Big Enough to Take It

Today, I took Noah to our local Barnes and Noble. It's a Sunday tradition for the two of us. Our local B&N has an amazing children's section, a Starbuck's cafe and plenty of room for Noah to play and run around all while reading a few good books.

One of the perks of the children's section is a Thomas the Train train table, track and trains for the little ones to play with. Noah loves playing with the trains. Today, there were a few other boys at the table that were all older than Noah. I worry sometimes when Noah plays with older boys because he loves doing whatever it is they are doing, but he's younger and doesn't always understand social mores such as you don't steal an entire train from someone and then laugh as you throw it around.

Usually the older kids are great with Noah. I make sure Noah doesn't steal too many trains, and the other kids or their moms tend to make sure the other kids watch out for Noah and share with him.

Today was different. There was a little boy I'd put at 5 or 6, but maybe he's just super large for his age and is younger. He wasn't sharing the trains and he made a mega train that had around 11 cars instead of letting other kids play with smaller trains.

Noah asked him for a couple of cars, and the kid wouldn't let Noah or any of the other kids have any train cars.

Before I knew it, Noah walked up to the boy then stopped and stared at the trains, then back at the boy. He was sizing the boy up. I could see that he was positioning himself to shove the boy who was at least twice as tall as him.

"Noah, I see what you're about to do. Please remember we don't shove."

The bully boy looked down at Noah with his eyes squinted and his fist clenched.

"Don't you even think about shoving me."

At this point I stood up to head over to move Noah but before I knew it Noah had shoved the bully and grabbed half the train and began to run away with it. All of the other little boys laughed and smiled as Noah began handing out parts of the train to the others.

The bully boy looked shocked then looked to his mom, "M-O-M!"

The mother looked back at the boy shaking her head, "I've warned you that some day you're going to run into someone who is big enough to take it from you."