Macy's "BIG" Announcement

This Really Needs to Stop

For the loooooove! When will "the world" stop influencing my child?!? Oh, silly me! Never.

M: "I know what those I heart boobies bracelets mean."

A: (thinking) Oh, that's just great. Here we go again, me having to explain something I shouldn't yet have to.

A: "You do, huh? What do they mean?"

M: " It's for you know, when someone has cancer in their boobies. So people will donate money to make a cure for it."

A: "I think you're right! But Boobies really isn't the best word to go around saying. It's kind of inappropriate."

M: "Oh yeah! I know. I just wanted to tell you what they're for..."

She obviously made the connection that children shouldn't participate in things that are inappropriate and the conversation continued ...

M: "I wonder why kids wear them then?"

A: "Ya' know, that's a great question. Why do you think kids wear them?"

M: (shrugs)

A: "Would you like to know what I think?"

M: (shakes her head yes)

A: "I think it's okay to support causes, things like trying to find cures for diseases such as breast cancer or autism or anthing else you see bracelets & t-shirts & bumper stickers for but sometimes companies use their slogan or logo, I heart boobies is a slogan, in a way that attracts negative attention."

M: "What do you mean negative attention?"

A: "Well, remember we said boobies is an inappropriate word, right?"

M: "Mmhmm."

A: "When whoever made those bracelets chose to use that word, they knew it would make people look twice at the bracelet, it would draw attention."

M: "Ohhh, yeahhh ... cause it's a bad word."

A: "Right.", "So while it makes them see what the cause is, helping people with breast cancer, it's doing so by drawing attention to a negative word."

M: "Ohhhh, so just like I wouldn't stand up in class & say, Miss Wolf I needa take a grunt?"

(laughter)

A: "Yes, just like that." (more laughter)

M: "I'd just say I need to use the restroom because that's more appropriate."

A: "Exactly."

Hunks & Chunks

When I first heard this term, I thought “Hunks & Chunks”? Hmmm … that’s a great way to say fit vs. flab … I still don’t really know what it represents but when I describe to you the example I was given of “Hunks” & “Chunks” you’ll probably wonder what kind of soap opera, love story my 2nd grader is endulging in! Hey, whatever juicy storyline it takes to teach phonics works for the Walkers!

M: “Oh! Mom. I have to tell you something!”, “You and Dad will loooove it!” “You’ll laugh.”

M: “We have these things called hunks and chunks …”

A: I interrupted with an exaggerated gasp followed by “MACY! You can’t be tellin’ people they’re chunks!” and then I sang the line from the song in Madagascar 2 “Chunky, Chunkay, chunkay …” but she cut me off with her cute little giggle ...

M: “No, there’s one I wanna’ tell you.”

A: “Okay baby, I’m listening now.”

M: “ ’E’ said, (very exaggerated lovey, gushy, mushy voice) Oh, I loooove you ‘A’! ‘A’ said absolutely nothing. So when you see ‘EA’ you say ‘E’!”

My take on this whole Hunks & Chunks thing is it’s love story between letter sound combinations. Is that what you call them? Letter sound combinations? For the love of Pete people, I don’t know! I’m just glad to see my kid’s teacher is more creative than the age old, “I before E except after C.” I guess nowadays it’s like reality TV for letter sounds! I’m in as long as the letters don’t end up with 16 & Pregnant in there anywhere!

Oh, and this is a sidebar but the two words together, Hunks & Chunks, makes me wanna’ sing this MC Hammer song. Can't you hear it? ... Hunks and a Chunk, Hunks and a Chunk we like the sounds with a Hunks and a Chunk ... Yes, I just made up my own song, don't judge.

She's Got Re-spon-si-bil-ity ... Walk. Responsibility. Talk.

Yeah, yeah so I ripped off the title from Lloyd Price's song, Personality so what? The point is ladies & gents we have a seven year old who's ASKED for responsibility! Now, mind you she asked with a price tag attached but that's okay--it let's her understand the value of working hard for something she wants.



