What Goes Around Comes Around

While Snow White was just a toddler still a bit uneasy with her walking Easter came. In her basket was a cute little yellow wind up chick. I wound it up and placed it on the kitchen floor so she could watch it go. Big mistake. For some unknown reason she freaked out. I mean really freaked out! She was screaming and crying and clawing her way up my leg.

ManSon and Oldest Daughter sort of got a kick out of Snow White’s reaction to the little yellow chick. After all they are her big brother and sister. Some unwritten law regarding teasing, joking and tormenting the younger siblings seems to apply here.

One Saturday evening I was trying desperately to cook a large dinner. Snow White wanted to play and I really needed her out of the kitchen. Away from the stove, hot oven and basically out of the danger zone. I kept picking her up and putting her in the den which is right off of the kitchen. I could watch her play safely among her treasure trove of toys. She kept insisting on coming back to the kitchen. At one point she almost touched the hot oven window!

I tried putting her in her highchair but that resulted in screams and many tears. I was ready to give up on dinner and just call the pizza place…then I saw it. That little yellow chick from Easter was sitting on top of the fridge. I had placed it there out of reach from her brother and sister. I thought for a moment.

I snatched up the little chick. Took Snow White out of the high chair and into the den. I sat her down with her toys and a sippy-cup of juice. Then I placed that little yellow chick in the doorway between the den and the kitchen. She looked at the chick then she looked at me and started playing with her toys.

I went back to cooking, cleaning up the kitchen and setting the table. I looked over at her every other minute or so as she played with her toys. When dinner ready she was standing about a foot from the doorway of the den. She was so afraid of the little yellow chick that she would not pass through that doorway. She would not cry at it or scream at it either. She was just watching it from a distance.

What goes around comes around right? God has put a “little yellow chick” of his own right outside my kitchen door. I am not allowed in my sunroom until he says it is ok. Actually, it is not yellow…it is green and it is not a chick but a praying mantis.

I look out the kitchen door searching for it many times during the day. If I cannot see it that does not mean it has gone. It just means it is hiding, waiting for me to walk out into the sunroom and scare the bageebies out of me!

At lunch time yesterday I carefully looked around the sunroom from the outside. Since I could not see the giant praying mantis, I opened one of the sliding glass doors to the sunroom about 3 inches. Plenty of room for him to crawl out right? When I came home at the end of the day the door was wide open. ManSon decided the giant bug needed more room to make it’s exit.

This morning I was almost convinced the giant bug had left. Given how my week has gone I did not want to take any chances screwing up my mood first thing in the morning. We left the house via the front door. As I climbed into the van I saw something hanging off the top of the kitchen door! Yes, I was that giant bug! If I had opened the kitchen door the giant bug would have landed on top of my head. This would have set me off to screaming for the whole world to hear and flaying my arms about, throwing myself on the ground in true seizure fashion. This would have scared Snow White for life. My fear of bugs would not only be passed on to her but it would be intensified.

Thank God I did not go out the kitchen door this morning. I wonder when God will finish with the sunroom. When will he remove the “little yellow chick”/ giant bug?

Boulder Now ...Pebble Later

Today had a slightly rough start. I woke up at 3:30am for the second morning in a row. My first thought as I looked at the alarm clock was "Darn it! Auntie D must be up again." She is a few states away but seems to have the same affect on me as if one of my children woke up in the middle of the night with an illness. When I spoke to her tonight she confirmed that yes, she was awake at 3:30 am with Bear (he has a severe cough).

I laid in bed thinking I would eventually get an hour or so more if I really tried hard to clear my mind. Sadly I only rested my eyes a bit while resisting the persistent nudges of the cats to feed them right now. I was bent on trying to sleep some before the alarm went off. I even hit the snooze button which gives me 9 minutes. Why are digital alarm clocks set for 9 minute snooze when a little Big Ben wind up will give you 10 minutes. Of course a Big Ben wind up must be wound up and I would forget that part occasionally.

Ok so off we go,. I shower while Snow White gets herself ready. I make her waffles to eat on the way to daycare and let my hair dry via the open drivers side window. This means Snow White has extra sugar for her morning and I have extra curly hair for my day. I prefer my hair straight and Snow White unsweetened.

