Watching the girls develop their social skills and navigate the sometimes scary world of making new friends is one of the more interesting parts of this Kindergarten experience. They went to preschool for two and a half years before this, but that environment was very safe, for lack of a better word. Kindness permeated the class, both a product of the teachers emphasizing the importance of treating each other nicely and the kids just being nice kids. The class size was also small, so there weren’t many corners for meanness to happen without a teacher seeing it.
Grace told me last week that while she was coloring, the teacher said they were allowed to chat with their table mates. So, she started to tell them about her Dad. Here’s her version of events:
“My Dad is big. And really funny.”
“Your Dad is fat??”
“No! He’s not fat. He’s big.”
According to her, the boy whispered to the other boy in a taunting tone, “Her Dad is fat! Her Dad is fat!”
Clearly, this really bothered Grace. I asked her how she responded and she said, “I told them my Dad is NOT fat!”
We talked about how it’s not nice to call someone fat and how people come in all sizes. And although I despise that these little boys made her think that being big was something bad, I was so proud of her for not backing down.
But before we get all afternoon-special on you, there is a funny part to this story.
Grace was telling us this as we were walking back from the bus stop. Scott told her, “Maybe those boys were just trying to get your goat.”
Claire, remembering my advice the other day to fight jokes with jokes, said “Oh Grace! I know! Maybe you should just tell them their Mom is fat!”
Scott was biting back laughter, while I started to explain why that isn’t the best approach in this situation. But I know we were both thinking the same thing: Claire just made her first “yo mama” joke.
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