In our home, we've not really practiced having chores with payment attached. Sure, we agree with providing an allowance and sure we agree with expecting participation in chores but monetary value on doing those chores has not yet been discussed .. that is until today! In the past, Macy has just done as we've asked.



Macy accompanied me on a Sonic run today. While we waited for our drinks this is what took place:



M: "Mom, do you think I could start earning an allowance?"

A: "Well. Sure. I think that's a great idea! When we get home, we should sit down & discuss what some appropriate chores might be. What do you think would be a good idea?"

M: "Hmm .. (thinking) I think making my bed."

A: "Everyday."

M: "Yes. Everyday."

A: "Okay, that could make the list."

M: "How much do you think I can get paid for doing chores?"

A: "Well, that depends on what you do. You'll only get paid for work you do-you either do ALL of it or you don't get paid. But we'll come up with some ideas when we get home. We'll write them down & make an agreement."

M: "Okay! That sounds good to me."



I wanted to give her time to think about the things she could reasonably do. When we got home, she pulled out a spiral notebook and we began making a "contract". We agreed that it would last for 2 weeks to see if she needed to increase or decrease her responsibility. She was advised if her responsibility decreased, so did her pay.



As we discussed some of the things (you'll see the final list below) the subject of pay also came about.



M: "I wonder how much all this is worth?"

A: "Well, what do you think it is worth? What seems reasonable?"

M: "Um ... (thinking) I believe it's worth five dollars."

A: "So if you do _______ (listing off all the chores she agreed to) then you'll earn $5. But what
should be the consequence if you don't do all of those things on the day you agreed?"

M: "Then I shouldn't get paid!"

A: "Okay ma'am. It's a deal."



We shook hands. She signed the "contract".



*Editor's Note: Some of these items she already does because they're expected. The point is to have her understand the purpose of responsibility and how "working", works. The contract is subject to change after the 2 week period ;)

Flowers & The Trees.

Ever been around a toddler that learns a curse word? Sometimes they use it in context but sometimes they just throw it out in a random place within conversation to see what reaction their parent's give. Usually they do this because they know it's not an everyday word, the word has a "special" meaning, they're just not sure what.

Well, I'm afraid we had a case of the toddlers on our hands this evening. Take a read at what ensued.

"Mom, what are we having for dinner?", asked Macy.
"Oh, I'm not sure yet but I do know I need to go to the grocery store.", I replied.

Macy responded, "Well, sometimes I get nervous about eating other people's food."

"You get nervous about eating other people's food?" I asked, "What does that mean?".

"You know, like when we were at that chili thing at your work?" (referring to a chili cook-off I judged at my workplace), said Macy.

I thought, "Oh, you mean you don't like to eat in front of other people?"

She clarified, "No, like it makes me feel like when I have puberty ... like that."

"Makes you feel like when you have puberty??" At this point, I belted out a very boisterous laugh, I know. It was wrong, but I couldn't hold it back.

"What is puberty? I don't get it?", I asked.

"Then why are you laughing?", she said.

"Well, because I know what nervous is so I'm trying to understand how nervous equals puberty.", I responded.

"Well, I don't really know.", admitted Macy.

"Ohhh, where'd you hear that word? Maybe we could ask them to help us understand. Could we ask them? Who was it?", I pondered.

"Well, I can't really remember. I just heard the word.", I suppose she didn't want to fess up.

"Ohhhh, well. I believe I know what puberty means, I just wanted to know if there was a different meaning for it cause you called it the same as nervous.", I went on to explain.

"Puberty is when your body goes through different levels of changes somewhere between oh, 10 to 12 years old. You'll probably get zits, you'll get little boobies, you'll have a period--you know like when mommy has blood from her vagina & has to use tampons? That's a period. It happens one time every month. You will also get hair under your arms and on your goober."

