Mean Girls

When sending Sydney to school, my fear was how would she handle the "social" part of school. She is such a sensitive little girl, I worried about what it would be like with her going to school with "girls". I am a girl, so I think it is OK for me to say that we are not always the nicest creatures on earth- especially to other little girl.

The week of Valentine's Day Sydney told me about a girl bringing valentines to school before the "party" day and telling Sydney that she didn't have one for her. I told Sydney that she must have misunderstood, but she said "No Mommy, she told me she wasn't giving me one". It turns out that it wasn't valentines that this girl was handing out, but invitations to her birthday party. Sydney says she was the only one in the class who did not get one- which I told her could not be true. I know that Sydney likely did not know the whole story & she was not the only one excluded from "the party" (which apparently Sydney's teacher had to put a stop to the little girl talking about it about a month before because it was all she would talk about). But that didn't stop my heart from aching for the pain/sadness that Sydney was feeling.

Today at supper Sydney told us that this same girl kicked her & hit her today. We didn't really get a clear indication of why this girl was mean to her, but at this age- it could be any number of things. I said to Brad that for all we know she could be mad at Sydney for not coming to her party! Kids don't always connect all the dots or understand the reasons for why things happen, but as a parent it is hard to watch your child get their feelings hurt & know that there is very little you can do about it except help them learn how to deal with these "experiences".