Don’t Let Your Fears Control You
As my 9-year-old son popped through the front door, I asked, “How was your day at school?”
“Good, except for recess,” he said.
“What happened?” I sat down beside him.
“Well Colin and I were playing in the small snow drifts, kicking snow into the ditch when another kid from our class came along and stomped all the snow down so we couldn’t play there.”
“What did you do?”
“We asked him to stop several times. But he didn’t. And as I moved toward him, my arm ran into him, and he fell back into the snow. I apologized for knocking him down and told him it was an accident.”
“Was he hurt?”
“No, he was screaming that he was going to tell everyone I had pushed him down, especially the principal, and that I was going to be in big trouble. I shrugged and told him to go ahead and tell the principal. But I was feeling afraid that I was going to get in big trouble. Then I thought that’s weird because he was the one who came up and started this whole thing. Then Colin told me not to worry because I had done the right thing.”
“Did he tell anyone? “
“No, later he said I was really lucky that he was such a nice guy and wasn’t going to tell anyone. But what he did wasn’t nice or right, and he was trying to make me feel afraid.”
“I’m proud of how you handled yourself, and I’m sorry you felt afraid,” I said.
“I’m OK now, Mom, I was just afraid of going to the principal’s office …”
Don’t let your fears control you, I told him. “And don’t be afraid of going to the principal’s office. If that ever happens, tell the truth. They’ll call your dad and me, and we’ll come and sort through things with you. Sometimes people try and make you feel afraid so you’ll do what they want.”
The next day, my son said before he went into the classroom he prayed everything would just blow over between him and the other kid. And it did. The other boy acted like nothing had ever happened.
Blessings,
Mary Darr
Editor, MOMSnext ezine
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