She just looked at me like oh no you di'unt just sit there & say all that!

We both went from serious to busting up laughing.

"I said nervous was puberty!", she roared laughing even louder.
" Yeah, now you see why I laughed?", I asked.

"Gross.", Macy replied.

Fast As Fast Can Be, You'll Never Catch Me!

We had a small earthquake in Oklahoma yesterday. I anticipated Macy Walker would have one heck of a story on her account of the event; instead all I got was "Eh, it was no big deal." Well, okaythenma'am.

We went on to discuss much more important things, like ...

"Hey Mom, did you ever ding dong ditch when you were little ?",

said with a grin & slight laugh.

Me, baffled for a nano-second at how my precious, innocent, sweet little 7 year old baby already knew what ding dong ditching was, I paused only to quickly spit out,

"Ding dong ditch? What is ding dong ditch?", wasn't that the right thing to do?

Pretend I didn't know to see just how much she knew or would tell??

Shrug-Oh well, I sure thought so!

This time I got a bellowing, HA.HA.HA. as if she was thinking, you're so dumb-you know nothing-kinda laugh and

"It's where you go up to someone's house, ring their doorbell & then run off!"

"Ohhhh", I responded. "Well, what happens if it's a really mean person

and they run out & chase you??"

"Then I guess I'd just run really fast to our house and lock the door!",

followed by more laughter.

I kinda chuckled too this time because a.) I hoped she'd ding dong ditch someone who'd scare the bananas outta' her so she'd not do it again but also because b.) I still don't know how the heck she so accurately knew the ding dong ditch concept ... she's SEVEN for cryin' out loud!

I asked how she learned to do that and warned only to do it to people she knows (apologies to our neighbors in advance), applied the concepts of stranger danger, politeness, etc, etc. but didn't say NOT to do it ... Gimme' a break, we aaaaalll know she would do it anyway but the best part came shortly after.

"Well, you didn't do it but I BET Daddy & Jen Jen did!!!",

she & I both roared laughing.

She's right ;)

Gasp ... And Then She Said It.

WARNING: Explicit language.

Casey and I made a pact long ago to always tell Macy the truth, even when that means we have to admit embarassing & not so pleasant things to her. Thus far in her life, we've upheld that pact and do not plan to deviate from it anytime soon. She knows babies come from vaginas (yes, we call parts the proper names when explaining) she knows the alternative is a c-section but she doesn't know HOW babies are made and frankly ... I'd like to keep it that way right now!

How? You might ask, does she know where babies come from but not how they're made? Well, we tell her just enough information. We answer her questions but don't offer anymore information than necessary. There may be a point in her life where background information or further explanation is needed for certain things but to this point it's the facts ma'am only the facts.

Every parent dreads the day their child comes home to ask about something-typically inappropriate, they've learned outside their home. I expected to answer questions about where babies come from. I expected to hear "Susie said the S word", I expected to explain why people go to jail (which I've had to do already this week--because so & so's Dad spent all his money on drugs and they only had one dollar left to get his Dad out of jail because his Dad was in jail for doing drugs), I expected to explain favoritism, nerd, stupid, fairness, responsibility, good character, I even expected to explain divorce. What I didn't expect was to explain THE mother of all words.

Macy wasn't even in the car 5 minutes when she said, "Mom, what does the middle finger mean?" See, I try really hard to get by with the simplest of answers but its becoming increasingly more difficult! "Well, it's just middle man. You know where is middle man, where is middle man, there he is, there he is ..." She laughed. "Nooo, it's a bad word. What does it mean?" Crap! I thought. Now what? What do I say?? I swallowed a big gulp, said a nano-second prayer for the right words to say and replied, "Well Mace, it's a really really bad word. It's so bad, I don't even want to say it. It's not a nice word at all & it's something you should never repeat." I really didn't know what to say! I couldn't bring myself to say THAT word. "Well, can I guess what it is? Would you tell me then?" Sigh, "she knows" I thought. "She already knows." Ugh. So I said, "Of course. I'll tell you."

