It is her busiest term and I do think she is a bit stressed at the moment. Once the drama Eistedfodd is over on Friday and the Speech festival on Wednesday she will have a big load off her shoulders. It is also the last test in the series next week. I am sure for our little A type personality life will look a bit easier in general. And yes, there are some things we can do a bit different at home - maybe we do not use the right words or tone at times. But the big issue is the absolute nastiness of the girls at school. What on earth is the problem! Why do the 10 year old girls suddenly change into little terrors? This is not a "one bully or group of bullies" issue - it is sort of the general thing. Is it the awakening hormones?
She is in a slightly odd class this year - a group of girls that have almost no friends among them apart from two BFF who landed together. And then it seems they have the sharpest tongue of them all in the class. As A said last night apart from 3 girls that are really friendly and 2 others that are ok the rest are nasty. And not just with her. This all made her question her intelligence, her personality and the way she looks. She felt stupid (with an aggregate over 90 % she surely is not), unpopular (she really has a lovely friendly heart that I have always admired and has a range of friends - but they are not in her class) and ugly (any of you who have ever seen her knows that is not true either). My heart aches for her. She is also a typical sensitive oldest child which does not help at all. She puts enough pressure on herself not to have any externally from other girls. She certainly feels she is not part of the in or cool crowd.
So how do we help her to feel better about herself? I guess we can just encourage. Make sure that she sees herself in a positive sense. Be stronger in herself. Make sure that she understands we and God loves her just the way she is. That she is good enough. We also have to encourage the positive friendships that are out there. Yes, we are maybe a bit slack with inviting other friends that her BFF over but they all have such busy programs. She told me this morning that she is feeling a lot better and was excited to take a little gift for one of the nice girls in her class that has her birthday today. I am hoping that the new courage and positive attitude will last a while.
Above all I am delighted that she talked to me - I think that is the essence of it. As long as they feel they can talk to us as parents I hope we can help them. I fear the day one of them may not talk to us.
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| In the air - day 1 of the challenge |
On a happier note - it's the 1st of September - happy Spring day. I am joining Melanie in her September photo challenge - why do you not join in too?
