Terror at the playground

The playground nearest to our block recently has been teared down and a brand new one has been set up. Yeah! Did I ever mentioned that I actually wrote a complaint/feedback to out town council because the old playground was in such a terrible state? Anyway, I was super impressed at their customer service as they personally called me the next day, informing that there has already been plans to set up a new playground and they were starting work soon. Hmm good... good...

Anyway, that's not the main story. Yesterday evening I brought Jolie down as usual and met a little terror that made me lost my temper at the playground. He's a boy, probably primary 5 or 6? And he's such a mafia!

Strike one:
He and his "gang" of boys were playing and Jolie approached them as one of them had a hula hoop. Of course they didn't share with her, but what pissed me off was when he walked pass, he INTENTIONALLY bumped into Jolie at the shoulder, and even had the nerve to laugh about it! Luckily it was only a very slight bump and Jolie didn't fall down or anything, so I just let it pass. It's just boys being immature right?

Strike two:
The boys were throwing granite rocks the size of baseballs and sticks into a tree, I don't know what they were doing. Meanwhile Jolie was playing ball with a new found friend, a small boy about the same size as Jolie. The ball rolled to where the bigger boys were and the small boy approached them. He didn't even do anything, but the terror boy, thinks he's so cool, made a gesture like he's threatening to hit the small boy's head with the rock. WHAT?? What the hell was that? Why did he do that? OK, very not 爽 already, but hey, he didn't threatened MY child right? So I swallowed my anger again.

Strike THREE! YOU'RE OUT!!!
It was quite sudden. I was standing near the foot of one of the slides, playing with Jolie when I suddenly hear loud banging noises. I turned around and saw the terror boy, throwing the big rock down the slide! Something inside me just snapped. When he slide down to get his rock, I shouted at him! "HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? THERE'S SO MANY SMALL CHILDREN AROUND, YOU COULD HAVE HURT THEM! THROW THAT ROCK AWAY RIGHT NOW!!"

The most infuriating thing was that the boy stared at me! Not staring out of fear mind you, but staring at me with anger! Then he just threw the rock half-heartedly at the edge of the playground. At that moment I wished that there was a wide open field for me to fling the rock into a distance. Unfortunately it's only a small patch of grass, so I picked up the rock and threw it into the furthest part of the grass. Duh... Then I turned to him and said, "don't even think about it..."

As I turned back to look for Jolie, I realised that most of the children were staring at me, and I was feeling a little sheepish as I tried to act normal and jovial again, playing with Jolie. What's so funny was that one boy ran up to me and was all excited as he said, "He's playing with the rock again, he's playing with the rock again!" What a tattletale! Haha... As an act of defiance, and probably to save face, the stupid kid went ahead and played with the rock again, but at least he didn't do it within the playground area, so I just let it slide.

Later I saw another boy that just arrived, about the same age as the terror boy, throwing rocks nearer to the playground. This time I just said in a low, firm voice nearer to his face, asking him not to play with rocks as he may hurt the smaller children around. I know it sounds a little double standard, but it's only 1st strike for him. Besides, all my hot air has just been defused, so, lucky for him.

After that Jolie was ready for dinner, so we said our goodbyes and hurried away. I guess it's always good to have some parents around the playground. It keeps the bigger kids in check, making sure they don't bully the smaller kids or do stupid, rash things.