Work goes well for the morning then it happens. During my lunch hour I get a call from home. This warrants my going home. I was home less than a minute. I feel like I had been kicked in the gut and the wind knocked out of me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to curl up in a ball in a quiet corner. Instead I blindly went back to work.

I tried to wrap my brain around what had just happened. I knew I could not handle it. I just could not. I had to try to push it out of my mind. Concentrate on work would do it...right? No. All I could think about was how much I wanted to go down on my knees, put my face in my hands and just cry.

No! I WILL NOT cry! I REFUSE to cry! Crying for me is the same as giving up. Saying nothing more can be done. I will not let this bad news take me down like that. There has to be something that can be done. I will NOT cry.

I busy myself with a project and make some headway from this morning. I want to bounce off my ideas with my boss before I send out an international email. He has out of country guests so I am put off until later. I am dead in the water with my work until I hear back from him.

As I make my way back to my office I find my face wet with tears. I am embarrassed thinking someone might happen along before I reach my desk. Thankfully, I reach my desk without having to see or speak to anyone. I feel like the life has been sucked out of me. I never knew before what that felt like...I had only read about that feeling. It was as though a bolder the size of a house was placed in my arms and I must keep it held above my head.

At the same time if a tiny breeze had come my way I knew my life would just evaporate. My body would lay limp and lifeless as my soul went on to be judged before angels or devils. At that moment I did not care which so long as this burden would be lifted. I was not contemplating suicide, I was only feeling as if my life were just about to be snuffed out like a candle dwindling down on the very last bit of wax left.

I thought of taking the rest of the day off in some pursuit of correcting the "problem" but what could be done? I could not even make my mind take hold of what had just happened in a brief moment during my lunch hour.

Just last night life was so full and although money was feeling a bit tight we had so much going for us all.

I felt a little guilty thinking of staying for the rest of the work day but nothing could be done if I left work. I couldn't even speak to my boss let alone ask him for a half day off for personal reasons. I could not move forward in my work until I heard back from him and he did promise to call me when he could.

I went to the ladies room. Splashed cold water on my face and ran the cold water over my wrists. Cold water running over my wrists always seems to give me a boost in energy. I glanced up at the mirror to see my eyes were blood shot from my constant reluctance to give into crying. I was angry to see how much I wanted to cry. I whispered to myself "This is not over yet. You cannot give up. Think of a plan. You always come up with a plan to accomplish things. You have never given up." I huge sigh comes out of no where and I realize it came from me.

I will figure out something. I will. Right now is not the time to be making those plans. I need to finish up with my work day and let this go for now. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it right now. Nothing. Let it go until the day ends. Yes, this day will end and tomorrow will begin as it always does.

I manage to muddle my way through the rest of the afternoon. My boss does call and he sees I was brilliant in my work plan. Now we need to wait for the other country to do their part.

I leave work, pick up Snow White at the daycare center where she is happily playing with 3 other little girls. On our way to the car she tells me what a great day she had and I softly say "I am so happy you had a wonderful day. That makes up for my not so great day." On the way home she sings to me a few songs she learned at school, daycare and one from a video game with ...la la lah the "F" word...la la lah. She actually said "F word" not the real word. I told her even saying "F word" is not acceptable and she agrees without hesitation.

We reach the house and enter in through the sunroom. Snow White starts SCREAMING!!! I am trying to unlock the door and the dead bolt as quickly as I can! Her screaming makes me loose track of the key I had and I inserted Grandma's house key in the dead bolt. While trying to fit the right key in the deadbolt I look at her feeling like I would just faint dead away and say "what?!! what?!!" She says "Big bug! Big! Giant Cricket!" I see it and it is NOT a cricket!

If you do not know already...I am terrified of bugs. Not all bugs but most bugs. The bug that was not a cricket is a Praying Mantis! An 8 inch, giant bug that can hold on to you, bite and can also fly!! I will hear nothing about them not biting. My mother was bitten on her hand and not only did her hand swell up like a parade balloon but so did her arm!

