I think, therefore I overprotect...

I'm such a worrywart. I'm a little paranoid when it comes to my kids. Let me give you a true life example. Then you can see what a total "mom" I am. Today my son had a birthday party at the rec center for twins in his kindergarten class. I've met the parents a few times at school and they were in a preschool program with Blake, so I let him go. And honestly it would have been perfectly acceptable for me to have just left him there with them for the whole two hours. I even wholeheartedly trusted them! But like I said, I'm a little worrywart. Especially when it comes to water. Today it was a swim party. So worrywart Heather decided to workout and "watch" the kiddos down below in the pool. Turns out I'm not alone in the worrywart-ness. For an hour I pounded the eliptical and the treadmill and kept an eye on my son. Pathetic huh? On the bright side I got my workout in and I got peace of mind that he was just fine in the pool. So there you have it. I watch them like a hawk in public places, and I cringe when other parents in public places are not "parents". Don't get me wrong, I'm not always a perfect parent, and I certainly don't catch EVERYTHING my kids do, but I do consider myself a fairly vigilant parent. However, nothing infuriates me more than when we are at McDonald's or a playground and my kids are playing and some random kid comes up and is mean to my kid for some reason. But that's not even the infuriating part. I look around to make sure that this kid's parent has seen what their kid is doing and they are nowhere to be found. Did they mistake the playground for the daycare center? Because I don't work at a daycare even though I FEEL like I do sometimes. The result? As the only parent around, I feel completely obligated to watch the other kids. Must be that "mom" radar. And even if the parent does see their kid doing whatever it is they are doing, they don't take any action at all! I guess my question is where do you draw the line? You can't exactly tell the kid off yourself, but you do have an obligation to protect your own child. My current stance is this: I console my child and say very loudly (so that the offender and/or parents can hear) to my child something along the line of "it was not very nice of that kid to do that huh? WE don't hit." And if my kid is the instigator, I make them go apologize to the kid and make sure they are okay. I suppose it is all that I can do, but it sure can be a frustrating thing sometimes. I must say that there ARE moms out there who side more with my stance. Which is great. But it seems as though there are more and more that don't. Just sayin'.....