..It's Monday and I'm still in the midst of that early morning fog of having transitioned from 4 days of life as a musician to that of early morning Dad on the school run...
What is crystal clear however, is my anger over an incident that happened to small at the end of last week whilst I was away with the band...
My brilliant wife was starting her bit of the week with the hooligans and had done all of the things we have to do in order to get them out of the house for 7:55am. That part of the day in the bag, she settled down for some office work at home, some home schooling for BIG who has been off school for a week with a chest infection and prepared the lunch for small (In Switzerland kids come home for lunch everyday) At around 12:20 Small literally fell through the front door in a terrible state, screaming, shaking, crying and holding his eye...
After around 15 minutes of trying to calm him down and find out what the hell had gone wrong, a rather disturbing story came to light...
On the way home from school, small and his little group of mates had been kicking a football around, another group of kids joined in and a little scuffle broke out between a couple of them, resulting in one little lad getting punched...
The little fight broke up and the two groups of 6 year olds carried on walking home, at this point a lady, parent of the boy who had been punched, appeared from her house and started chasing the group of boys including small, down towards the busy main road through our village, screaming and shouting as she ran after them...Of course they ran as fast as their little legs could carry them...
2 of smalls mates short off down the farm track to where they lived leaving small high tailing it down the main road...The very angry lady eventually caught up with small and grabbed him by the hood and rucksack and started shouting in his face
"If you ever touch my son again, I will punch you!"
In her anger it would appear that she also poked him in the eye whilst shouting in his face, then, letting go of him, he fell over and sat on the street shaking, in floods of tears as she walked back to her house......
My wife phoned me in the studio to recount the story and ask what she should do....I could hear the absolute distress from small in the background and it was difficult to keep my composure as she recounted this most absurd event.
My initial reactions were:
1. Call the school and tell them what happened.
2. Call the Police and report the incident.
3. Find out if any of the other boys saw what happened
4. Take a picture of Small's eye showing the red mark from a finger.
After many calls here and there, my wife was able to piece together the story from some parents, as recounted above..She decided to take small back to school and confront the very angry lady on her way. After making sure he was safely back in school Mrs S came across the angry lady and confronted her with a "what the hell were you thinking laying hands on my child?" The angry lady started crying and admitted she had chased and attacked the wrong boy, as her son had in fact been hit by someone else. In her anger she saw a group of boys running away and assumed it must be them and so gave chase...
She was extremely apologetic and after venting her fury in return, my wife went home to stew a bit and call me.... I was still steaming with anger and couldn't understand why she hadn't yet reported it to the school and Police...
Mrs S decided to go to the school and seek with smalls class tutor who was extremely supportive and understanding and offered to help in any way she could....The very angry lady was waiting for my wife and small at the end of school with an apology, a box of chocolates and more tears..
Small was having none of it and having graciously and reluctantly accepted an apology, walked off home leaving my wife feeling rather awkward standing talking with a crying, remorseful very angry lady, as a bunch of other parents filed past...
A few days on and small, aside from a red mark under his eye, has shown no after effects of the incident, he has just bounced back to his usual noisey, boisterous self...
I however, can't seem to let this go...
Why would you as a parent, lay hands on another child without a full picture of what has happened? Why would you terrify a little kid and then leave them crying in the street? Why would you not confront the parents of a child you suspected of bullying your child, to find out exactly what happened?
I am still enraged about what small endured at the hands of the very angry lady and despite an apology from her to my wife and son, I am worried about just what I will say when I see this lady or her husband at some point this week on the school run....
I can't help but feel it should have been reported to the Police..I don't care that I've been told by half of the village that they are a really nice family...she assaulted my kid for fuck's sake!!!!
Am I over reacting?, should I just accept the apology and move on as my son clearly is...
I just don't know.....grrrrrrrrr
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