She was somewhat reserved & hesitated a smidge, shrugged and wincingly said "ffff..uck. Is that what it means? Fuck you?" OH.MY.STARS! Did she just say that?? "Yes. Yes Macy, that's what it means.", "How'd you learn that?", "Somebody said that the other day at school." "It's a bad word, huh mom?" Here would be a good time to reintroduce good character. Ouch.

Aging

Elderly people often take a large assortments of medication, so much they often have those pill separators allowing them to plan their medications by day. Now, I just can't imagine those folks enjoy taking all that medication but I'd venture to guess they realize they're extending their precious time on Earth, they see its necessity.

When those same elderly folks were oh, let's say 5 years old I bet they fought their mommas & daddies tooth and nail when taking medication. "This tastes bad.", "I can't swallow this, it gags me.", "I don't like it.", etc. Their desire to get rid of the symptoms wasn't as great as their disdain for the medication. They knew it was relative to get rid of their illness but they weren't mature enough to understand that taste or gagging reflex was temporary.

But then they aged & maturity set in. They realized swallowing that nasty medicine was necessary. Macy Walker has now realized this and begrudgingly requested cough medicine. On her own. Without my suggestion.

Wow, maturity.

She Gets That From Her Father ...

If you know our family well at all, you know we're quite the jokesters. We find humor in almost anything, afterall laughter IS the best medicine. It does a soul good! Watch below to see how our humor has trickled down to the youngest Walker, Miss Macy Renee.

P.S. This was totally un-rehearsed. I had NO clue it was on my video camera until I went to upload something else. I remember her asking me "Mom, how do you take pictures?" but I didn't know she'd just recorded something .. on PURPOSE! hahaha

She's Bossy, The Queen of the Pack

You often hear little boys say they want to be firemen or policemen when they grow up. They like firetrucks and policecars all the while pretending to be those professions. Little girls will tell you they'd like to be teachers or mommies while they "teach" or "mother" their baby dolls. Macy Walker knows what she wants to be when she grows up too, but it's not a teacher, mother, nurse or any other traditional "female" role.

A: "Mace, what do you think you'd like to be when you grow up?"

M: "I'm gonna' be be a boss."

A: "Ohhhh, you're gonna be a boss? What kind of boss?"

M: "You know ... the boss of a company. The kind that has an office and tells people what to do."

Of COURSE I know! hahahaha

My Wish

Ba da bom bom-bom ... I'm Lovin' It!

Recognize that little jingle? Believe it or not, I DO let my kid clog her arteries with their food sometimes. Tonight though, the golden arches brought a taste that is bittersweet.

Macy was worn out from a swimming-filled, park-played, library-visited day and looked like she was on the verge of collapse when I picked her up from my in-law's. As we neared our home, she asked "Mom, do you think we could just go to McDonald's? I'm really tired. I just wanna' eat and lay down and watch TV." ... THIS is highly unusual for Macy Walker but I could tell she was worn slicker than hot pair of bald tires so I obliged on one condition; mind you I never thought in a million years she'd comply with my conditional McDonald's visit.

There's a Wal-Mart near our home that has a McDonald's just inside the door. I thought to myself, I'll agree to get her McDonald's if she'll go in there on her own while I wait in the car near the door. Keep in mind, that would require her barely seven-year old soul to carry money into the store alone, order her food correctly alone and get her drink ... ALONE! Here's what the conversation sounded like:

A: "If you'll go in there on your own while I wait right here, then I'll stop."

M: "Okay (shrugs) that's no big deal. You'll wait right here, right?"

A: "Yes. I'll wait right here for you. Can you do that on your own???"

M: "Yeah, it's fine. But I want apples so what do I say? Can I have chicken nuggets with apples?"

