Some thoughts on the freakish amount of child bullies in Zurich

Firstly, I'm sure that there are only a few bad apples in the bunch, and all those apples live in my neck of the woods.

What is up with the kids around here? I've had visitors describe them as "children of the corn-like". I, myself, have experienced a more aggressive side of the children in my swiss neighborhood. I've been holding it in, doubting myself...thinking that maybe I'm just a big softy when it comes to the feelings of my own kids. But after today, I've come to the conclusion that I was right all along. There IS something wrong with these kids and worse yet, their parents. Some examples:

My three year old has been repeatedly beat upside the head at her playgroup where parents are suppossed to be supervising their kids. Instead the parents look on at the mele with a glazed, almost mother's little helper-stare and say nothing to their own children about keeping their hands to themselves. One smack I can take...two or three even...I mean three year olds will be three year olds...but more than that, with the assailant's parent watching? I thought there was something wrong with me for wanting to do something until another mother stepped in and called the parent on the negligence of her own child....the rescuing mother was from Great Britain, mind you...not Switzerland.

Other transgressions include time spent at the park. Last week a little girl poured dirt over my daughter's head not once, not twice, but three times....while myself, my cousin, and my three year old screamed NO...Stop...And this little minion of satan's father just stared on with no emotion on his face at all...no alarm that dirt had gotten in my poor baby's eyes, all down the back of her shirt. We all were physically pushing this little monster away but she just kept coming back with more dirt...her tongue sticking out of her mouth like a troll. I've asked other expat friends, and apparently she's famous around town for this sort of behavior.

Today was the icing on the cake. My daughter approaches two youngsters about her age at the park and instead of getting a welcome to play, she gets stoned. The monsters pick up fists full of stones and throw them over and over even as she runs away. Of course, mother is sitting on the bench taking it all in. I pick up my screaming girl and we leave the park. It must have dawned on zombie mom at that point that her kids were up to no good because I could hear her German scolding as we exited the park area.

I'm not going to tell my daughter to start hitting back or to begin throwing stones. But what do I tell her?

Well, I usually just tell her that these kids around here are the spawn of satan and that she's the best little girl I know..that not to worry because there lies a special hellish parallel dimension waiting for all them and she'll never have to be bothered by them again. Then I tuck her in bed nice and tight and kiss her precious little cheek. As she is sleeping soundly, I'm working deep into the night on voodoo dolls of every little bully I come across here in Zurich and their Stepford Moms.