Pansy, sissy, weenie, mama's boy....

I say us older moms go out and toughen these kids up - I'm sending my kids to military camp this summer!

Will thay say: "HELL, NO! WE WON 'T GO!
HELL, NO! WE WON 'T GO!" ??

UNLESS thay r offered gunnery practice !

I don't even think the ha ha is wrong.. silent ball "stealing" may be subtlely harder, as in "the "stealer" didn't even say anything to me, Mommy..." Weenie's mommy might benefit from renting a video of a pro basketball game.

I don't follow basketball at all anymore, but I remember loving players who were good at dribbling... and people never managed to take the ball (talk about a tangential comment.) Anyway, I'm glad the teacher did the eye rolling bit.

On avoidance, I'm putting off paying my bills online...

I remember being horrified at my grammar school in new york city the year we lived there, the year I was eight. At "gym" time, we had to (had to, you can see my attitude already) line up and shoot a basketball at a hoop that seemed half way to the sky it was so high. I was hopelessly bad at that. I learned how to ride a 'big' bicycle that year, so my dork factor and my athlete factor cancelled each other out, for the time being anyway.

Mo would adore military camp.

He LOVES all things army.

I was thinking today of the day a couple of weeks ago when Mo was playing basketball with some older kids. He got head butted right in the nose and it was bleeding like crazy. Mo was, of course, crying while bleeding but what he kept saying was how the other kid didn't mean it and that he shouldn't get in trouble for it (he didn't -- we didn't tell).

Same thing the time he got hit in the eye with a golf club by a neighbor kid. He was worried that the kid would get in trouble.

I don't think Mo needs military school.

How does Mo feel about guns ?
David

Mo's a sweet boy. He will be fine. I am sorry you all are having to deal with it though...

Like most boys Mo is fascinated with guns. Luckily, his "go to" guy about guns is my brother, Major General Brother, an expert marksman, who has a VERY healthy respect for guns and the damage they can do and has warned Mo about how dangerous they can be. Mo is really more interested in heavy artillery than with handguns.

Thanks mismi. He is a nice kid.

I still haven't heard back from Mo's teacher but today during an assembly Mo and Will were chatting so she moved Mo -- right next to Jack (this after me telling Mo to just stay away from the kid)! Maybe she was wanting to see what would happen. Apparently nothing did!

Reading along Boomer... not much to offer I'm afraid - other than to say you do a fab job with Mo - he's a good kid and with your support and guidance he's gonna be a great adult. Keep on doing ... always hold yer head high so he's looking up to you and facing the world head on. Bless your Mo. x

Thank you, Izzie!

I was reading this thread before.

Personally I don't believe for a minute this girlie-boy won't come to school because Moe took the ball (part of the game) and said Ha Ha.

I know sometimes when you're feeling sensitive a wrong word from someone can really strike a chord. This is way beyond that though.

Just a random comment, and it makes me feel old and crusty, but I often lurk around the "Moe's-problems-at-school" threads and the impression I get of modern childhood just depresses the hell out of me. Just the expectation of so much adult involvement in the social lives of kids -- I'm not old, but I feel like when we were coming up, we had to solve our own problems unless stitches or a cast were required. And we did all right. We even became pretty functional, independently-thinking adults.

I wonder how you grow up when even playground basketball games require adult intervention. Sounds like you'd breed a generation of lemmings to me.

But, narrow lens and all. Or maybe it really is like that in middle-class America and the leaders of tomorrow will be self-actuated kids of single mothers and broken public schools who had to work things out on their own...

(Thinking, tangentially, osso-like, about the acquiescent abduction of Elizabeth Smart and the contemporary unsuccessful abduction of a girl from -- was it Baltimore? who escaped her bounds and found her way home on her own...)

You could be right about our future leaders.

From the teenagers I come across these days, I kind of hope so.

See Mo is fine. I wouldn't worry about him - he knows the drill.

That wimp is the one that is going to have issues.

Well my husband is a Marine.

Is the school requiring anything from you? Like, was there an expectation that you talk to Mo and Make Sure Nothing Like That Happens Again?

It sounds like it could be pretty pro-forma, especially with the teacher's eye-rolling -- like, Jack's mom made a complaint, and the school assured her that they'd pass it on to you. (Or even just giving you a heads-up, without having assured her of anything.) Even if they think it's a bogus complaint.

True or not, chai, that's what the kid told his mom and the mom wrote a letter calling Mo a bully. "Bully" is a big dirty word at school and rightly so, I hate bullies but I don't think Mo was being a bully and don't want him labeled as one.

I have no idea what the school requires in such matters, soz. I do know that anytime "feelings are hurt" that the matter is addressed. With 8 year olds, feelings are always being hurt. Where does it end?

Dear School,

Mo's feelings were hurt because Jack's mom called him a bully and got him in trouble. Now he hates himself and is convinced everyone at school hates him. Jack is a bully and so is his mom.

Sincerely,

boomerang

I admit to being old and crusty and modern childhood depresses the hell out of me.

My parents would have been hauled off by social services for neglect in this day and age and they were great parents!

But it isn't necessarily that the adults want to intervene in everything -- it's that the kids want the adults to intervene in everything. Every little infraction sends them running to a grown up for resolution.

I don't know how teachers deal with it. I'd lose my frikken mind.

I think you should send that note in - just imagine the fun.

Haha, that would be a nice touch indeed, to let them know how trivial and
ridiculous their email sounded.

As they say: don't sweat the small stuff!

I do know how you feel though, boomer - having an adopted child, you always question yourself twice as much as regular mothers do. Just relax, you've
been doing a wonderful job with Mo. Just continue business as usual!