Parenting Whiplash

On Monday I picked Ryker up from a friend's house to find out that he was involved in a (we think) plastic bb gun drive by shooting. WTF. You read that right. I picked up Ryk from his friend's house and when I heard what happened....I saw red. I was so upset....my brain was all sorts of upset. I couldn't believe someone tried to mess with my kid. I can't believe my kid was hurt. I can't believe he was the victim of a random act of violence. I can't believe someone would have thought this was funny. I can't believe they legit did a drive-by situation. I can't believe SOMEONE is out there and think they can get away with this. 

My copilot was AJ and I FELT him become even more and more angry. He said things like "WHO DOES that? I wish I would have been there, I would have punched them." 

I had to go to the store right afterwards, and I legit was so upset that I somehow ended up switching carts with someone early on and didn't even know. <GASP> 

Ryk was actually pretty good about the whole thing. He was able to say that he was "feeling sad" that he got hurt and "feeling mad" that someone would do that to him. He wasn't too freaked out, and was mostly concerned about people talking to him afterwards about it and giving him more attention than he wanted. I'm super grateful that he was not impacted more.

I went full mama bear and contacted anyone I could. I wanted a) people to have extra eyes out because I had the feeling that these people would attempt to do this again, and b) THEM CAUGHT. Ryk and his friend were able to work with their principal to identify the car. Then between the police and the high school they were able to identify who did it and that high school student was given the option to  attend a "Rewind Class" in lieu of a ticket. I also expressed an interest in being able to meet with the student-because they need to see the face of the MOM of the person that he hit. 

FAST FORWARD to the next day....when we watched Dempsey and her choir perform the most amazing beautiful songs for 30 minutes. I almost cried multiple times due to the sweetness of it all. Dempsey was nervous, but she did it!!!! AND I watched her mouth move for all the songs-so I KNOW SHE was singing up there! 





AND this is a grand example of the whiplash there is when you are a parent. SOME days are so rough and then within hours some days are so precious. AND  you never know what you are going to get, but you can be guaranteed you will get both.

Love,

Mom