A: (still not really believing she'll carry out her "own" McDonald's experience) "Yep. That's all

you say."

M: " ... and for the drink, I just tell 'em I want a fountain drink, right?"

A: (I hand her a $5 bill) "You got it, a fountain drink."

About this time, I pull up at the doorway to the Wal-Mart. Now before any of you other parents wanna' police me for putting my child in stranger danger, I could see her from the glass door outside the Wal-Mart and I could see the entry to McDonald's so no child grabber would'a made out of there alive with my kid, mmkay?

A couple minutes pass & here comes my big, very proud little girl carrying her McDonald's sack, her fountain drink-of which she got herself too, and the change! I know all the other momma's out there with graying hair have been in my shoes but it's hard to believe my barely 7 year old baby doesn't need me anymore.

Remember When .... $1 Paid for a Movie, Drink AND Popcorn

At some point in our lives, most of us have heard from either our grandparents or our own parents stories of "remember when". They've told us about walking uphill in the snow-barefoot, they've told us about working long hard hours when a day's pay was only $3.00 and they've told us there was a time when you could take your sweetie to the movies, buy popcorn & a coke all for a buck. Don't take this the wrong way my friendly readers but c'mon now, just how much is a buck gonna get'ya in 2010? Mmhmm, that's what I thought. So did Macy Walker.


Yesterday was her 7th birthday party and lemme tell'ya, she is one loved little girl! She got more presents than you could shake a stick at. Although she did get a few duplications, she absolutely loved every cotton-pickin' gift she got! No worries though, I took her bright & early this morning to exchange them.


I wanted to use the whole exchange process as not only a math lesson ... you know adding up how much the return items would be compared to how much she could spend with the returns but also as a life lesson on how to return things to the store. As we prepared to leave, I counseled Macy on the process. Just as we began to walk out the door, she screeched "WAIT! I think I wanna' take my Wal Mart Giftcard I got too.", "Is that okay? Can I go get it real quick?" I replied, "Sure. Hurry up. I'll wait here.", as I stood in the doorway I watched her make a mad dash over to the cabinet where her mound of birthday gift cards lain. She rifled through them to find the one that said "Waaallll Mart" (that's what I heard her sound out as she got to just the right card). Just as she snatched that one out of the pile, she flipped it over to see what was on the back. That my friends is when all tradgedy of the dollar-days-no-more broke loose.



"TEN DOLLARS??", I heard Macy yelp as tears started to come to her eyes. "Mom! I can't buy ANYthing for ten dollars!" Before I could even get a word out, she marched over to the drawer where I keep pens. As she opened the drawer retrieving a Sharpie she proclaimed, "I'm just gonna write this for more money!"

Chocolate Brown?

Those whom have studied child development, have kiddos of your own or have been around little ones will know that somewhere around the preschool ages of 3-4 yrs. old, they start to recognize what is "like me" and what isn't like me. They ask questions and by gollee, they expect an explanation!

Macy's always been a talker, infact I wish her toddler teacher could read this blog to attest the fact the child stood in a crib at 9 1/2 months old shouting her name, "Macy Waaka, Macy Waaka, Macy Waaka" until someone came over to talk to her. She probably talks so much because we explain EVERYthing to her. We try to use every question she has as an opportunity for education. It shouldn't be a surprise when just barely 2 yrs. old she would ask "Why like this?", or state "This not me" when noticing someone different from her in a book or in public. Of course we wanted her to know not everyone is the same but it's also our responsibility to respect and appreciate diversity.

Not only do we talk & explain aLOT, we read aLOT. Everytime there's been a question, we buy a stinkin' book or two or five about whatever subject; so when she wanted to know why one of these things is not like the other (sing it like Sesame Street), off to the bookstore it was. One of the books we've had since 2005 is called "The Colors of Us" by Karen Katz. Macy absolutely looooves this book. She can read it without looking now (I think I might cry ... j/k) but from time to time she will ask me to read it to her. When I oblige, she'll say "Mom, mom, that's your hand!" as she points to Isabella and CRAcks up laughing.

