THIS post will tell you how our Sunday came to an end. It seems to me to be a cartoon from start to finish.
I'll preface this story by saying my children are very giving and forgiving and anxious to be friends with anyone and everyone....in their own ways of course. Morgan is extremely social and wants to experience every friendship he can find. When he was a toddler, he would ride in my grocery cart and start up a conversation with every single person he could get to respond to him. I did say EVERY person,...that wasn't an exaggeration! Jared wants friends too, but his shy streak is so extreme that he will likely NEVER make the first move towards a friendship, but he WILL be right there waiting for it to land in his lap.
All four of my children have a naive streak, probably because of being homeschooled. I'll take that....it leaves a sweetness in them that I am not willing to give up. So anyway, my little boys don't understand a bully. They just don't get what drives them. They will sit and brainstorm about one trying to figure out why in the world they want to act that way when being friends seems so much more fun. I love it that they are so totally baffled by that. Sadly, one of the bullies in their world is a cousin. The kid is their age and somedays is a great person for them to play with. And then there are all the other far more common days where he needs to be dropped off at the pound.....in another state!
So yesterday afternoon, after the whole ordeal with Morgan "betraiting" Jared, the two boys went outside to work on their tree fort. They worked for hours...literally! After a few hours, Morgan came in and told me how Jared had just "gone off" on said cousin. I get an ear full and I won't even go into it...it just makes me mad. Turns out that cousin thinks building a fort sounds fun, so he and his buddy are going to build one too.,...and the limbs Morgan and Jared are using look easy to use and better what they have handy. So they start taking the limbs away from Morgan and Jareds fort. The boys got upset and Jared saw Morgan start crying. That was all it took....Jared tore out after these older boys and laid into them and demanded their stuff back. He got it too LOL! Ultimately though, that just meant these boys were going to do other mean things to them.
I have long since gotten fed up with this kid. He has stolen things from us and another neighbor, tore up Tommy's equipment, called the kids (and Tommy and I) some rather foul names, shattered the boys by telling them there is no Santa, shot at them with bb guns and airsoft guns, thrown rocks at them, hit them with sticks,....
So "Mama Bear" struck and out the door I went. I found where the boys were building their lean-to fort. It's technically not our property anymore, since family land borders were redrawn and divided up between brothers. The little kids didn't know that,...so I told them. I also told them (loud enough the 2 pains in my backside could hear me) that they needed to play on the opposite side of our property where they aren't affected by those 2 nasty boys. Morgan said "Mommy, they are hiding right there in those bushes!" I said quite loudly, "I know they are, and I hope they know that not only can I see them, but I'll also see them the day I call the police to come out here and deal with them for trespassing and bullying the kids and tearing up property and anything else I think of when it happens." Yeah, I got told on.... *insert an eye roll here* I'm in Mama Bear mode, remember?
I told the boys to take down their broken limbs and branches. Drag them in the wheel barrow across the property and to follow me....I'd show them a better place. Off we went. And yes,... I know what I'm doing :D
There is a wooded area to the side of our property that we rarely do much with. I showed it to the boys and sent one after rope and one after limbs. They drug nearly every broken branch across our yard to this spot in the woods. They gave me some paracord and tied it around some trees in a circular shape. Then I took the limbs and sort of wove them together around these trees. Then I had the boys use their pine limbs with lots of green needles and fill in the "basketry" I had woven. I wouldn't let them cut anything off other trees, but privet hedge is nasty stuff that tears up lawn mowers, so I sent them after pruning shears and had them cut privet and bring it to me. (That was good thinking on my part....they weeded my herb garden LOL!) Privet is flexible, so it helped tie all those limbs and branches and needles together. We left an opening so they have a door. Then it was a little too dark to mess with and I had them come in. Today though, some of the same bratty behavior started, so I went out to help them a little more. They souped up their walls with lots of pine boughs and I let them get an old wooden chair and stool to put out there. Then I let them move a stack of firewood out there and build a stone fire ring. No fires right now, but this fort is big enough they can both camp out there when it gets warm,...and the firewood will be there waiting for them. It could use a roof, but we'll wait on that for tnow. It is surprisingly well done! Hard to see the kids when they are inside of it! They filled in the walls pretty well. I was proud, so I took pictures.
The moral of this story is,....don't mess with Mama Bears cubs.....cuz she can build a better fort than you and she'll enforce trespass laws AND tell your daddy what she thinks of you AND cause you to get grounded AND anything else she can think of! :)
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