A box for your pennies

I took the kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Ethan made a special request to go. The last time we went he discovered the ship wreck sand box where they plant pennies for the children to find. Ethan came prepared with an empty baby wipes box to collect his treasure in.

The museum is mostly outdoors, so sunblock is a MUST! For the boys it was a veritable paradise of things to do. They ran up along the nature trail and rang the bell then dug in the sand, played on the boat ran through the trees. All the while I'm thinking to myself..."They're going to SLEEP TONIGHT!"

I put the beeper bear on Hunter so I could call them if ever I lost sight of them. I went around with Elle in her sweet tender way and explored all the water exhibits and flowers. She liked to splash and play with the fishes, climb on the spiderweb. We even found some frogs that when you stroked their backs with a stick it sounded like a real frog croaking.

When lunch time rolled around I gathered them all together and sat down. No sooner did I get settled than a mom and a crying boy (about 3 or a young 4) came up to the table.

"My son said that your son (pointing to Hunter) hit him" Hunter had his back to the mom and her son. I asked him if he hit someone. Without even turning around he said, "The boy with the jacket?" Sure enough the boy had a jacket on.

Well, at least he owned up to it. I walked around the table, stood Hunter up on the bench so I could look him in the eye and said, "What happened?"
"Well, he was beating up a little guy and so I hit him" I had to make a FAST judgement call since the other mom was right there and expecting satisfaction. "You are NOT the police. You apologize to him." He did and I apologized to the mom as well.

I wonder if I made the right call...

We asked him more about it later at dinner. Apparently this boy was beating up a littler boy and according to Hunter, "he lost". Hunter is a very sensitive person, but also very physical. He felt obligated to defend the littler boy and so he hit the aggressor. But, then the bigger boy went running to his mom, 'cause now HE's the victim.

It's a hard call to make. I think there is almost a double standard. Children are required to get an adult for resolve, but adults are expected to step up and do something when it's their peers. That's what a real hero does, anyway. Unfortunately after years of training to 'get somebody else', those children grow up to adults who are paralyzed to act when it really matters.

I took the kids around to all the indoor activities after lunch. One of the rooms is a play model of all the marine-type BayArea spots, like the wharf, the docks, the bridges... and I laughed at their toll booth. $1.50. YA! Try again! At $4 a pop, I would LOVE for the bridge toll to be back down to $1.50. But, then again we get the free carpool lane if I time it just right.

After we had seen all the inside stuff, Ethan and Hunter insisted that they wanted to go dig for more pennies. I told them I expected them to stay at the boat and it would be OK. I took Elle around the nature walk. As we came out and I went looking for the boys at the treasure boat...they were not there. Before I could push the button to signal that I was looking for them I heard over the walkie-talkie of an employee walking by, "We've got two curly headed blond boys looking for their mom at the tot-spot." I turned around and said, "That's me." The boys had given their names and mine and told them I had black hair. Well, close.

Ethan had collected 32 pennies. He carried his 'treasure chest' around with him all day. Unfortunately the cheapest thing in the little store was 39 cents. So, he took his pennies home.