Do Kids Carry Rabies?

It's official. Collin's had his first playground scuffle. He came out the clear loser. I came out a clear wreck. I managed to hold myself together for a few minutes; I didn't want to immediately flee and seem rude. Meanwhile, all I wanted to do was go home and wail.

He's been shoved, pushed and even had sand thrown in his eyes in his short life. All of that has paled in comparison to today. Despite his brutish size, he's a "live and let be," kind of guy. So, he usually ends up bearing the brunt of bullies. Today was no exception.

A boy we'll call Damien (for sake of argument...not his real name) bit my sweet boy in the EYE!!! I thought, and I'm sure Collin did too, that he was giving him a sweet hug and a kiss. Silly us, we only give hugs and kisses in this house...nope, he was leaning in to get a good grip on his face so he could take a chunk out of it. Good ol' Damien left claw marks on the side of Collin's cheek where he pulled him towards his fangs and then clamped down on his eye, where he broke the skin both above and below the eyelid.

I was horrified and stood rooted to the sand for a second while I watched my poor boy kick and flail to get away. Damien just kept gnawing on my kid like he was a pork chop. His mother kicked into high gear, as this is a situation she's clearly used to dealing with and pulled them apart. Ten minutes later, Damien went after a little girl in the same attack fashion.

By then, I was buckling Collin into his stroller and we were on our way home because I couldn't choke back the tears anymore. Watching the swelling puff up was just too much for me. I've never seen him hurt so badly and it was just too much for me to take; especially coupled with Damien's mom talking to the little girl's mom about how Damien is "a biter," and she just doesn't know what to do about it.

I know!!! I know!!! Pick me!!! Warn other moms before you let them play together! Jeesh! Apparently, little fang kid just got kicked out of his daycare center for biting and she took him out of another one after a warning call because she didn't want him to hurt anyone. Good Lord woman! I know you love your kid the way I love mine, but if mine had a habit of say, I don't know, leg breaking, I'd give you a heads up before letting them wander off to the sandbox together.

Now that I've stepped down from my soapbox (can you tell this incident upset me?), I will give my son ANOTHER feel-better cookie and ANOTHER feel-better kiss, because I don't think he's had enough...okay, it's me that hasn't had enough. Although, from the looks of it, I think he'll survive. Still, this minor injury has showed me that I'm not so keen on this kid-getting-hurt part of parenting. I still feel sick to my stomach and it happened like three hours ago. I need another cookie.