Bully Girl

On Fridays, I take Jack to a little play/music class in the neighborhood. It's a nice setup, a huge room that looks like a meadow with tons of space for the kids to get their groove on.

They sing songs, dance, play with stuffed animals and then play instruments. He seems to like it, but it's a huge class with a range from 1-2 years old. Our old class was for crawlers, which was so nice and calm and small. But he outgrew it when he started walking, so we moved to the older class.

Our friend Madonna and her little girl, Elena, are also in the class, which is really fun. I get to have a Mommy friend there and Jack and Elena, who are three weeks apart, get to play together.

But the last several classes, a little blonde girl has been pushing Jack. And not a slight push, but an all-out shove that sends him on his ass and then she plops down on top of him. It's like she's some sumo wrestler going for the pin.

Now I am all for my kid working things out on his own, but this little girl is definitely closer to 2 years old and she's big. She also doesn't seem at all remorseful about her bully role.

I have learned the rules of the playground well so far: you don't parent someone else's kid. If a child is doing something to Jack that is inappropriate or unsafe, I am going to just remove Jack from the situation. It's not my place to correct the other kid.

But Bully Girl's mom was not at the class. Her nanny brings her every week. And the nanny doesn't say a word as Bully Girl shoves Jack. And that's when I have a problem.

Get off your ass and open your mouth to your charge. And if you don't want to do that, the least you can do is keep your eye on her so if she gets close to pushing, you can step in and play a little prevent defense.

Today I had enough and I gave the nanny a super dirty look, pulled Jack out from under the little girl, and told Bully Girl, "No! You can't push him down. That's not nice."

Nanny comes over when she sees the dirty look and apologizes to me. Doesn't tell Bully Girl to apologize, doesn't tell Bully Girl not to push other kids, nothing. Which pissed me off even more.

So now I feel like I have to watch Bully Girl like a hawk. And that's crap. I shouldn't have to worry about my 13-month-old getting pushed down in a class where we sing songs about butterflies.

Next week, I think I might just trip her when I see her going anywhere near Jack.