Before this my body was willing to just give out all together but I could not let that happen before my child was in the house! Away from that Giant Bug!

Yes, the silly giant bug staid still as we hurried into the house. It is quite likely giggling at us. After I had slammed the kitchen door shut I peered out the window in the door at it. I made Snow White look at it too as I told her "See how his hands are praying. That means he is asleep. He is so much smaller than we are and more afraid of us if we try to catch him."

Snow White lays her back pack down as I lean my whole body against the refrigerator. When I realize I am holding myself up by holding on to the handle I give out a whispered sigh. Snow White is looking at me and I realize I was going to start dinner. I pull out the baggie of chicken legs I cooked over the weekend, place them on a plate with frozen corn and microwave them for 2 minutes. More than the chicken needs but just enough for the corn. I hand her the plate which she heads into the dinning room with as I follow behind her with a fresh broccoli and a glass of milk. While she has her dinner I sit by engulfed in my fog of the fiasco that has just hit me today.

I have no appetite due to my fog so I make my way to the family room and call my sister. We go back and forth and I get loud as she comes at me with her plans help me. Eventually, she says "I know you might just want to blow off some steam. You might not be looking for a way to fix this and here I am trying to make you come up with a fix it way." It is true that sometimes people just want to vent but I truly appreciate her thoughts on how to fix things instead of stewing. I was just to over come, too consumed with the unexpected abundance of it all.

I told her "I am so lucky that I have you. Really and truly." She laughed as she has said this very thing to me so many times before. All of a sudden it really sunk in how wonderful it felt to say that out loud. I am truly lucky to have my sister to talk things over with. She is smart, rational, can come up with many ways to fix this or that and she is funny on top of everything else.

Everything seemed lighter. The boulder I felt I was carrying over my head was suddenly a pebble I could carry in my hand. The fog had also lifted. I even laughed while I told her about the "big cricket." I also told her to make sure Bear was ok though the night because his "Auntie" (Me) needed those three hours of sleep between 3:30 am and 6:30 am.

As all days good and bad come to an end I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

Mean Girl has Returned

The first day of school brought all kinds of exciting news! “When we have a really good day in class and finish up early we get to DANCE!” I am liking the new teacher. What kid doesn’t like to move to the music? Even if they cannot dance they have fun with it.

Everyone thought her outfit was super cute. I was a little nervous about Snow White’s choice of fashion for the first day of school. Remember we moved from the big city out here to the country. Fashion is pretty much jeans and a tee shirt for most in these parts. Not to say there are not a few fashion savy people out here but there is limited supply of anything fashionalble out here. Last year a few Mean Girls picked on Snow White due to her outfits which would blend right in at the big city school she use to attend. Being the new kid from out of state did not help either.

I was very pleased to hear her classmates were now seeing her choice of style in a positive light. It was very difficult to shop for her wardrobe out here. Finding the simplest item such as knee-high socks and shoes that would match her outfits was especially difficult. There are no knee-high socks in the country for little girls. However, they do have them in my size. How ridiculous is that? Are there really 40 year old mothers who wear knee high socks?

Only two of her friends from last year are in her class this year “American Girl” and “Gymnast”. American Girl sits next to her in class and Gymnast sits across the room. I was so happy to hear these two wonderful girls are in her class. They played together during their two recesses and were joined by a new friend. We will call the new friend “Lunch Girl” for now until I get to know more about her. Why “Lunch Girl”? She and Snow White were in charge of handing out the lunch boxes when their class headed in to the cafeteria for lunch.

I asked what they did during recess and found out they mostly talked. When I said “What did you talk about?” her answer was “You know, life. Her life. My life. Things that are going on in the world.” I had to stifle a chuckle when I heard that last part! “She talked about how she misses her Dad. He works a lot so she doesn’t see him much. I told her I don’t see my Dad either.” She was a little sad about this and I tried to cheer her up. I cannot recall what I said but it did make her laugh. Why Snow White has not seen her Dad is a whole story of it’s own. It will take up pages and pages. Maybe I will write about it later.

