Matt was taught as a young boy that it's not appropriate to be the aggressor, but if someone is giving you a hard time or hurting you, then it's okay to take care of business. So the story goes that when Matt was a child, an older neighborhood bully liked to pick on him as he walked home from school. Matt's father's council regarding this problem was, "Son, punch him square in the nose....and he'll never bother you again." The next time the kid tried to harass Matthew, he must have taken care of business adequately because the bully never bothered him again. It seems Matt would like to pass this same philosophy on to our son.
It's as if Matt already has Anthon in training. He is already teaching him wrestling moves, they both box on a heavy punching bag, and then put their moves into more practice while playing the Wii. Matt loves having a boy!! But up until now, all of AJ's aggression has always been at inappropriate times. For example, punching Matt in the eye and kicking his stomach during scripture study, or tackling the neighborhood girl down and pinning her in a wrestling move because he was mad that she was eating a meal with us, and worried she might eat all our pizza (the poor little girl couldn't move at all and was just in the fetal position crying, while AJ kept punching her in the head). That is until today...................
Our backyard neighbor was substituting in Anthon's nursery today. She said that AJ had built a tall tower of blocks with Matt at the beginning of nursery. After Matt left, AJ was very protective of his tower. The bully of the group came up and knocked AJ's tower down on purpose. The neighbor said she was not exactly sure who threw the first punch, but AJ was definitely in their swinging and it was a full-on first fight during nursery class. . She said she was proud of AJ for taking care of the situation, and wished he could show her first grader a couple moves so that he could also defend himself when it was necessary.
When I told this story to Matt, he couldn't stop laughing, and yet he was beaming with happiness and extremely proud of his son. He asked AJ specific questions as if wanting the play-by-play, and then began coaching him on how to improve for next time.
It's as if Matt already has Anthon in training. He is already teaching him wrestling moves, they both box on a heavy punching bag, and then put their moves into more practice while playing the Wii. Matt loves having a boy!! But up until now, all of AJ's aggression has always been at inappropriate times. For example, punching Matt in the eye and kicking his stomach during scripture study, or tackling the neighborhood girl down and pinning her in a wrestling move because he was mad that she was eating a meal with us, and worried she might eat all our pizza (the poor little girl couldn't move at all and was just in the fetal position crying, while AJ kept punching her in the head). That is until today...................
Our backyard neighbor was substituting in Anthon's nursery today. She said that AJ had built a tall tower of blocks with Matt at the beginning of nursery. After Matt left, AJ was very protective of his tower. The bully of the group came up and knocked AJ's tower down on purpose. The neighbor said she was not exactly sure who threw the first punch, but AJ was definitely in their swinging and it was a full-on first fight during nursery class. . She said she was proud of AJ for taking care of the situation, and wished he could show her first grader a couple moves so that he could also defend himself when it was necessary.
When I told this story to Matt, he couldn't stop laughing, and yet he was beaming with happiness and extremely proud of his son. He asked AJ specific questions as if wanting the play-by-play, and then began coaching him on how to improve for next time.
1 comment:
Uh, yeah...I don't think we'll have Ellie come play with her cousin anytime soon! ;)
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