OUCH!

This morning when I dropped Easton off at school, a mom in Easton's class stopped me in the hallway.  She asked if Easton had been bit yet?  My heart sunk.  Well, no, he hasn't.  She proceeded to tell me that Eli had been bit 10-12 times in the past few weeks.  What?  What the?  Biting?  12-18 month olds??? Seriously?  I thought about poor little Eli all day.  I thought about how he must have felt when "the biter" bit him.  We narrowed down who we thought the biter was and we decided we'd step on their feet on Monday morning.  Just kidding...  Sorta...  No, really, I am.  Anywho, I thought about Eli all day long.  His sweet smiling self being bit.  It just hurt my heart to think about it.  And hurt my heart for his momma as she ached for him.  You never want your child to be hurt.  Much less bit.  What do their little minds think while being bit?  Are they sad?  Do they bite back?  Will my child become a biter if they get bit? An array of thoughts ran through my head.

When I went in to pick up my little angel bucket today, there was an Incident Report on his clip board. My baby boy had been bit! I had to fight back tears as Ms. K told me that during transition from play to snack time 'a friend' had bitten Easton on the arm. Some friend!




 :(  Look at that little bite mark!
Don't think I haven't already analyzed the teeth prints.
Looks to me like 4 tops and 2 bottoms...I'm gonna do a good scan on Monday of mouths!
Ok, sorry...



Ms. K said he 'handled it very well.'  What does that mean?  Really? I mean, did he cry?  Did he want to be held?  Did he do something to 'the biter' to make them bite him?  I wanna know details.  And, how freaking hard do you have to bit in order to leave a teeth print bite???  Anyways, I held back the tears, gathered our things and headed out. 

We made a stop by the front desk to have little chitty chat with the Directors about the 'Incident' and they were aware of 2 certain children that are biting and have addressed the problem with the parents and with the teachers.  They were very understanding and I felt like my concern was valid.  Again, another reason why I LOVE our school!  So, with 2 kisses on his little arm, we were off. 

As we played outside I just couldn't help thinking about this incident.  So much of me really wanted to know what child bit him, cause you know, I'm the momma, I need to know these things.  But, really, would it have made any difference?  What was I going to do if I knew?  Would I corner their parents? Would I give the child a mean look?  Absolutely not!  My heart began to soften toward that child and their parents because there must be a reason that they are biting- maybe they'd been bit at some point, maybe they were hurting, who knows.  I'm sure the parents feel terrible enough without  me making it worse.  So, my anger very soon turned to compassion.  Isn't that what Jesus calls us to do anyways?  I would never want Easton to be that child that bites and I don't want to be that parent of the child that bites.  I just gave my little buddy some extra loving and tenderness, because really, that's all he needed anyways.  So, we move forward, heart hurting, but we move forward.