First, a local church youth group brought bubbles over for the kids which I thought was a really neat idea. They weren't pushing their beliefs on anyone but showing what I feel Christ is about, being kind and giving. The kids loved it and Amelia was in heaven after playing in the spray ground and then chasing bubbles.
Before long she made it to the swings and I sat and talked to two lovely ladies about their girls and sweet baby that they had with them. After a few minutes one of the girls came and said they were leaving the spray ground because some other girls were making fun of one of the girls hair. The girl being made fun of happened to be African-American so perhaps her hair is something they may not understand but that is certainly no excuse. In an effort to keep her daughters from running away from the problem the mother (who was one of the ladies that I was speaking to) went over and so nicely told the girls to be nice or they could go back to their parents. I was really touched by her reaction. She didn't back down but she wasn't harsh, that is not something I'm sure I could have done. When someone teases my daughter I go pretty much full force, but that's not a lesson to teach kids. This mother knows what she is doing; of course, she does have 4 kids so maybe that's experience.
I spoke with the ladies a few minutes more and we talked about how parents need to teach their kids kindness and while "kids will be kids" it's the parents responsibility to teach them not to bully others.
It was overall a good day, seeing the teasing made me sad but in the end good people won out and all of the kids had fun. It reminded me to teach Amelia kindness and that different is not bad.
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