Hmm .. I think ... should I be concerned or appreciate her humor?

P.S. The picture above is the cover of the book. Isabella is the person on the far right.

The Object of Her Affection

Tuesday, Macy has her class photo for 1st Grade. Me being the Mom-of-the-Year thought it'd be a grand idea to get some new threads & some new paw covers so she'd look half way decent for the pic. Yeah, who was I kidding?!? See, I THOUGHT I took a 6 year old with me but the girl who walked into the fitting room was 16! "This is ugly. I don't like this. This is too tight. This looks stupid. You always wanna' dress me faaaannncccyy like a girly girl. I'm a girl but I don't like that fancy stuff. Jewelry and dresses and hair things ... I don't like those!", "Why can't I just wear this sweater and a shirt and some jeans?" (P.S. The sweater DID have some jewels near the collar hahaha). "Wow, Really? Is this child REALLY telling me how she wants to dress? Since when does she have an opinion?!?", I thought.

She's right though. Just cause I'm all foofy foof, she doesn't have to be. So we left the store without buying anything & I was perfectly okay with that. I WILL however go tomorrow, with her "parameters" in mind when I try to find something for her at a different store.

Not only did I run into a 16 year old in a 6 year old's body while clothes shopping but she carted herself back to my car too! Miss Macy Walker asked if we could rock Radio Disney, I complied. I mean hey, I like some of that stuff! haha I even learned what the 16 year old ... er um, I mean SIX year old was going to do when she grows up!

"You know what I'm going to do when I grow up? Marry Nick Jonas. He's hot!" -- Macy Walker.

Just a Small Resolution

In our home, we don't really believe in New Year's Resolutions or anything of that sort. Our philosophy is you don't need a new year to make a change. I'm gathering that as the new year rang in at Mustang Elementary, her class most likely discussed personal goals (which we DO believe in) for twenty-ten. How sweet is this??

"In 2010 I will work hard to obay my mom and dad be cuz thay do nice thangs for me." -- Macy Walker, January 2010.

Conflict Resolution by a Six Year Old

This afternoon I came home to a very sullen Macy Walker perched on the couch watching SpongeBob. Typically I would walk through the door being met with a "Hi Mom! How was your day?", followed with hugs and kisses and exclaiming "Look at my papers!" Not today though. A much different side awaited me. Noticing her different demeanor, I sat on the couch next to her, turned down the TV and began to ask if everything was ok ... you know, because she's still at the age where she'll discuss her day & not say the rehearsed boring line of, "nothing".





Immediately, tears filled her eyes as she looked at me. Me, being the parent who tries to see BOTH sides to a story thought for a second, 'Oh great, what happened? She got in trouble." I softly said, "It's okay, you don't have to be upset, just tell me what happened and we can talk about it." She promptly said in a rather brisk, elevated voice "Oh NO, I'm not sad. I'M ANGRY!", "Zack, he took my umbrella out of my backpack on the bus and when I tried to get it back from him, he pulled harder and harder and it broke! Right down the middle! I AM MAD!!" I asked her if Zack lived near us, she quickly replied "Yes, he lives over there! And they have a yellow truck and it has writing on the side!" I was in a rush to get to the gym for an aerobics class so I told her we could discuss it more when I got back then she could accompany her Dad & me over to Zack's house so that she could air her grievance. Then I left for the gym.



It takes approximately 10 minutes for me to get to the gym from my house. I was nearly there when I got a text that said, and I quote "She is still ranting about the umbrella lol. She said 'I don't like him. He is a failure. He does bad things and says bad things too." I diiiiied laughing because well for one, I was alone in my car and my child who was looking for guidance wasn't there (haha)and two, I was sort of shocked that this little six year old was just really standing her ground.




