Fieldtrip

Today my 7 year old went on a field trip to a local dance studio with her class. Lucky me, I got to chaperone. As I was the first mom to arrive, I was given the worst and most difficult to assign position -- walking at the end of the line.

It's an important task. You need to be the person who makes sure that the children all are accounted for. No kids are ever behind you or they might just wander off.

The teacher had just a few rules -- hold hands with your buddy, stay on the side walk, we don't stop and pick things up, and feet are for walking, not for kicking or running. She pretty much listed all the behaviors that they wanted to do -- except for the pushing and cutting in line part. So I spent the 10 minute walk, felt a lot longer, repeating the words, "Walk, walk, walk..." and, "Stay on the sidewalk." My big threat was, "if you can't hold on to your buddy, you are welcome to hold my hand." I ended up holding the hands of 2 boys at one point because they could not remember to stay on the sidewalk -- climbing up on the wall and making sure that no mud puddle was left unstepped in.

Eww... boy cooties.

Anyway, those same two boys decided to make their way up the line because they were tired of me reminding them to keep up with the class, walk, and hold on to each other. Unfortunately, they had already told me their names so when I witnessed them push my daughter... They kind of poked the mama bear. I know, I suppose I shouldn't have let my emotions get to me, but I think if I had witnessed them pushing any other student, I would have pulled them back to the end of the line to walk with me anyway.

I called out their names, walked up to both of them and grabbed their shoulders to direct them to the end of the line. I told them that they were not allowed to push other students. And then I closed with a very sexist thing that I'm not sure flies anymore, but I'm still going to use it, "Never, ever push a girl. Ever."

I think I did the right thing there in the sense that they will still grow up to be men and they will still have more body mass and strength than the average woman. So I'm going to stand by the never hit a girl thing, because I think it is a life lesson. Plus, my girls learn martial arts.

My girls push back.