After dinner Snow White announced she would be in her room reading for 15 minutes. This was her homework for the night. I checked on her from time to time. She was laying on her bed reading one of the Magic Tree House books. After an hour passed by she came to me and asked if her 15 minutes were up? I told her she had been reading for an hour. Her eyebrows went up and said “Oh, it only takes an hour to read a whole Magic Tree House book? It took you two whole days to read the new Harry Potter book.”

She sat in my lap for a little while. With her head resting on my chest she quietly said “L is in my class this year.” This is one of the Mean Girls who picked on her on and off through out the past year at daycare. Snow White explained that the other Mean Girl changed and was nice to her. “L” never gave up. Even when Snow White walked away from her “L” would whisper some snide remark to those around her which set them off in giggles. I told Snow White to give “L” a chance. “It is a new school year. Let’s try to start her off on a clean slate shall we?” She gave out a heavy sigh but agreed. Then she perked right up and said “Maybe “L’s” life at home has changed. Maybe she doesn’t need to be hateful any more. I sure hope she has changed at least a little.” When “L” started to be a problem at daycare I told Snow White maybe the little girl has some problems and might not have such a happy home life. We know nothing about her home life. It just seemed like a good thing to say at the time. You know the old saying “Misery loves company.”

I am hoping the teacher will keep an eye on “L” and squash all ill communication between them. At least she isn’t sitting next to Snow White. Maybe having the Mean Girl in a classroom setting will keep her on her toes and be more mindful of good manners. Maybe. I really do hope all goes well in the classroom. If not then it will be a growing experience and I will know exactly what book to give “L” for the book exchange…



Mean Girls - Facing your beauty turned beast (available at Amazon.com for $9.99 in paper back) A great book to read with her Mommy.

Mommy Homework - This school has it Going On! They sent home a very neatly printed out form with all the information I gave them last year. Next to each nicely printed out line on the form were two boxes Okay and Change. If you needed to update just one line you did not need to fill out the whole forms all over again! How GREAT is that?!

I did receive a Volunteer form which only asks for parents to participate during school hours. In the big city school Snow White attended before they at least gave working parents the option to help with baked goods or after school functions and sometimes classroom projects at home (lots of paper cutting and a few posters now and then). In our new home town I am the one and only single parent. They have an abundance of Stay At Home Moms (SAHM) to fill the volunteer needs of every school. Not wishing to seem as though I was shrugging off my school parent duties I wrote a note at the bottom of the form stating I work full time but would love to help with baked goods and evening activities.

You may think all my Mommy Homework preparation was in vain but I think not. It is sort of the same scenario as carrying an umbrella with you while you shop. It may be a nuisance but the weather man did say there was an 80% chance of rain. You are almost guaranteed it will not rain while you are out shopping simply because you lugged that umbrella around with you.

Slumber Party ....3rd part and still goes on

On to the Fashion show! Drama came up to me and asked if it would be ok to put make up on the girls. I said it was ok since they could wash their faces before they go to sleep. To my surprise, out of her over night bag she produced a complete line of cosmetics. I am not talking about clear lip gloss and powder. I mean several shades of eye shadow, blush, lipstick, mascara, the works. I was amazed at how well Drama applied the makeup to each and every girl! (except for Snow White who declined the offer) I tell you no lie I was impressed! She was an expert with a makeup brush. I did not know how to apply make up until I was 16 and believe you me Drama at the tender age of 8 did a far better job than I did at 16.

I brought out the boxes of dance costumes and showed the girls Snow White’s dress up closet. They could pick out whatever outfit they wanted! Snow White is a bit smaller than her friends so an outfit may look alright on Snow White but a bit smaller…uh shorter on them. Then there was a request for shoes so we pulled out all of Snow White’s shoes, even the shoes she had not worn yet. To my surprise many of the shoes no longer fit Snow White but they fit TV Star. I told her she could take home all the shoes that fit her. Unfortunately there were two girls who could not fit into Snow White’s shoes so out came Mommy’s flats which barely fit them (Yes, I have small feet size 5). Sorry, I was not going to risk one of them missing gymnastics due to twisting an ankle in my heels. I was instructed to wait in the sunroom for the show to start. Having forgotten to charge the video camera or check the status of the disk for the digital camera I was left with a disposable camera.

