Playground Violence

I had to wear my "mean mom" hat today. It's SO hot here, over 100 again today, that Matt and I decided to take Ari to Northlake Mall. They have a little indoor play area for toddlers that's fairly new and clean. When I say toddlers I mean that you're supposed to be under 42 inches tall to play. Well, apparently either no one can read or they just don't care because it was overrun with older kids today. Most of the time Ari just stood along the benches watching, afraid of getting plowed over by the bigger kids running around like crazy people. Some of the bigger kids left so he felt brave enough to play, he had SO much fun! There were two or three other kiddos his size that he was running around and climbing with, it was so cute to watch! A few minutes later I look over when Matt says Ari's on his hands and knees not moving. Of course I freak and run over to see what's wrong. He's just kneeling, staring at the floor. I ask him what's wrong and he looks at me with the most sad face I've ever seen. I'm not exaggerating, his whole bottom lip and chin was quivering and his eyes were about to spill over with tears. I scooped him up and he squeezed his arms so tight around me. I asked what happened (we couldn't see him, he was behind one of the climber toys) and one of the moms said the bigger girls hit him in the head. Seriously, who does that?? I marched straight up to their mom and totally ratted them out. I said "one of your girls just punched him in the head" and she looked at me like I'd gone nuts. She said "not my girls". Um, yeah. How would you know sitting all the way over here completely oblivious to where they are?? Oh, and they aren't even supposed to be in here. We left after that, poor Ari. I could see him thinking why would someone do that? He's definately a lover not a fighter. He was so hurt and sad. Not physically, but that's worse. Argh. Why is it that you have to have training and pass a test to drive a car but any yahoo can pop out as many kids as they wish???