Yesterday afternoon Maggie called me to say there was an incident at school and that we needed to pick up Brandon.  Since it’s more convenient for us if I go I left work around 2:45pm to see what he fuss was about.  I got to the school at 3:30 and went to the principal’s office and she informed me that Brandon and another boy Aaron were playing a pushing game (emphasis on playing) and that Aaron slipped and hit his face on the ice.  Apparently he got a bad shiner because of it and both kids got in trouble.

Where I was annoyed was when the principal talked about how she didn’t believe in suspension and that I should talk to him.  I’m cool with the latter but suspension over a game that both boys agreed to play, if Brandon were suspended over that I’d definitely contact my trustee as that’d be bullshit.  She mentioned that the other father told his son that he needs to take responsibility too for playing the silly game, as far as I’m concerned it was an accident and there was no malice from either child.

I guess I’m going to sound like an old fart now but I don’t think we can coddle children every second, they need to play silly games and get hurt, that’s how they learn not to do things like that again.

I told Brandon that I was not upset at him and that he needs to be more careful.  It’s ok to play physical games just don’t do it on a hard surface like ice, concrete or hard school floors.  That and if he’s physically stronger than the other boy, he has an additional responsibility to make sure the other person is not hurt.  I typically hate the saying boys will be boys but I think it does apply here, young boys play stupid games and sometimes get hurt.