Those Mama Bear instincts

The other day I was dropping the kids off at school; we were, once again, sent to the cafeteria/auditorium because it was raining, and I left Child 1 where he was, happily staring at the clock in the middle of complete and total chaos. I walked by a group of kids and I heard one of them say my son's name. I looked over at him and he had this little smile (I'm sure it was actually a "smirk") on his face and he was looking at another kid. They must have felt my eyes on them because they both stopped and looked at me (and the smirk disappeared).

I have no idea what he said other than to say my son's name, but my mind went to all the worst places, of course. They said he was weird, they said they didn't like him, they said there was something wrong with him, they said they were going to shun him and bully him and they hated him and they were going to kick his ass.....

Whatever. I have no idea. I didn't say a word and just left the room and went about my business. Child 1, of course, was completely oblivious to the whole thing. He just stood there, looking at the clock, flapping his hand in front of his face, whispering to himself about trains or elevators or whatever. He was completely fine. Nobody was getting bullied here; the whole thing happened inside my head, but I swear to god I wanted to fucking kick their little asses. I wanted to take my hands to their throats and throttle the shit out of them. What are you saying about my kid?? Yeah, I know he's different; I know he's weird, but you'd better fucking be nice to him or I'll kick your ass, you little shits! I wanted to grab my kid, run the fuck out of that place and take him home where he would be safe from bullies forever. But, that's not realistic, obviously, and it's not even good for him. He needs to make his way in the world and he needs to figure out how to do it on his own and I was the only one there who had a problem.

I still felt it, though. That protective instinct. You hurt my kid and I'll fucking take you down. When Child 1 was born I had postpartum depression and I wasn't sure I would ever get there. I'm sure now, though. Damn sure.

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On a lighter note, I was drawn by the Animated Woman!! It's so exciting!! Not everybody gets the honor of being drawn and in this case I entered a contest and didn't even WIN, but my number was drawn randomly and after she drew me she drew me!! She made 2 different versions, one with the hat (at the link) and one without, which she emailed me separately (below). I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it. Love, love, LOVE!!!

THANK YOU!!! You can follow her on Twitter at @LittleAnimation, and you should, because she's exceptionally talented and it's so much fun to see what she comes up with. She's also the brains behind BlueTick, an awesome new meme that's been taking over Twitter. I'm verified! Are you??

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