The Momma Bear in me

The other day Remi was out front playing. One of the kids that lives down the street was riding in his battery powered car. Remi generally does not like this kid - he is quite a bit younger, he is mean, and he lies. But Rem was out and he was out so they were just talking to each other. I was sitting on our step watching them play. This car that he has is pretty new to them but they got it at a garage sale for $10 and then the dad replaced the dead battery with a lawnmower battery. So it has a lot of power. The boys were looking under the hood - as boy will do. LOL! I didn't think anything about it. Remi has one of those cars and he used to play with it all the time (it is too small for him now) and it was always fine. Then the phone rang and I ran into get it in the mean time the boys got in the car and went down the street toward the other boys house. Those kids go up and down the street all day so I just didn't think about it. Just a few minutes later Remi came running in crying. He told me something happened to the car and the other boy told him, "You better go tell your mom because I am going to tell my parents and you are going to be in trouble." Little brat!! Anyway, so I finally got it figured out that they were looking at the car again and they made the battery short out and the other boy got a burn on his fingers.

Now, let me say, I don't think any of this was a safe and good choice by my son! And after the incident we talked about how dangerous this was.

But anyway, I told Remi we better go to there house and see what had happened. So we went down a couple of houses and they were not outside but the car was. Remi lifted the hood and showed me the wires had burnt up. Yikes!! So we went to the door and generally, while I am not particularly a fan of the kids in this family we have always been on a friendly basis with the family. So we rang the bell and the mom came to the door and just started yelling and screaming at Remi!! I was so shocked that I just kind of stood there. My sweet dear child stammered out an apology and told them if it was broken that they could have his car and that he didn't really know what happened. She just kept yelling that it was all Remi fault and that her son got burn because Remi was messing around. Well, that snapped me out of it. I told her that I had been out watching the kids and her son was in by the battery just as Remi was and if he got a burn on his hand he must have had it in there (she told us during her tirade that her kids know better then to touch the battery and never look in there or mess with it). She said that his whole hand was burnt - I saw later in the conversation that he had a little red spot on his finger. She just kept going! There was no calming down. So finally I just told her, "Look, your hubby told me you bought the truck for $10 at a garage sale and put the lawnmower battery in it. I think that is a huge part of the problem. Topo much power for a little vehicle like this and it shorted out. But at any rate since Remi was PARTLY (not completely) responsible in this we will pay you for half of a new battery or half of the $10 you bought the car for if you can't fix it. Let us know" And I turned Remi around and left. I was so upset that she would speak to my child like that!

I later was telling Jock about it. He was mad beyond reason - wanted to march right down there and tell her a thing or two. I finally convinced him that it would do no good. These people are moving to a new state in the next couple days and it was just as well to let them go and leave it alone. I told him that if we had gone to the door and she had calmly but firmly told Remi how dangerous that was and that BOTH of them should not have been doing that. I would have been totally supportive! But instead she put all the blame on my kid, like Remi held her son down made him open the hood, purposely messed with the battery with the intent of breaking it and then held her son's finger to the wire so he would be hurt! And in the mean time her son was totally innocent and had a halo around his head the whole time!

So, that was about a week ago. The next day the stupid car was up and running with a new lawnmower battery and they are still running it up and down the street all the time. Needless to say, we had a big talk with Rem about how dangerous that was and to not mess with batteries like that. And we have told him just to steer clear of that family. They never asked us for any money for the thing. And I am just staying away. The thing that I hate is that this lady goes of on everyone! Another lady on the street said that two of her kids have been yelled at by her for really silly things. And the topper - at the beginning of the summer Remi was outside with some other friends and came running in side to tell me that this lady made the Ice Cram Lady cry!! Apparently, the ice cream lady had given her kids some ice cream without getting permission from her first. And she just let loose on the poor ice cream lady. Her husband had to actually pull her away from the ice cream truck. She is just a wacky lady. I will be so glad when they are gone because her wacky-ness seems to be getting worse and directed more to the neighborhood kids.

And in the meantime, I told Jock that I have my "speech" prepared if and when she ever talks to me again. And after having time to process the whole event I have a few things to tell her about how you treat other people's children.

I mean, Remi was certainly not innocent in the whole event but it is my responsibility as his parent to deal with him - not hers. And if she would deal with her own kids a bit more then they would be a lot better off!

WOW! That was quite a tirade! LOL! I am done now!