About a Friend

Every parents would want the best for their children. There's no doubt about it. When a mother-to-be is pregnant, most likely she would start stimulating the womb with some classic music, some reading, or soft touches on the belly. Some parents would buy the most expensive toys that say it could stimulate the children's brain.

It was when I had Andra that I knew what unconditional love is. To have a baby that given to you to be taken care of, to see his first smile, first tooth erupts, first steps.. It was not easy, especially when you are a stay at home mom with no one to help and you have to juggle between doing the laundry, cleaning the house, cooking (not to mention to plan the meals, and oh yeah not any meals but think about the food colors too), playing with the kid, etc etc. But worth a world.

I tried to read as much as I can about a child's development. Andra has some milestones ahead of his age and some are left behind. But nothing serious to be worried to though.

In a blink of the eyes, Andra is now 2 years and 2 months. We moved to different place, where everything is new for us. New apartment, new environment, new habits, and new friends.

There are not so many friends for him here, and as his mother (I am sure the others also think the same way about their children), I hope that he could be a good friend, a generous, caring friend for the others. I see that he has learn how to share with his friends, to play together, to carefully picking the right words when he's trying to share a story to his friends and their mothers.

But, as parents we can not protect them from every bitter things that comes toward them. There is this one friend of his, and every time he meets her, he gets bullied. That's right, Andra is getting his first experience of bullying. It is.. heart-breaking.

I believe that every child is unique and every parents have their own way of saying they love them. They also have different kinds of parenting, different ways of teaching the children. And I would really appreciate if the mother would say something after her kid pushing, slapping, taking anything from Andra rudely. That she was sorry, that she always tells her kid not to do that when there were just two of them. But she didn't.

There is no one bad child in this world, it is our parenting. I don't want to judge anything, really, I just really hope that her mom would do something about her little girl pushing another kid in the playground or anywhere she sees her doing it. Not the mother of the other child should say it (which I did most of the time). I always say to Andra that he has his obligations, and rights too. He has obligation to tidy-up his toys after playing, or put his clothes in the washing machine when he's going to take a shower. And he has right to play with his toys, he has right to say no if he doesn't feel like giving to his friends, but also think about how he would feel if someone does that to him.

He should stand up for himself if someone is making him uncomfortable. He should speak. Or else get someone older around to say that for him. That is his rights too. I won't be always beside him, and how can I leave him from my sight without telling him this things?

As for now, I decided to minimize our meet-time with this friend. Not only because Andra gets bullied, but I prevent him to see that someone could do that to other kids. Because little souls are learning. They capture every single thing in this world. I don't want him to get bullied but I don't want him to be a bully the most.