Mama Bear

Porter came home crying from school yesterday. He said that the lady down the street yelled at him and he never wants to walk that way to school again. After I calmed him down I tried to get the whole story from him. What I pieced together was that as they were walking past a duplex on the corner of our street, a lady came rushing out, yelling that they better not poke her dog with sticks or she was going to call the cops and they were going to give every child a ticket that walks by her house. Did I mention that he was walking home with Tori, Lexi, Kyath and Tori and Lexi's Grandma?

I tried to think rationally. So I called Susan (Tori and Lexi's Grandma) to hear her version of the story. She painted the picture of a crazy woman that came bursting out of her house yelling at her and the kids. This lady kept getting madder and madder the more she spoke. Susan reassured her that she walks with the children to and from school and has never seen the kids poke the dog. Susan said that she was terrified herself and could only imagine how upset Porter was.

I waited until Don came back from running an errand before I went down to her house to see what the crazy ladies side of the story was. I thought Don would want to come with me, but he was fine with me just going on my own. Kyath was scared and told Don that I shouldn't go alone. But he could see her house from where he was standing and he wasn't too worried. Porter decided he was going to go with me.

When I walked on her lawn she immediately said, "May I help you?" I explained that my child came home crying and told me that he was yelled at on his way home. Cindy, the crazy woman, immediately got on the defensive and said that someone has been poking her dog and that the police told her that when she saw someone do it, she should immediately walk the child home and tell the parents that they would be given a ticket by the police. She said she didn't appreciate anyone poking her dog. After she was done with her rant I asked her calmly if she had a description of who was poking her dog. She said it was a BLACK GIRL and two boys with blond hair that looked identical.

Let me just stop here to remind you that Porter is a WHITE BOY as well as Kyath. Kyath has dark brown hair and Porter has blond hair. They do not look identical.

At that Point I had Porter come out from behind the fence. He was too scared to come any closer until I called him. I said, "Is this the boy that was poking your dog?" She said, "No." Then she went on ranting about how the police told her this and that and that it was not okay for someone to poke her dog.

So I waited until she was done with all her ranting and raving and I said, "Does he look black to you? Does he look like the blond boys at all?" She replied, "No" and "No". I said, "It is not okay to yell at kids as they are walking home from school. It is not okay to make my son scared to even walk by your house."

Cindy told me that he could just cross the street and walk on the other side of the street and then cross again when he got to the corner. I said he shouldn't have to do that. I said that I understood she was mad that someone was poking her dog, but if they were, she should just put the dogs in the backyard behind the fence where they belong. She said that they had a trampoline and she couldn't put the dogs back there because they would jump on the trampoline and over the fence. I suggested that maybe it was time to take down the trampoline. She said she wasn't going to do that.

I have to say I was quite impressed at how calm and composed I had been up to this point. I had said all the right things in the right way. But notice I said "up to this point." That was when I lost it. I told her that no dog was worth the life of a child and that her dogs were worthless. I told her that it was against the law to threaten kids. Did I mention that I yelled it? Anyways she told me her dog was worth more than my child. At that I turned and walked away.

Don thought I was making a big to do over nothing. I told him that anyone can yell and threaten me all they want. But when someone threatens my children and makes them so scared that they won't walk past a house anymore, I draw the line.

Porter made us drive him to school today and cried when he got home again because he had to walk by her house. It's just hard to see.

Anyways, I need feedback. Am I being too much of a mother bear?