Why I'm Overprotective: A Random Act of Violence

My kids would tell you I’m WAY overprotective.

My oldest wasn’t allowed to walk down to the neighbors home on his own in our quiet suburban neighborhood until he was ten, and then I can’t even remember if I let him play inside. There was a lot to worry about. I really didn’t know the parents or the older brother at all. Why would I allow my son to play inside a home I’ve never been in? Mix that with the nightly news and violence against kids and my overactive imagination and you got one overprotective mom.

When it came time to send the kids to camp, I’d warn them about swimming in the lakes and that parasites that could infect their brains and kill them if they got water up their nose. Every year a kid died from this mysterious disease in our state and my kids were not going to be one of them! Add that to the fact that I knew people who’ve drowned in rivers and were paralyzed in lakes and that lakes where we live are just plain icky and disgusting and you got one over protective mom.

Don’t even get me started about my fears of dogs and guns in someone’s home…

I’m sure I can go on and on and you can probably add your own overprotective stories to this post (and please do in the comment section) but I’d like to tell you about a REAL random act of violence that happened to my sweet, eight year old daughter yesterday…

I just started allowing my daughter to go to friends houses in the neighborhood and let friends come over, but the act of violence didn’t happen at home. It happened on vacation over her grandparents’ house. I should preface the story that the violence while random, wasn’t physically damaging and she seems to be emotionally fine (though wanting justice) so don’t worry, nothing horrific happened to her.

It was getting dark and her and her two older brothers and cousin wanted to go outside and watch the bats fly, so while normally I’d insist on an adult being outside with them, on this quiet cul-de-sac I wasn’t worried, though the idea did give me a moment of pause. Everything was quiet and I finally decided it was time for them to come in when my daughter comes up to me and tells me this little girl came up and punched her three times, one in the eye. I shook my head, not sure I heard correctly, but she told me the same story.

Her and the boys were playing a game where she was hiding in the bushes when this group of kids came up (not sure if they were playing with them, but the other day they did ask if they could play when we were down the street at a family reunion with about 50 people in the yard and the owner of the house said it wasn’t a good time, so we don’t know if they were mad about that)

My daughter said she saw the older girls whisper to the littlest one and then the littlest one (about my daughters size) went up and punched her in the face and eye about 5 or 6 times. And that was it!

Of course, I questioned why she didn’t yell and she didn’t know why. She was probably in shock, but that gave me concern because I’ve always taught my kids about screaming when a “bad man” tried to hurt them. I guess I should have expanded the age and gender bracket on “bad men.”

I then asked her brothers and cousin why they didn’t defend her and they didn’t even know it happened. Wow! More questions birthed in my mind. How could no one know what had happened even though she was hidden from everyone and why didn’t she tell?

Why didn’t she tell?

Makes you wonder how many other victims don’t tell right after the “act of violence,” but thankfully that’s the first thing she said when she saw me.

Needless to say, I was in shock and outraged and insisted on having my husband go down and talk to the family. It hasn’t happened yet and I’m a little worried that the parents might not believe their child did this, but my daughter keeps asking “are we going down there today.”

She may not be able to put it into words, but I know she wants justice. In fact, she said “I want to see her get in trouble.”

So if you think about it, say a prayer for “justice” and the courage for us to play this thing out when it’s so easy just to forget it all happened!