I was in a shopping centre with the kids recently & Jacob wanted a go on one of those Peppa Pig carousels. I had a look and there were three six-year-old boys hanging out of it, reefing it around and generally trying to wreck it. So I persuaded Jacob to sit in the nearby cafe with me first, have something to eat and wait another few minutes until it was ‘less busy’.
Eventually they moved off and I sent Jacob over. Halfway there, he was intercepted by one of the six-year-olds who had returned. Jacob, in his three-year-old innocence thought he was making a new friend but I watched this other kid putting it up to him, asking him repeatedly ‘D’ya like Peppa Pig, do ya? Do ya?’
It might sound funny, but the other kid was towering over him and was being sinister. At six, this other kid already had that bullying ‘way’ about him and I knew it. I called Jacob back before his little moment was ruined, and the older kid followed him back over, continuing to goad him (the message was going to be, of course, that Jacob was either a baby or ‘gay’ for liking Peppa Pig).
So I told the other kid to fuck off.
You know, without saying the words ‘fuck off’.
He did, and returned to the other older kids and they all proceeded to point and stare at Jacob until I stood up and stared them down. Were they afraid of me? Were they fuck. They just got bored because Jacob had no idea what was happening.
I looked for their parents and there were a gang of women that the boys ran back and forth to, who were generally ignoring them. So that’s where they got their shit attitude and shit personalities from. I didn’t approach them, but had one of those boys touched a hair on Jacob’s head, you better believe that I would have.
It got me to thinking on the way home, ‘If I am so protective of Jacob now that I want to murder some six year olds, what will I be like when he goes to school?’
Hopefully, I’ll be like this dad whose video I found online. It’s very emotional and contains some very strong racist language, so you have been warned x