If you’ve ever been to the playground with a toddler, you already know how it goes down. Any time you get a group of two-year-olds together who have no tolerance for the word “no,” you have to expect that at any moment, a scuffle can break out over the last swing, a turn on the slide or a toy that may or may not be theirs.
Actress and new mom Keke Palmer just learned that lesson the hard way, and she took to social media to ask other moms for advice on how to handle it. In a July 30 Instagram video, Palmer shared a story about an incident with her 17-month-old son Leo on the playground that got her heated.
“He met this little friend, and everything seemed to be going well,” Palmer says in the video. “And then all of a sudden, the little boy sticks his little arms out and pushes my son onto the ground.”
Palmer went on to describe to her over 14 million followers how she wished she could have handled the situation – which involved her and her son fighting back against the kid and his mom – before telling them what actually happened:
“I picked up my son, I hugged him and told him that everything was going to be ok. And I did everything I could not to send all of my energy over into the other direction,” she said.
Palmer acknowledged that playground dustups happen all the time, but added that she’s worried that the incident is just a sign of what’s to come in a world where people aren’t always nice.
“How do we deal with this?” the “Password” host added. “Because guys, I don’t know if I’m going to make it.”
Palmer’s post, which has received over 60,000 likes so far, was flooded with comments from other parents who have had similar experiences with their kids.
Most commended her for showing restraint, but some said she should have tried sneak in a shot at the aggressive toddler on her son’s behalf.
“I push the kid back when no one looking 🤷🏾♀️” wrote one person in the comments.
And still others warned Palmer that the mama bear instinct doesn’t go away as your kids get older.
“It never ends my kids are 18, 14, and 13, and I’m still standing on business about those three,” wrote one parent in the comments.
The comments on Palmer’s post are confirmation that these kinds of things happen all of the time. But let this be a warning to other kids who may encounter little Leo on the playground – if you come for him, you’re going to have to come through Keke.