Who's wearing the cranky pants today?

It's Mama! It has been one of those days. Story time started up again for a six week summer session after two weeks off. While the kids enjoy the stories and are getting some practice sitting (kind of) still and listening, I am getting fed up. The story time meets at the community rec center during the winter and at a park shelter during the summer and after story time, there is a play time either in the rec center gym or at the park. The problem is a small group (2-4 depending on the week) of older boys (maybe 5 yo?) that Bug has been having problems with. These boys are extremely clique-ish and make it clear that when they are playing with the "cool toys" no-one else gets to participate. Well, Bug is at the age where he is just starting to become very social and is always looking for "fends" to play with.

Today, he started to play with the same part of the park play structure as these boys and they started yelling at him and pushing him to get him away. Bug thought the rough-housing was part of the game and joined in with gusto. I intervened and tried to tell everyone that they needed to take turns and share. The thugs-in-training announced that they were playing here and he (Bug) couldn't. I suggested that the park was for everyone and that we all needed to share. They were having NONE of that! So I tried to steer Bug over to another part of the park to play. Five minutes later, same thing starts all over again. When Bug resisted leaving the thuglets alone, I gave up and we left the park. Bug has a tantrum. Bean is trying to go play with the drinking fountain. Not enough arms to steer both kids when they are resisting!

This isn't the first time Bug has had a run-in with these boys. Next week we'll try finding some place farther away to play and see if we can avoid more trouble. If not, I guess we will need to look for another story time or activity, because it isn't any fun for Bug and I get too upset when no one is cooperating and everyone else is upset. Blech!