Pay It Forward

Just a funny anecdote the other week courtesy of my precocious three-year-old.

I came home from work one evening and I was greeted by my boy enthusiastically even before I put my foot into the door. He told me about a particularly naughty boy he encountered in the playground earlier.

My son complained that the other boy pushed him around. In fact, he almost fell off the steps going to the slide, all because this boy was picking on him (who was, by the way, much bigger than my son). According to the grandma, my normally placid and tolerant toddler had one push too many. He turned around and, with arms akimbo, shouted at the other boy, at the top of his voice: "STOP PUSHING ME! YOU'RE A VERY, VERY BAD BOY!"

And - what do you know? - the little bully stopped and stayed away from my son.

After both my son and his grandma recounted the story, I told my baby that what he did was right. Though he should never pick a fight with others, neither should he be a pushover. He should learn to fight back, and what he did was a good thing.

My son paused for a while to consider my statement, then drew his own conclusion: "It's okay to fight back. You shouldn't fight forward, you just fight back!"

Epilogue: After that initial confrontation, my son and that other boy have since become playmates. I love the way children can completely forgive one another and move on with their lives.

photo from Getty Images