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| The mall play area on a calmer day, 3 years ago. |
What started as a quick trip to the mall yesterday ended up in a surge of adrenaline through me I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I learned a thing or two about “mama bear” instincts too, both mine and those of other crazy people.
It all started when Nathan was invited to
a friend’s for a playdate so I decided to take Alex to the play area inside the Katy Mills Mall. It had been awhile since he’d played there because his brother was well over the allowed height to play so I didn’t even bother with it on our regular mall visits. I needed to exchange a couple things at
Old Navy so I figured this would kill two birds with one stone.
I forgot how insanely crowded the mall gets on weekends. I’m used to hopping over there on weekday mornings since it’s only a couple miles away, but as an outlet mall it’s a huge draw from the entire city. Alex and I did a quick exchange at Old Navy and then I found a pile of bargains at the
Children’s Place before we walked the length of the mall to the playground. He was tired but kept up well as we hurried, dodging slow moving shoppers, weaving in and around strollers and big families. I knew the play area would be packed, but I had promised him so even if we only stayed five minutes I was keeping my promise.
There were so many people and children than I had to wait a couple minutes to find a seat on a bench in the back. I took Alex’s shoes off, warned him it wouldn’t be long and pulled out my phone to check Twitter. There were plenty of kids there who I knew were much to old to be playing, but it didn’t bother me really. I noticed one tween girl inside a square structure right in front of me but she didn’t seem to be bothering anybody.
Well she must’ve done something…pushed another smaller child maybe? I didn’t see that but all of the sudden a mom and a dad jumped up and ran over to her with voices raised and scolding. I think I heard one of them say “Don’t do that! I saw what you did!” and I assumed they where her parents. Keep in mind there was a foam play wall between them and the tween girl, but they were leaning over it towards her.
Boy was I wrong because in a flash I saw a man who had to be 6’3″ and 300 lbs stand up, take two steps up behind them and grab each of them at the same time by the shoulders with his massive hands. He flung each of them back away from the wall and proceeded to scream at them in a booming voice, “Hey! Don’t you dare talk to my daughter like that!” at which point the other two parents in furious voices said something about what the girl had done. The gigantic man yelled, “I don’t care what she did you NEVER approach a child like that! Do you understand English? Do you speak English? Approach! Approach! You never approach another child, you go to the parents!”
All this happened literally two feet in front of where I was sitting, and my heart started racing. I thought two seconds about staying but I was afraid for my safety and didn’t want my kid to witness a fist-fight so I stood up, grabbed my shopping bag and Alex’s shoes and walked briskly away, looking everywhere in the crowd for my child. I saw other parents start to stand up and stare and even move towards the continued shouting behind me, but I scooped up Alex and pushed my way through the bodies crowding the playground entrance. I looked everywhere but security was, of course, nowhere to be found. I got far enough away that Alex couldn’t see or hear the fight before I sat down to put his shoes back on and explain to my tearful child why we couldn’t stay and play. At this point I was just shaking like a leaf as I told him “the grown ups aren’t behaving…they are acting badly so we have to go.”
Understatement of the century.
I walked as quickly as I could with a tired three year old in tow towards down the very long mall till I finally saw two security guards laughing and chatting with a girl manning a candy cart. I stopped and explained that there had just been a big fight at the playground, between parents, and that they should go check it out. The one guy who looked about 70 years old did not register what I was saying, so I repeated myself, frantically pointing back where I’d come from. I didn’t stick around to see what happened next, I went home and let the adrenaline drain from my tense body.
I get that all three parents were simply being protective of their children, but all three of them did exactly the wrong thing. Especially the dad who chose to get physical and shove the other parents…one of which was a woman…both of which were half his size.
Can you imagine? Have you ever seen something like that?
Here’s why. I believe that how your child looks on the first few days of school can shape a teacher’s opinion of that child. We all make snap judgments about people based on how they look, even when we know we may be wrong and try not to. It’s human nature. 
