The McDonald's Incident - Part I

Beth and I took our 3 grandchildren out to McDonald’s for lunch today.  The main draw is their play area.  Brett, Ava & Jaydon love climbing the tubes and going down the slides.  Usually.  Today as our grandchildren were enjoying the play area they were joined by several other children whose parents had also brought them there to eat and play.

After finishing their meals our grandchildren went to play.  Not more than a couple minutes later I heard Jaydon crying.  Wailing was more like it.  I went over to get him as he came down the slide crying.  Brett & Ava told me that another boy (his size and age) had pushed him.  After a minute or so of consoling him, Jaydon returned to play.  A few minutes later the scenario repeated itself.  The boy’s mother and grandmother were both in the eating area.  They heard Brett & Ava tell us that a boy (their boy) had pushed him but they did nothing.  Didn’t say a word.  At one point in the drama I actually saw the little boy push Jaydon.  It wasn’t a hard push by any stretch of the imagination.  But it was enough to make Jaydon cry.  Beth also saw this boy push Jaydon and she pointed her finger at him and told him not to do it.  To make a long story short, after getting pushed for the 4th or 5th time, Jaydon was halfway up a tube crying his eyes out.  I could see him suspended about 8' up in the air.  Try as hard as I could (with Brett & Ava right next to him) Jaydon would not come back down the tube nor would he go down the slide.  Guess who rescued him?  That’s right.  I crawled part way up the tube and the sound of my voice helped him to come down to me and we exited the rest of the way together.

Now as the situation was developing I was wondering how I ought to handle it?  Specifically, how should I advise my grandchildren to handle it?  Part of me wanted to tell Jaydon to simply push the boy back.  Fight fire with fire.  Another part of me wanted to tell Brett to give the kid a karate chop or two.  That would teach him to mess with his little brother!  I did neither.  Beth & I simply held Jaydon and kept him with us while Brett & Ava continued to play.                     

We both were pretty upset over what we thought would be an enjoyable lunch out with our grandchildren.  I guess what perturbed us the most was that the boy’s mother and grandmother never did or said anything to their son/grandson.  Nothing!  Not a word!  Didn’t they care?  We left right afterwards.  Obviously things weren’t going to change.  If we had stayed there much longer Beth might have given the mother & grandmother a piece of her mind or I might have taken the boy over my knee and given him a spanking.  Either way, it wouldn’t have been good.  I can see the headlines now: Pastor & wife charged with beating 2-year-old at McDonald’s!  If you’ve ever been in a situation where you have seen your children or grandchildren getting the short-end-of-the-stick, then you know how we felt.  Seething would be the word.

The incident brings up a larger question.  What should we do when we run into people in our lives who would use or abuse us?  Better yet, how should we react or advise our children/grandchildren to react when they encounter situations like this?  I know how I would like to react.  And I know of various ways that people have reacted.  What is the most important question is, How would God have us to react?  We will look at these questions the next couple days.

Lord, I thank you for having a wonderful day with my grandchildren.  I thank you for the self-control that You gave me during lunch at McDonald's.  As difficult as it might be at times, help me to react the way that You want me to react.  To consider WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) and to act accordingly.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.