Travel


The Irish Homecoming - No bark, but lots of bite! - a trip to the park that will not be forgotten

Colum had a trip that he has yet to forget, much to the chagrin of mother April


Colum Mooney
Colum Mooney
Photo by April Drew

“Whattttttt,” I screeched in mortification.

I quickly looked down at my right side, and sure enough the purple old rag dress was nicely tucked into my knickers and the whole word could see my right leg all the way up. A quick pull and it was released back into place again. Could I be more embarrassed, and it was only lunchtime!

I thanked the young girl and scurried off in the direction of my car. Embarrassment turned into laughter and for the remainder of my foot journey to the car I couldn’t stop myself from giggling. I then got looks from passers-by. I’m sure they thought I was missing a few shillings.

I returned to work for the afternoon and for the most part (aside from missing two steps and tripping up on an indoor stairs) it was incident free.

When I returned to day care to collect the children I was met with a few scornful faces.

First they informed me that both kids were sick – there was a bug going around the school -- and it was probably best “to keep them home tomorrow” and the news got worse.

One of the staff pulled me out of Colum’s ear shot and said he had an incident with one of the other kids.

How many incidents could the Mooney family have in one day I thought, before asking what they meant?

“Well, I’m sure he didn’t mean it but he was playing with one of the other boys outside and he bit his leg,” the room supervisor said.

“Oh no, he was bitten again,” I said.

“Oh no April, Colum is okay but HE bit the boy in the leg.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Then the apologies started.

“Oh my God I’m shocked, especially after what happened him in the park,” I mumbled.

“I’m so sorry.  I hope ye disciplined him for it.”

They didn’t.

“We’re sure he was only fooling around and didn’t mean it, or maybe he is teething,” she said.

And there it was, the effort to make me feel better. They knew full well that my little man was being a right brat. He knows that biting a human is totally out of order but he did it anyway.

I continued to apologize and they accepted it over and over again.

I’m sure Colum’s little victim went home crying to his parents on Monday night about the bold little boy at the crèche who took a chunk out of his leg -- okay I’m exaggerating again -- but I hope when it comes to going back to day care that the little boy won’t be afraid of my son.

So there you have it. The words “they all do it” to the father that day in the park came back to bite me, too!


Nster.com


3 Comments

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So the zombie apocolypse starts in Limerick!
Agree with TisEyerish's post. All of my kids have been both the biters and the bitten. I don't think it's all that unusual for babies and toddlers to bite because they haven't developed full language and social skills. When our children engage in biting, it somehow seems like an indictment of our parental skills in raising a well-behaved child. It's just so embarrassing, but life does goes on. LOL
I love April Drew's story...haven't we all had days (weeks, months, years) like that? Hopefully, Colum is back to being himself by now and won't be repeating the biting. However, he is only 22 months old and needs to be forgiven for his transgression!
 




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