My Daughter Beat Up a Boy in a Bouncy House

My oldest daughter was quite the spitfire when she was younger. She was smart, practical and easily annoyed by other children her age.  She was a child who protected herself.  She seemed to carry with her a natural set of survival skills.

Our neighborhood held a Fourth of July block party every year. This was our first time attending and we didn’t know any of our neighbors very well. There was a potluck style barbecue, cotton candy and a bouncy house. Our daughter was three and we brought her to the block party in the hopes that she could meet some other children her age.

We arrive a little uncomfortably and mingle for a while. Our daughter silently observes all the children running around and laughing. I can tell she doesn’t understand their games or exactly why they are squealing with laughter. We take her to the bouncy house and she joins in. As a parent, I’m so relieved and happy to see her finally playing with other children. Then this six-year-old boy decides to block the entrance to the bouncy house from the inside.

All the little girls are yelling and screaming at him. He’s refusing to move and threatening to hit anyone who comes close. My daughter observes this and her survival mode kicks in. She decides to save the day. She bounces over to the boy, drops onto her back and using her heels, starts pounding the kid with her feet. Her heel finally makes contact with his eye and he starts howling in pain.

I frantically attempt to break up the fight and pull the boy and my daughter out of the entrance. I check his eye and it’s turning blue. I make my daughter apologize and then I march her over to the fence to give her a long talk. She’s struggles to understand why she’s in trouble. In her little mind, she was the hero of the day.

Then comes the moment I’m dreading. My husband and I approach the boy’s parents to tell them what happened and how sorry we are. They listen to our apologies and with the shake of their hands tell us. “He deserved it. He was being a bully. Maybe he’ll learn his lesson.” Then they laugh and we laugh albeit awkwardly.

Needless to say, we were relieved but it served as a reminder to us, to work with our daughter on dialing back those survival skills.