I presumed when I got home from the gym, she would've cooled off a little... ya' know, been less angry. Oh no, Momma was el wrongo. A little less anger met me but still very adamant about addressing the issue. As I placed dinner in the oven, she said "Can we go talk to Zack's family now?" I gotta' just be honest & say I really didn't think the umbrella was THAT big of a deal, I mean it was probably 5 or 10 bucks at Wal-Mart, for cryin' out loud it wasn't Burberry or anything! And I thought that she'd just let it go, that it was just a little tiff on the bus she had with some kid, eh no big deal. In her small, innocent 6 year old mind though ... it was a BIG deal! He broke her stinkin' umbrella for no good reason! I advised her that her Dad & I would go talk to his parents after dinner. That idea was met with objection. She said "But Mom, after dinner I take a bath, I brush my teeth and then I have to go to bed! I'll be asleep and I want to tell them now, I want to get this over with!"



How could I deny that?!? How could I effectively teach my 6 year old how to handle conflict if I was asking her to brush off something that was uber significant to her?!? So I squatted down to her level, looked her in the eye and said "Macy. If I take you over to Zack's, are YOU going to tell his parents? Are YOU going to tell him how that makes you feel? Because I don't want to go over there if you're just gonna be shy and talk to the ground. You have to look at them straight in the face and TELL them how it makes you feel and tell them what you expect!" Macy said, "Mom. I want to go RIGHT now. I want to get this over with. Iiiiii'm going to tell them." I was still unsure so I said "YOU'RE going to? His parents?" "YES MOM!", she replied. So off we went.



I was still going over in my mind the thought that she prooobably wasn't going to say much and if she did it would be a muffled, looking at the ground type conversation. Oh contrere, was I wrrrong! I knocked on the door, she stood right next to me (I thought she'd shy behind me). When the mom answered the door, I asked if this was Zack's house, she said yes. I explained who my daughter & I were and where we lived. I wanted to give Macy the opportunity to explain the "altercation" and do HER best so I only said, "I believe Macy and Zack had a confrontation on the bus today where some things happened she'd like to address. Is it alright if we come in for just a second?" The mother graciously agreed and allowed us in her home. Macy waited for her que to speak, I said "Okay, say what you feel like you need to say." The thoughts rushed into my mind ... "On no! What is she going to say?!? Is she going to explain it how she explained it to me? Is she going to just mutter out a few words?!? Is she going to call this families' child a failure?!?! Oh noooo, please Macy, please choose the right words. GOD, please help this child!"



Here's the part where I gotta' just puff my proud Mommy chest out because this brave little girl stood straight up and told it like it was. To a parent ... of another child. In their home. This is what she said, completely uncoached by me (oh, and also in a much less frantically angry voice than how it was earlier explained to me),

"Today on the bus, Zack took my umbrella out of my backpack and when I tried to
get it back he kept pulling harder and harder and he broke it right in half.
(she showed them the broken umbrella then) It made me sad because that is MY
umbrella and he just took it out of my backback and broke it."

Zack's parents of course had him come over & apologize. Macy said, "Thank you." Woah! Again, I was suprised by that because I've told her before when people apologize for things they've done wrong, you don't reply with a shrugging response of "that's okay" because it's NOT okay, if there's a reason for an apology then it WASN'T just "okay". Totally could not believe she just carried out what she'd learned. Macy didn't have to state her expectations (a new umbrella) because the mother very apologetically said Zack would be buying a new one w/ his own money

Lo & behold, 30 minutes later Zack and his mom showed up on our doorstep with a very teary-eyed Zack, a new umbrella AND an apology letter. Zack again apologized and expressed he would not do it again. As a parent, my heart just broke for the saddened little boy but at the same time I was SUPER proud of Macy Renee Walker for standing her ground, for not letting someone bully her and taking it upon herself to fix it.



Oh, by the way ... did I mention this kid is in THIRD grade?!?