nerve of this kid. So then the kid turns to Parker, who is double his age and his size. Parker is climbing up some pole or something (ignoring the no climbing sign) and this kid grabs his ankles and pulls him down. Ritchey isn't in here at this point, which is a good thing, cuz the mama bear came out in me, but I had to keep it cool cuz the kid in Parker's class was in there too. I said, "hey little guy, its not a smart idea to pick on an 8 year old boy who is much larger than you, if he wanted to he could squash you. He won't cuz he's kind, but he could." Can you believe I said that. I had to say it again, because he did again. "leave my boy alone, he is bigger than you and could pound you in."Parker just kinda laughed at me and let this kid pick on him. That is so my boys, they are so freakin shy/polite/doormats sometimes in public. So the kid does it again, drags parker down by his ankles. Cooper is just standing there with mouth open watching this, wondering what I am going to do now. I told Parker that he shouldnt' let this boy do this to him, to just shake him loose off his ankles and tell him to cut it out. Which he didn't. Well the kid moved on to some other kid to terrorize and we went out to eat our food. I gave the kids a pep-talk, trying to be as Christ-like and turn the other cheek as I could, but also wanting my boys not to be bullied, abused, or walked over because they didn't like public speaking. I told them that if anyone ever does something to them that they don't like, or don't want them doing to them, that they HAVE to speak up and say, Stop It Please, and if that doesn't work, to yell it, STOP IT!. And at this point I am fearing for all those perv. freaks out there who love quiet little boys. So this was serious training going on here. Both boys laughed at me and agreed they would yell please stop. I really wanted to tell Parker just to take that little buy bully and shove him up against the wall and tell him to back off or he'd grind him to a pulp. But I didn't. So back into the playground we went. Ritchey made a joke about cooper's track pants and hooded sweatshirt with hood up thwarting away the bully, "Cooper looks like a thug so no one is messing with him." Too bad, cuz Cooper is a prime target, being only 30 pounds at age 5. Anyhoo, so this kid starts spitting. Literally backs Parker in the corner spitting, or making raspberries, I don't know. And of course Parker's tutorial didn't really work, he just kind of stood there with a stupid grin and kinda laughed it off. Geez Parker. This takes me back to West County Mall when Parker was 2 and let some kid push him out of the little ride on and Parker just sat and watched. Anyhoo, I told the kid to quit it out, then he came over me to spit and I just stopped him dead in his tracks with my hand, i wasn't hitting him I was just keeping him away from my face. Ritchey is laughing at this point and we are both wondering where the heck is his mom. I'm pretty sure she saw me stop this kid with my hand to his face. Well, I could go on and on, cuz it did. Oh at one point while we were eating, this military dad sees this kid push his kid and gets up and screams toward the playland at this kid to cut it out. And what did the mother do, oh she finally goes and sits in there to monitor her kid. Only to 10 minutes later go back out and sit with her paper. I feel kind of bad for her. He obviously is not the best kid, she appeared to be a single mom, and was trying to get some peace and quiet at the chick-fil-A and let her kid loose in the playland. But 3 parents later, multiple crying children (at least mine didn't cry) you think she would have gotten the point. So there was our funny/odd,/disturbing time at Chick-Fil-A. What do you think, how should we teach our kids to respond to bullies, or behavior they don't like. Do they really turn the other cheek, ignore, make a joke (like their dad does), or do they stand up for themselves. I don't know, it is so hard to just sit there (apparently not hard for my boys). How do I encourage my kids to be a wee bit more aggressive so they aren't sitting ducks, or I guess their plan is to just fly under the radar socially at school. Ok, that's that. Here's hoping we don't run into that kid on our next playland adventure.