Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Girl Drama



Middle school is so hard. I mean the mean girls. We have found the boys to not be much better, either!

Addison is in the 6th grade. Officially, she is still in Elementary. But, she is in portables, her classrooms are separated from the school, the bell rings and they have to go to different teachers for different classes, so they are a work in progress middle school. And, the kids act like middle schoolers.

Let's be frank, Addi has some mean girls in her class. Honestly, I do not know how Addi behaves when I am not there. I only see what I see when I visit. And when I visit, these mean girls can not even fake being nice. They walk by and GIVE ME DIRTY LOOKS. Seriously. I can not even avoid the middle school girl drama.

And it is not just the girls, either. Asher had a very good friend that entered the 6th grade this year. This friend went many places with us and spent a lot of time here. He now refuses to speak to Asher. It is like he will fall off the cool planet if he speaks to a 4th grader or maybe just to Asher. I say good morning to him some mornings while walking to school and the kid looks down at his phone pretending not to hear me. I am surprised every morning he makes it to school without hitting a pole because he walks with his head in his phone, oblivious to his surroundings. Thankfully, I will not let my kids have a phone until they can prove to me they will not stare at it 24/7. And this child is the poster child for why my kids do not have phones. And, he is in fact, a mean boy now. How you can go to being my kids best friend to not speaking overnight without an explanation is insane to me.

Every day, Addi has a new story to tell about these girls doing things, bickering, bullying, leaving each other out, and just being plain hurtful. For example, I ate lunch with Addi on Asher's birthday a couple weeks ago. Addi picked a girl who is routinely picked on by others and Addi calls her a friend. When she did not select another girl to lunch, this girl went up to Addi and said, "Friends pick their friends to eat lunch with them Addi," and walked away. The very next day, this same girl had her mom visit for lunch and clearly intentionally, selected another friend to have lunch with her. So obviously the rule only applies when Addi does not invite her. Same said girl dropped the meanest look at me today. I really wanted to walk up to her and say something but I did not. I am not her parent, thankfully. I can only teach Addi to be kind to all the girls, and I hope she is. I like that she selects a girl who is maybe being picked on in school. Addi does not care if she is popular. Because let's face it, popular girls generally are not the most successful in life. So, popularity should not matter.

This is what matters.

Be kind. Be nice. Be thoughtful.

"Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you."

The Golden Rule really should be taught in middle school.

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