Yesterday at the bus stop.
There are 3 new siblings there, I think they used to get driven to school, but for the last 2 weeks they have been riding the bus.
All 3 in grade school, K-4, I THINK. 2 boys, the girl in the middle.
The boys are hellions. When the Kindergartener isn't using his bookbag as a flail, the older one is choking out his siblings, and they all scream while doing it. And when I say the little one is swinging his bookbag, I mean it is running and continuous and he tries to get a running start and hit people in the head when their backs are turned. The bag seems to have heft; there are books inside. Finally he smacked a 4th grade girl in the back of the head HARD, and I could tell it hurt her, so I'd had enough and out came the Dad/Command voice and I said it was done, and he was going to stop hitting people now before someone got hurt. He said, "But it's just playing," and I said I didn't care, it was done. In the DAD VOICE.
He starts crying. He tries to go home (which is an every day occurrence, because he always hits some bigger kid and the other kid will defend him or herself and tap the small one which sets the small one off), and I will be honest, I felt bad yesterday for making a little kid cry.
But then this morning, the 3 of them were perfectly quiet, and still, and standing on the other side of the road, by themselves, away from me and the other children.
Being feared really is better than being loved in some instances.