Drama came out wearing a beautiful blue dress with some sparkle to it. She announced the show was about to start and lined up the girls in the kitchen. Drama was the MC saying things like “Here is our fabulous kitty. Watch her do the cat walk in style” Come on girls strut like you mean it!” Each girl was given 1 ½ minutes “on stage” to model and strike their poses. They were dressed up as ballerinas, gymnasts, cheerleaders, Disney characters, Tea Party Ladies, Dorothy, school teacher, and others that I cannot remember off hand. Pup was also in the fashion show wearing one of his shirts and often uses as an accessory by several of the girls. One of the girls struck several poses of fierce kitty, nose crinkled up, lips pursed and an “I’m going to get you” look on her face, hands clawing at the air and I was a bit scared. I so did not see that coming from this sweet shy little girl. Did I mention I was scared?

About half way through the “Fashion Show” some of the girls gleefully shouted out which outfit they wanted to wear next. Um Next? I thought this was something we would only run through once. Apparently we were not all on the same page. The rest of the girls heard this and even though standing in line for their first turn some started yelling “I calling _____ outfit!” You know sort of “calling it” like we use to when we were kids “I call shot gun”. or “I call the window seat!”

Halfway through the second stage walk I ran out of film but that did not stop them, they continued for another hour changing and striking poses. Oh well that kept them entertained while I readied the next craft. To my surprise they were not ready for another craft nor did they want to help put the outfits back. The outfits were left out “In case we want to do it again in a few minutes.” That was fine with me.

Since they were not ready to do another craft we decided it was movie time! Snow White wanted to watch TV Star on TV. I spoke with TV Star’s mother earlier in the day. She saw the clips of her daughter when it was on but TV Star had not yet seen herself on the TV show. This was exciting! Everyone rushed to the family room screaming with excitement! It took us awhile to get to the part with TV Star but it was so worth the look on all their faces! All the girls jumped up and down yelling “There she is!! There she is!! That’s you! It’s really you!”

What was the TV Show? It was VH-1’s Little Beauties. Yes, a pageant documentary. Drama and Gymnast made several comments such as “Pageant girls are so fake! How can anyone be real when they have to be so fake with all that make up and stuff. It’s a real shame they make those girls do pageants.” Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I am not about to sway them in to thinking otherwise. TV Star, Cheer Girl and Snow White all heard the comments but it didn’t bother them in the least. If that is what their parents are teaching them then so be it. Never mess with the values and opinions children have learned from their parents, so long as it is not harmful to others.

Drama mentioned the girls teeth looked a bit “different, sort of too perfect.” Snow White ran upstairs and came back smiling to show off her “fake teeth.” Snow White and her friends giggled themselves silly and ended up in giggling pile on the floor. I love that she has such a good sense of humor. While watching the documentary Drama and Gymnast both mentioned a few more times their disdain for pageants.



The girls looked over Snow White’s collection of crowns and asked her questions about what she does at a pageant. With all the questions and such I thought maybe they would like to watch a pageant DVD with Snow White as one of the contestants. She picked out the Glamour Girls DVD which with all the girls lining up across the stage for “Beauty Line up.” Immediately the girls start asking which one is Snow White. I tell them “You point her out when you see her come on to the stage.” I had to laugh as they pointed out just about every blonde that walked on to the stage. Their thinking was pageants are so fake that Snow White’s hair would have been changed from ebony black to sunny blonde! Most of the girls in the group wore glitz dresses and were indeed blonde. Snow White wore a flower girl dress as did just a few others and there were one or two other brunettes in her group. The girls finally picked out Snow White when the camera did a close up of the girls faces. As we watched Snow White do her beauty walk, the girls were glued to the TV and chattered with excitement. I really did not wish to watch the whole DVD so after the beauty walk we went on to the next activity.

