Day 4-I lost my head

Our last full day at OLCC wasn’t what I hoped it would be.  I woke up to both the kids in our villa. Well the girls were inside and the two boys were outside fishing again. We ran out a couple of times to take pics of their fish and again we were just so happy that everyone was actually treating eachother with kindness (like family especially should).

After not too long, Kev came in pouting and saying Justin was yelling at him. We weren’t real alarmed as Kev has a short fuse and we figure that Kev probably deserved it. Mom went to the driving range and then my 2 cousins (the parents) asked took Rissa to the lazy river and said they’d meet us there. The rest of us were showering and not yet ready to go. 

Over the past few days Mom and I were desperately calling the airline to try to make it so we could all go home on the same flight. Originally Al wasn’t going so when I made the reservation, I could get us the same day but not same flight. Mom didn’t want to take two trips to the airport (10 am and 8 pm) and I was getting more and more anxious about flying just me and the kids.  We hadn’t had any luck and it was making me just edgy for lack of a better word.

It was getting hotter and the sun was out so I was itching to go to the pool and meet everyone but needed to wait for Mom to get back from the driving range. I was very relieved to finally get to the pool. We met up with Riss, my cousins and some friends of theirs (a couple and twin 13 year old boys). The woman they were with was very friendly and chatty and she is also a teacher so we were gabbing for a while. As a matter of fact, we chatted so much that I lost track of where Kev was in the pool area. We all took off looking for him frantically and I was the one to spy him. Actually he found me with the help of a real nice family that said they found him a little disoriented in another part of the pool. We were lucky to have our little, scared boy back and a lesson was learned.  He wanted to get a tattoo so we walked over but there was a 30 min. wait and then he wouldn’t be able to swim for a while after that. So he settled for getting some lunch and a soda near the pool. After a while, the girls (11 and 14) went to play in the nearby sand and hammocks and asked Kev to come with them. I knew they would take care of him. So even though the sun had a long time ago gone back in, I was starting to relax and socialize again. When all of a sudden, we hear Kev come back crying. One of the 13 yr. old twins was a bit ahead of him and we see Kev trying to hit him! We had no idea what was going on and both Al and I jumped up to the rescue and pulled Kev away from this teen who was now yelling “What did I do?” The girls were shortly after and were trying to give us some information while both boys were still yelling. Well when it came down to it, Kev turned and I saw the biggest welt going across his whole back that I had ever seen in my life! It extended at least 8 inches and it was very raised! And to top it all off, Kev thought the 13 yr. old boy did it, but it turned out to be his cousin Justin (12) that had done it. He had thrown as hard as he could a hard plastic rocket at Kevin’s back just to be a show off. Well he comes up ignoring the fact that Kev is crying and what really ticked me off was that he had a huge smile on his face and was giggling! Man my blood pressure just boiled and I said to his Mom “Look at what Justin just did to Kevin! He’s got a huge welt on my back!”. I expected that she would discipline him and that the smile would be wiped off his smug face and when it didn’t happen, I flipped a lid! Mother’s instincts I guess- nobody messes with my kids! I raised my voice angrily and said to him “Look what you have done to your cousin! What are you smiling about? He loves you to death and this is what you do?? You know he idolizes you! He’s 7 and you are 12!” . By this time he had started to cry a little and sorry if I’m horrible but I was glad the smile was off his face. His Mom looked at me like I was the devil and I just continued in my rage “Good, you should cry after what you’ve done to him!”. Then Al decided to take Kev in the cold water to make the welt go down a bit and I followed because I knew I needed to cool down a bit! After about 30 minutes in the pool as a family, and his welts only slightly smaller, we decided it was time to get out. Al made Kev do the right thing and apologize to the teen who wasn’t actually responsible for Kev’s back. He walked right over and apologized and so did the 13 year old, but I heard not a thing from Justin. This kept me enraged and memories of my childhood and being bullied around by Justin’s father came back to me and I remember why for years I hadn’t wanted to go to OLCC.

I just allowed it to consume me and I’m not happy necessarily with how I reacted. I couldn’t bring myself to even say “see you later” to my cousins before we left and they said nothing either even though they were originally our ride home. My Mom came to get us and bring us back to my Grandparent’s villa and I just closed myself in the bedroom. I sat alone with my hurt and anger. I tried to read for a while and just get it out of my mind but I couldn’t. The tears kept coming to my eyes and eventually I rolled over and was going to nap. My Mom came in and I pushed her away. My husband came in and I pushed him away. I was almost asleep when there was a small knock on the door. It was Justin’s mom (my cousin’s wife). She said “Gwen are you sleeping?” I said with a creaky voice “Just resting.” She didn’t open the door but just said “I just wanted to let you know that Justing apologized to Kevin.” I simply said “Thank you.” and her “You’re welcome”. I felt slightly better but it was enough to make me feel extremely depressed for the rest of the evening. We were originally all going to Disney Village that night but needless to say plans changed. Everyone went in different directions and we ended up going with my mom for the crappiest dinner in history that did not settle right with me.

I went to bed knowing that tomorrow morning we would be leaving OLCC and going back to my Mom and Dad’s for our true last day of vacation (even though I let myself end it in my mind before this). I chose to let this ruin my vacation. I need to stop giving people this power over me. Recognizing it is the first step.