Today I had that moment that I'm sure every parent has, the one where you realize that this job is about more than just making sure that your children are fed and bathed and don't grow up to be serial killers.
We'd gone shopping and were just getting back to our car. I was unloading packages and getting Mia back into the car. Gavin was waiting for his turn. He was in a good mood, and when he saw a couple of older boys - I'll put their ages at 4 and 6 - walking towards us he greeted them with a big "Hi Kids!" Now usually when he does this whomever he's greeting will smile and say hi back, but not these two. No, these boys decided to make fun of my precious little boy. Gavin's face fell.
I picked him up to put him in the car and he was pretty silent. When I asked him what was the matter he said, "Hurt me." My heart just broke. At first I couldn't believe that a 2-year-old had enough emotional intelligence to realize that the boys were making fun of him. Then I got upset that Gavin had to experience that at such a young age.
The more I thought about it the more I realized how much I value Gavin's spirit. He has such an engaging personality and while I don't think this incident will have any lasting effects (at least I hope not), I need to make sure that he continues to say "Hi", even when the rest of the world seems to be shutting him down. I know that as he gets older it will probably take more than the hot dog and ice cream from Costco that cheered him up yesterday, but hey, that's what Moms are for, right?
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