Although Drama and Gymnast had a few negative things to say about pageants they were excited to see the documentary and the pageant DVD. They also said they watch Top Model religiously with their Moms and have “definite plans” to try out for Top Model next year. I said nothing but I am sure their parents will let them know Top Model is for adults not 8 year olds. I did watch an episode of Austraila’s Top Model and I was shocked that this is what the girls wanted. Grown women crying, dressing up in skimpy, sexy underwear and bearing most of their body in the rest of the outfits. Again, I do not think it is right for me to interject my opinion when they are following their mothers. After all, it is only a TV show right?

Make-your-own-sundae was a big hit with most of the girls but one. Sweetie would much rather have apples and peanut butter. Remember, I said before her parents have taught her well. She did not request the different desert out of robotic regard to her parents. You could tell she genuinely wanted the apples and peanut butter. I immediately went on to cutting up one of the apples while the rest of the girls attempted to top each other by seeing who could manage the most toppings on their ice cream cups without too much spill over. Sweetie stood right next to me monitoring every move of the knife against the apple. She thanked me profusely for taking the time to make her special snack. She really appreciated this simple task. I assured her it was no trouble at all.

After the girls finished their sundaes we started on the bird houses. The girls painted their bird houses and decorated them with flowers, fake birds and other craft what-nots. The bird houses turned out beautiful! I told the girls they could either keep the bird houses for themselves or give them to their mothers on Mother’s Day. I had many different tubes of paint but only one tube of each color. The girls were showing evidence that they were indeed getting sleepy. There were a few mean comments which I quickly put an end to. One girl actually said to Snow White “Just because it is your birthday does not mean you get to be treated more special than me. I am your guest so you just sit there and wait.” This was in response to Snow White asking to put a dollop of paint on her paper plate. The girl was not using the paint at the time but planned to use it next. All the girls are very sweet, it was the late hour that brought out the few grouchy comments.

When they finished their bird houses a few said they were ready to sleep. I thought that would be a GREAT idea! It was midnight and they had accomplished their goal to stay up all night. I was surprised we did not have enough time to do all of the activities and games. Oh well, we all had a great time and no one was standing around bored. Did I mention it was only a FEW girls who said they were tired? Sweetie was getting a little upset saying over and over again that her parents would be upset if they knew she staid up late. I assured her they know she is at a slumber party and most girls stay up until midnight at slumber parties. Now about half of the girls were making their way to their sleeping bags. The other half wanted to do more crafts so I put out the Barbie sunglass kits and they started on them. What could go wrong ? Half wanted to sleep and the other half were quietly doing another activity in another room. It turns out each and every girl has a different “thing” they do that helps them fall asleep. A few need the light on to sleep and the rest cannot sleep with the light on. Others need a TV, radio or fan on. I was not about to lug a TV into the room so the girls settled for a radio and small isolating fan. I turned off the lights in the room but left the light in the bathroom on and the door cracked enough to spread a little light at one end of the room. The girls who did not want the light on moved their sleeping bags to the other end of the room. Snow White finished her Barbie sunglasses and headed for her sleeping bag. She sleeps with the lights off, a sleep mask on, needs no noise or other special things to fall asleep. At this point she was so tired she would have slept through glairing stadium lights and a big brass band playing right next to her sleeping bag. She and three other girls were out in a matter of minutes.

There were four girls who got their second wind. They were awake and ready to move on to the next activity…making sleep masks and crowns for their dolls and then decorating them. Around 2:30 AM they finished this activity and wanted to play dress up again. I noticed I was getting a bit grouchy so before I said anything, and I mean anything, I said it to myself about 5 or 6 times first. When they ran to Snow White’s room to dress up I told them I would be down stairs watching TV and that is what I did. I watched TV until 4:30 AM. Since I no longer her the pitter patter of their feet running across the hardwood floors I went to check on them, they were fast asleep in Snow White’s room. Finally, relief had come and I could sleep.

I want you to know it is not my intention to make you read so much. I just want to remember all of this some day. Also this was written 5/10/07 and regular unleaded gas was $2.89 that morning and by lunch time it was $2.95 and premium was $3.25.

