Sheepish

I'm feeling sheepish. I'm really proud of N, but I shouldn't be. Not that he's not a great kid or anything, it's just that there are some behaviors I shouldn't encourage. We were at a LLL meeting yesterday, and N was playing with anything on wheels (he loves cars and trucks). A two year old (and much bigger than N) didn't like the fact that N wanted to get cars out of the toybox, so he started hitting him. Not hard, just enough to irritate him. N looked at him like, "What the heck???" and smacked him back. Once. Also not hard. I do not want my child to hit. But this was self-defense. The other kid had hit him 3 or 4 times before N reacted. But still, hitting is not okay. Anyway, Other Kid looked shocked, and started crying and ran for his mother. I admit to laughing. Not because N hit, or Other Kid cried, but because my sweet tempered little monkey finally stood up for himself. Even though he's the biggest kid in his playgroup, he routinely gets poked, smacked, and kicked, and has his toys taken from him by other little urchins. I am proud of him.

And now I'm off to email Other Kid's mom to apologize for laughing, and make sure she knows I was not laughing directly at her kid.