A few weeks ago, while we were playing at the Sonic play place, we had a run-in with a three-year-old. I won't come out and say she was a bully, but she was totally a bully.
I was standing off to the side of the slide, watching as Grace and Claire waited for their turn. Normally, I just let them do their own thing, but I wanted to see how they would interact with this very bold three-year-old. They have a tendency to be shy when they first meet people, and usually warm up after awhile, but I could tell from a distance, they weren't used to this kind of kiddo. As they were waiting for the three-year-old to go down, she turned to them:
3-year-old girl: Hi.
Claire & Grace: Silence.
3-year-old: I saaaaid hi.
Claire: Silence
Grace: Turns around and high-tails it outta there.
3-year-old: MOOOOOOM, this girl ain't being nice.
Claire: Backs down a few stairs, still silent and obviously weighing how much she really wants to slide.
3-year-old: You being rude. Want me spit at you?
I jumped in at that point and assured the little girl that she did not, in fact, want to be spit at, but that she was just shy. After she went on a rant about how "those girls" weren't being nice, she finally took her turn and Claire followed.
The girl's father came over shortly after. I looped him on the situation, laughing about how funny these things can be and again explained that my kiddos were just shy. He then made some snarky comment "Your kids are two? What, they can't talk or something?"
Every muscle in my body tensed as I felt a mama bear moment coming on.
The words that came out of my mouth sounded something like "Oh yes, they can talk. It just takes them awhile to warm up."
The words in my head, however, sounded something like "Want me spit at you?"