World Peace? No, Just Peaceful Daycare

Every day, some where in the world, there is a child who comes home from school upset or crying due to someone else's bad behavior. It is really sad but true. I think of it as a rite of passage thing. Children have these experiences in their young life to see how they handle it. If you don't handle it right not to worry...it will happen again...until it is handled correctly.

Today was my daughter's turn to handle it.

When I arrived at the daycare to pick her up she was happily building a log cabin with three boys. As we left she darted back inside to show the lead caregiver the tiny bears she had in her pocket. She skipped out the door and into the car. While she told me about her day Lauren and Elizabeth came up. When their names are mentioned it is usually followed by some horrible thing they did to her or said to her. Snow White was so upset this time she burst in to tears and her words caught in her throat as she tried to speak. The frequency has become more than Snow White can bare.

She has tried to keep her distance from them but that is not always possible. They all ride the same bus both in the morning and afternoon. Thank goodness Snow White is not in the same classroom or on the same lunch time as these two. Elizabeth is in 3rd grade but Lauren is in 2nd grade just like Snow White. Lauren has recess the same time as Snow White but they do not have to be near each other. All three of them do have to stand in the same line after school while waiting for the bus to arrive for about 15 minutes. There is a teacher watching over them while they wait so the girls have no opportunity to misbehave at that time. They are all at the daycare center from 3:30 to 5:00 in the evening. There are activity rooms for the children to play in but they all seem to enjoy the same activities so they end up in the same room from time to time. Snow White thought it was very unfair that she should always have to give up the arts and crafts room because L & E were in also in the room.

On our way home tonight I thought about turning the car around and heading back to the daycare center. I wanted to tell those girls a thing or two! "Are you so low class you have to talk trash to everyone around you? What, your Momma don't love you?! She didn't teach you any manners? Are you an animal? You do not belong in this nice place so scat you rat!" or maybe "When you see my daughter come around you better be nice or I will sick Guido on your tiny pathetic arse! Capuche?! "

Ok, so I would never say anything like that but come on...you know it would feel good to put a bully/brat in their place. You see them at the stores, in restaurants and other places. Tell me there hasn't been a time when you wanted to verbally scare the poop out of them!

Mean thoughts were racing through my brain like telling Snow White several mean and nasty things to say right back at those awful girls! What would that accomplish? With the repetitiveness required to make an impact on these girls my sweet little girl would turn out just like them!! Hell NO I don't want my daughter to be like THEM!

Instead I comforted my little Snow White and tried my best to explain nasty/mean people are everywhere. To change they need God's help and they have to want to change. I told her maybe they have a miserable life and everyone knows misery loves company. They think if they are miserable why shouldn't everyone around them be miserable? At this point my brain stopped racing and I felt sorry for these girls. They do not know how to deal with their peers other than bullying. I tried to get Snow White to see that they must have some family or other issues going on in their very young lives. She protested saying no one is miserable, people are happy in their hearts and everyone is good. Oh the sweetness of innocent youth.

When we arrived home I called the daycare center and spoke with daycare director. I explained nicely what we have done to this point and Snow White had reached the end of her rope with these girls. The director informed me that Snow White had approached the her and other staff with her concerns regarding L & E. She also said they sat all three girls down and had a chat with them. After that she thought everything was working out. Snow White joined our conversation while passing by my room. She explained how she has left an activity she enjoys due to the girls coming in the room. Also the girls whisper their threats and derogatory comments when they pass by her on the bus and within the center.

I was actually very surprised to hear my 7 year old Snow White handled the situation so maturely. She had the mind set to actually speak up and inform the director and other staff about the situation. She is growing up, not being a shy little girl who allows people to just walk all over her. Trying to make a positive impact on things around her.

It is sad this sort of thing happens but then again it is a growing experience which she handled correctly. Tomorrow the staff will again sit down with all the girls. Snow White assured me she will not be afraid to speak up for herself. I hope it is also a well received growing experience for the other two girls. After all, they are all in the same generation and will likely have some effect (large or small) on each other later on in life.

I know Snow White is not the first to go through this. I recently found these blog entries Cheeky Lotus and Silicon Valley Moms