My heart is breaking

My daughter is 7 years old, due to some circumstances she is in 3rd grade.  Third graders are generally turning 9 during this school year.  I didn't realize how difficult this would be for my little girl until just recently.

When she started school this year, several of the girls from her class last year are in her class this year.  Of course she was excited that her 'friends' were in her class.  It wasn't too bad until i noticed that they stopped walking out with her at the end of school, and my husband noticed that in the mornings these 'friends' would walk by without saying hello.

K. was invited to a birthday party for a girl who lives in our neighborhood, only a few girls were invited, and it's the same girls who are ignoring my daughter.  I talked to her to see if they played with her during school, and she said that sometimes they did.  I had told the mom that K. would go to the party, but now i'm not so sure.  I told her last week that if the girls weren't nice to her this week, that i didn't want her to go.  Today she said that they didn't talk to her at all during the day.

Why are girls so mean?  I don't remember being like this when i was little, but i was probably also the one being ignored.  How do you help someone who is so innocent realize that people are not always nice?  Do I let her go to this birthday party and pray that the are nice to her.  It's a sleepover, and i would hate to have her come home crying.  I just don't know what to do or how to deal with it.

My son who is 5 was discussing it this afternoon in the car and very plainly said it.  "These girls where nice to you last year, now that a new girl is here, they're not nice to you.  You have to ignore them in school and maybe then they'll want to be your friend."

 

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:32:00 -0700

Where were you when the towers fell?

I can still remember it like it happened last week.  9/11/2001.  I had a 2 year old and 4 month old baby.  Turning on the TV in the morning was not high on my priority.  It was a Tuesday and at 10:00am we had our monthly MOMS Club meeting.  When i walked in, you could feel the buzz in the air, but my lack of sleep didn't really let me get that.  I was in my own little world.  I was sitting down, nursing my son, somebody said outloud "The second tower just got hit".  I didn't know what they were talking about.  What tower?  I asked someone what was going on, where was this tower, what hit it?  It was sudden mayhem, we were being attacked, the world trade center.  I didn't really know what the world trade center was, but i knew it was in NY.  I called my husband at work.  I could hear the worry in his voice.  I'm going home, they're closing the office.  I left the meeting in a daze,  the radio told me the story that had unfolded that morning.  When i got home i turned on Disney for my daughter and watched the news in my room.  I watched those planes slam into those towers and was awed by the sheer horror those people must have lived and died through.  The tears were streaming down my face, but i could not stop it.  When those towers collapsed i felt like my heart had collapsed also.  How could this be happening?  How can people be so evil in this world?  Why would they do this to innocent people?

I still can't comprehend it.  I cannot watch the replays of it that happen every September 11th.  Someday my kids will learn about it in History class and i'll pull out my old VCR Tapes and watch the real thing, but for now i shield them from the hatred of the world.  All they know is love from us, they don't need to see that.

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:00:00 -0700