When your child hurts, so do you!

Last week at school Aly came home very upset. One of the girls in her class told her she had a mean face. Aly argued with her back and forth that she did not but the girl was not letting up. Aly's friend Maya even stuck up for her. It wasn't until a parent intervened that she finally stopped.

On Monday I volunteered at Aly's school. I kept a mindful eye on this little girl and decided to observe her play behavior. I wasn't shocked to find out that the other children in class wouldn't play with her. She wanted to be in control of everything and wouldn't share with the others. In fact she taunted them. One by one they would leave and she would be by herself. You know what was the most shocking? When it was table group time this little girl came to my table. The first question she asked me was who my daughter was. I told her Aly. Do you know what she said? She said, "Your daughter has a mean face!" I was shocked! Up to this point I had decided not to say anything to the teacher because I assumed it was an isolated event. She obviously proved me wrong. I told the little girl that she really hurt Aly's feelings and that she hurt mine too. I asked her how she would feel if someone said that to her. Her reply was, "Well she does have a mean face!"

This girl totally hurt my feelings. I got very protective of my daughter and started worrying if others may have the same opinion. Aly is very serious and at school she is shy and more reserved. This girl has formed an opinion of her as a mean girl. I talked to the teacher about it and told her I was only mentioning it because it was no longer an isolated event. When the teacher talked to her she said it was because Aly didn't smile. The teacher told her it wasn't a nice thing to say. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

I have to say though, it really hurt me and it made me want to teach Aly how to stick up for herself. Not to say that I want her going around fighting other girls, but I certainly don't want her to be pushed around.