Have you ever wanted to smack someone else's kid?

Watching Payton play at the school playground is such a wonderful site. It just makes me grin to see him running around playing with a big smile on his face. It can also be very shocking too. Payton is one of the youngest at school. Most of the kids are older and bigger. I see him get pushed around sometimes. I just want to rush over and protect him. Heck, I can take any kid in the playground and all at the same time too. I have seen where he got his comeuppance a time or two. He isn't totally innocent, but Kathleen and I like to think so.

Today I saw a kid push Payt in the face. He then chased him down jerking a stick from Payton's hand throwing it over the fence. I don't think the push hurt Payton, but it looked like having the stick jerked from his hand sure did. He started crying after that. Maybe it was because the stick was tossed away, maybe both. I had seen enough and hustled over. I shook my finger at the little bully and said a thing or two to him in a mean voice. He didn't understand a word, but he knew what I meant. He had a couple of accomplices, but he was the ring leader.

That little kid had some cajones. He and his little gang started taunting me! I wanted to reach out and grab him and smack him around a little - no wait - smack him around a lot. I don't know what he was saying. Best I didn't.

So as wonderful as it is seeing Payton play in the playground, it is just a tough to see the playground politics at work.