Some Days are Diamonds, Some Days are Stones

Maybe some days are just 1/2 and 1/2, I suppose. That would be today. Pretty good day at work, enjoyed the kids at the preschool, then headed straight to Roo's school to have kids read to me and take their AR (Accelerated Reader) tests for the first time. The migraine starting on me only worsened when I got there and saw Roo coming in from recess, her cheeks flushed. I assumed she had just been running hard until she told me a kindergartener from another class had choked her. Roo's teacher was just about to go to the other classroom and let that teacher know.

This is not the first time she's had a child do something physical to her at school: so far, it's been a bite to the arm, a hit hard enough on the back to knock her to the ground, and now choking. Fortunately, the incident today was not quite as bad as I initially thought...the other kid did not choke her with his hands; rather, he grabbed her shirt from behind and pulled it up and it cinched tightly around her neck. Roo says she thinks the boy was trying to get her attention. This was the same story when she got knocked to the ground by another girl. I know kids can be rather uncivilized, but c'mon...they're 5 & 6 years old...do their parents not teach them the proper way to get someone's attention?? One of the other kids in her class has already been to the guidance counselor for his aggressiveness, including choking & hitting.

I am almost past the point of anger on this issue and feel rather despairing. Is this the world my girls are going to grow up in? Are these the kids that will be leading our country one day? I can't always shield them from the bad things that can and do happen, and I certainly can't count on my fellow parents to do the right thing and teach their children right from wrong. I know, from firsthand experience, that kids who behave this way have always been around, but now it seems to be the rule rather than the exception.