Pinching: A Last Resort

{Sorry to post a picture of the back of your head on my blog, Brittany. Your ponytail looks fabulous though and I couldn't resist posting the face of that darling toothless twirp in front.}

Tuesday Evening Reflection Checklist:

Cleaned house: yep
Worked: yep
Made dinner: kind of
Lost my drawers in front of a lot of people: yep
Pinched a nine-year-old kid out of self defense: yep

Just another day saving the world...

Today I tagged along with some amazing medical school student wives that volunteer three days a week at an after school program for underprivileged kids. These women really are amazing. I admire their selfless service and patience.

Me?

Maybe not so much.

The program started out well. We divided into age groups and started on our lessons. I took the 3rd and 4th graders and sat them in a circle. We read part of a book and started working on a worksheet. About 20 minutes into that, the old ADD started kicking in. Marbles were coming out of pockets, noses were being picked, and chairs started shuffling around and screeching on the cement floor. My next idea was to play charades. Everyone likes charades,right? Well, that lasted about 60 seconds and stopped abruptly when some of the kids started acting out killing each other. I put a stop to charades after the second homicide. Activity number three was my regular last resort when playing with kids...down by the banks of the hanky panky. I don't really know what that song is about. Do any of you? I don't know if I want to know.

After leaping with the bullfrogs down by the hanky panky, we headed outside with the other groups to play on the soccer field. Keep in mind that this soccer field is surrounded by mostly men, lounging about along the sidelines. Also keep in mind that the kids today were acting like they'd been sitting under caffeine IV drips all day at school. They were off the walls, fighting each other, punching and kicking. We distracted them with jump rope, races, and eventually snack time.

In the middle of the caffeine high, however, one particular kid kept jumping on my back and clinging to me. It was funny and playful at first, but he just kept going choking me and clinging onto me. At one point he started sliding down my body with his tight grip. Unfortunately my shorts today were a little on the loose side. As he slowly slid down my body, so did my drawers. My shorts were literally down to my calves and he still wasn't letting go. A cute little girl standing by was yelping, "Miss Ashley! Miss Ashley! Your underwear!" But I still couldn't get him to let go! So I pinched him. I pinched a nine-year-old. He let go in a hurry and I walked away.

Am I going to be a bad mother?