Is Indifference a Parenting Style?

Wee Laddie’s mystery rash seems better today. I’m not quarantining him since he doesn’t have any other symptoms that I’ve noticed.

At Kids’ Club today, talked to a couple of other moms about playgroup…they both sounded interested. Two older boys were there, one probably a year older than Wee Laddie… one just turned 5, I think. I realize they’re older and want to do 'bigger' stuff, but they were being bossy and kind of mean to Wee Laddie. The younger one was making growling noises at Wee Laddie, trying to scare him away. Wee Laddie’s not a fearful guy and he’s used to playing with older kids since his Denver cousins are all so much older. Still, he sometimes does get freaked out by sounds he’s not familiar with or whatever, so I went to stand over there ‘cause I knew the boy would stop. He did, but then kept bossing Wee Laddie around and telling him, 'No.' I was determined to give Wee Laddie the chance to play by these boys if that’s where he wanted to be, so we hung out with them for probably 20 minutes. Never once did the other 2 moms come by or ask if everything was okay. (At one point I was holding the hand of the little brother of one of the boys ‘cause he wanted to hang with them too, which meant being on some steps. And he’s littler than Wee Laddie, I think.)

The lack of involvement surprised me. Then as they were leaving the oldest boy said, 'I’m trying to make it a better place than I found it.' Or something like that. You could tell his mom must say that to him all the time, but he was full of crap. And she, apparently, had no idea.