The Day Toby Became A Legend

A couple of days ago, Toby got into his first fight.

That sentence sounds far more dramatic than it actually was.

He came out of school with the biggest smile on his face and immediately announced:

"Dad, I had a fight today."

Now, that's not really the sort of thing you want to hear as a parent.

My first thought was whether he was okay.

My second thought was that one of the teachers was about to come over and explain exactly what had happened.

Neither of those things happened.

Instead, Toby stood there grinning.

"I'm fine," he said. "It was great."

That's not a sentence you want to hear after the words "I had a fight today."

So naturally I started asking questions.

As we walked back to the car, he explained that he and his friends had been playing with some tyres on the school field. Apparently the school has a collection of tyres that the kids use during playtime. I don't entirely understand what games they're playing with them, but that part isn't important.

What is important is that two older kids decided they wanted the tyres.

According to Toby, one of his friends told them they were already using them.

One of the older lads responded by kicking his friend in the back of the legs, knocking him over and jumping on top of him.

At which point Toby got involved.

Now, if you know Toby, this isn't necessarily the response you'd expect.

He's not aggressive.

He's not the sort of kid who goes looking for trouble.

If anything, he's usually the opposite.

But apparently seeing one of his friends being piled on flipped some sort of switch.

According to Toby, he jumped on the lad's back, pulled him off his friend and started hitting him.

Then the second lad got involved.

So Toby pulled him down as well.

At some point all three of them ended up on the floor.

By the end of it, both of the older kids were apparently telling him to stop.

The whole story was delivered with the enthusiasm of somebody describing their best day at a theme park.

I spent most of the conversation trying to work out whether I was supposed to be concerned, proud, confused or all three at the same time.

The strange thing was that there didn't seem to be any fallout.

No teacher came over.

No messages appeared on the school app.

Nobody called.

Nothing.

School carried on as if absolutely nothing had happened.

The bit that really made me laugh was what happened afterwards.

Apparently word got around pretty quickly.

By the end of the day, other kids had started calling him "Legend."

Not Toby.

Legend.

That was his new name.

When he told me that, I had one of those parenting moments where you're desperately trying not to encourage something while secretly finding it quite funny.

Because while I don't want him thinking fighting is the answer to every problem, I was also pleased he'd stood up for his friend.

There's a difference between being a bully and protecting somebody who's being picked on.

What worried me more was what came next.

I had visions of him marching into school the following day convinced he was now some sort of playground heavyweight champion.

So we had a little chat.

I explained that just because he'd won one fight didn't mean he should go looking for another one.

I pointed out that the older lads were bigger than him and that things don't always go your way.

Most importantly, I explained that being known as "Legend" is probably the sort of title you should let other people give you rather than one you start introducing yourself as.

Thankfully he seemed to understand.

For the next couple of days I kept expecting some kind of sequel.

A black eye.

A phone call.

An angry parent.

Something.

But nothing happened.

I asked him how things were going with the two lads.

"Oh, they're fine," he said. "They don't come near us anymore."

Problem solved, apparently.

The best part is that he's still being called Legend.

I suspect it won't last forever.

But for one glorious week, my son managed to protect his friend, win a fight against two older kids and earn himself a nickname that sounds like he should be leading a band of outlaws through Sherwood Forest.

Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon.