Bitten

Today at the playground, while in a struggle for a toy truck, Noah was bitten on the shoulder by another child. I saw two things in that. First off, I guess people (Noah included) usually don't expect to be bitten, even when in a struggle. I mean how do you get bitten, the other kid (who was smaller) must have gotten pretty close to him, so I guess Noah put his arm in the way of his mouth to get the truck, and then "chomp." No blood was drawn. In fact at first Noah didn't cry. I was only aware that he was bitten because the other child's mother was there saying, "No no no! Lucas No!" and then explained to me what happened. You would only know that the bite was coming if your kid is a biter.

So secondly, I guess some people bite and others don't.

You can't say it is a phase, because my kids didn't do it, and some soccer players never stop.

But anyway, my lecture to Noah was, "Don't let people bite you." I mean it's hard to stop people from punching you or kicking you, or shooting you, or hitting you with sand, or rocks or bullets. But biting, I think you can manage. Unless you are wrestling and the only thing you can do is wrestle. Our heads aren't shaped like dogs. Our teeth just aren't that useful in a fight unless you are on top of each other.

Jonah had fun, but he has become very clingy at the playground. It's weird to me. When he is watching TV or playing on the computer he wants me out and away. But what about at the playground. We aren't going to be there all day. Just play and then be clingy at home. Anyway, he was entertained by Noah's drama.

I guess fighting is not necessarily natural. I thought, "What would I do if someone bit me?" I mean when someone is making me angry I suppose I really want to hit them. But if I wasn't angry and someone made to bite me on the subway or something, and I manged to shake them off... I mean if someone is trying to bite you right of the bat, especially if they are slow  about it, you could probably stop them without fighting. And so if they backed off what would I do? Would I immediately go to full force fighting? Not sure. I would probably find them odd and sort of try to shake the whole thing off. You see this in the wild all the time. I mean there are predators eating and killing prey, prey fighting for their life, there are ritualized fights over status and mates, and then there is weird stuff that happens. If a small bird attacks a Hawk, the hawk doesn't engage, but tries to do it's own thing and them maybe leaves.

Biting is not the start of a ritual fight. So it would catch people by surprise. Like "What are you doing?" Then if you wanted to fight you might have to initiate a ritualized fight verbally or with body language. And then explain to everyone else on the subway, "He F-ing bit me!" or some such  drama.

Noah actually didn't cry until the mother was over there, and then he started screaming as loud as possible. He never even tried to get a hit in. I'm not sure if that's because the mother was there or what, but in the past it hasn't stopped him. Anyway, enough with fighting. Time for Futbol.