My son has been raised, both at home and at school, under a code of rules. And while he can throw a punch that would land you on your aunt fanny, he adheres to this code and treats people, by and large, respectfully (at least as far as I know).

This has worked for Bear socially as well as morally - his is very popular at school with all his classmates (who attended his birthday party in record numbers) and with the teachers.

But the world isn't just bright and civilized places.

Which is why there is a certain park near our home that I avoid. It is close by and the crowd of kids there is rough. Almost feral.

The kids taunt each other and swear openly. Little kids, as young as 2 or 3, find themselves the targets of fistfuls of gravel and bark tossed from above. Boys hunch at the top of the plastic climbing wall and try and push down the kids who are trying to make it to the top - resulting of falls into the hard bark and gravel from heights of 4 or 5 feet.

And I have no idea where their parents are. There were 7 adults for the 30 or so kids that were there.

Yeah, it's all "Lord of the Flies" at that playground.

It was so beautiful today that I forgot all my reservations and stopped there with Bear after school. Dummy, dummy me.

There was a group of kids who Bear thought looked about his size, so he approached to play with them. They threw bark at him and teased him about his "clown hair".

I found him, arms wrapped around his knees hiding under a plastic shelter. He looked at me with sad and confused blue eyes.

I sighed. "Fight back," I advised.

He nodded seriously, dug up a mound of dirt and gravel, marched up the them and bombs away.

The next thing I knew, they were all the best of friends.

Which was also a problem. Because these kids were bullies.

They were trash-talking the other kids, shoving each other, and taking risks that scared the hell out of me. And then out of a kid who looked about 4 years old, urging another boy to keep up - "C'mon, asshole!"

I threw my purse over my shoulder and marched up to my son and said "Time to go."

Bear ignored me.

Finally, I grabbed his arm. The other kids then began trying to pull him away from me. Shouting at him that they would rescue him from the mean woman. One of the kids pulled his sweat pants practically to Bear's knees as he grabbed his legs off the ground.

My son;s body was in a tug of war with me at one end and 4 little children on the other and he went from laughing to scared but it didn't stop.

Finally, I shouted for them to stop immediately. The 4 looked at me defiantly for a long moment before stepping away. I had a moment of sheer outrage and panic.

Then I took my son's hand and we marched out. My heart thudding a mile a minute.

I need a valium. Seriously.

Posted by: Elizabeth at 09:38 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 544 words, total size 3 kb.

The day before Easter, I was prepping up the ham while CD and Bear played T-ball in the back yard. A stranger came up the driveway, as I watched from the window. CD spotted him quickly and moved to intercept him while I headed down to the back door to keep an eye on Bear.

He was all "Do you live here?" to CD in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

Yes.

He was....

a reporter.

Investigating yet another "Roman Catholic priest molested children" story, based on a new lawsuit that had been filed.

Except, in this case the ex-priest had already had several cases against him settled by the Church. Although the reporter was vague, he encouraged CD to do a search on the internet.

(Which I began immediately.)

And there he was. (The site has all names and information on priests the Catholic Church has revealed.)

The Guy across the street. The one that lives with his partner in the nicest house on the block. My co-planner in the block parties. A former priest who molested children.

I leaned against the wall, fighting nausea.

He's not in the National Sex Offenders Registry because he's never been convicted.

Dammit.

Don't ask me about innocent until proven guilty.

The next time he waved at me across the street, I wished him dead. It's visceral, gut-level hatred. And it has been with CD and I now for weeks.

We've told Bear that the guys across the street are not safe people any more. Thank God we were able to make the point clear and serious without going into detail. (Is there a right way to do this sort of thing?)

There's a pedophile across the street from our happy home in Pleasantville.

Posted by: Elizabeth at 09:05 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
Post contains 316 words, total size 2 kb.

1 My lord! Horrific! I wish something could be done about that, for your sake. So did you end up on the evening news? I bet your neighbor loved that one. Not sure how I found you through the endless portals of mommy blogs. But I'll be back! Regards! It's Okay Sweetie blogger mom

Posted by: Mom of Sweetie at May 16, 2006 09:33 AM (nSqJp)

2 My word! This is horrible! I hope there's something you can do about this. We too have looked at a similar link for our neighborhood. It's a reminder we always need to keep our kids within safe distance and educate them early. Not sure how I found you with all the Mommy blogs out there. But I'll be back! Regards!

Posted by: mom of sweetie at May 16, 2006 10:19 AM (nSqJp)

3 Oops! Sorry about the multiple postings! I thought the first one was lost and tried to recreate it.

Posted by: me again! at May 16, 2006 10:22 AM (nSqJp)

4 Oh I would be a nervous wreck. I'll hope you and your Bear stay safe.

Posted by: Soccamom at May 16, 2006 11:42 AM (CuxC8)

5 holy crap! At least now you know. And you can watch out.

Posted by: caltechgirl at May 16, 2006 12:33 PM (jOkK0)

6 That would be enough to make anyone really, really, really, really sick. Vomitous sick. I'm sooo sooo sorry! Get the facts and then share it (even if anonymously) with your neighbors!! Creeps like that don't deserve freedom. No offense but I cannot accept the catholic church today. This coverup is way too out of control at the expense of people's safety. That's not right and needs to be stopped.

Posted by: Eyes at May 16, 2006 05:25 PM (L67iN)

7 HOLY HELL!! That is awful. Can you do anything? Call the police??? OMG!!!!! This makes ill....I will pray that you are all safe.

Posted by: jodes at May 17, 2006 02:07 AM (eNpgZ)

8 Sometimes I think that there is nowhere that is completely safe, even though we live in a small town. Sorry to hear about your neighbor, but knowing is better than not knowing.

Posted by: abogada at May 17, 2006 04:06 AM (NmdrC)

9 Gads. How frightening. Good way to teach Bear that even people who look NICE can be DANGEROUS and this is why he shouldn't trust strangers.

Posted by: kalisah at May 17, 2006 06:05 AM (C7RFb)

10 Oh shit. That is the worst feeling. This is one of my pet peeves. Churches avoid the bad publicity and simply do "in-house" discipline, which often means transferring the problem to another place. It's not just Catholics! My father the ex-minister could be the poster child for "Minister molests and gets moved to new church" articles. You wanted to move, anyway, right?

Posted by: Tammy at May 17, 2006 09:01 AM (M++hX)

11 So glad you're back! I enjoy reading even more now...because I may be going from Corporate to fulltime mommy within the next year if my company gets sold as planned. Very mixed emotions from me. Mostly scared. So please, because I'm selfish, keep writing about life after the corporate world

Posted by: Kelly at May 18, 2006 04:21 AM (VPwLk)

12 thankfully you found out sooner than later, that was a close call

Posted by: jack steel at May 18, 2006 06:37 AM (w26Tt)

13 Wow, that is crazy. You know the states do not keep up with pedophiles until something comes up. I am glad you guys were able to find out.

Posted by: Chica at May 18, 2006 03:22 PM (OMil+)

14 Oh no, oh no! That is horrible. I'm sorry you found out, but glad too, because wouldn't you rather know? I've missed you! Hope things are well with you. Now I'm going to do some catching up.

Posted by: Lucinda at May 22, 2006 02:42 PM (OPvIN)

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