A Kindergarten Bully

Is it bad that I gave a 5-year-old the “stink eye” today? Truth be told, she might be 6 years old for all I know.  She stands at least six inches taller than the Big One and I don’t like her.  Yes, I said that I do not like one of my child’s kindergarten classmates.

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This new girl (we’ll call her “Mary”)  started school after the Christmas break. She cried her first day when she left her mom and toddled off to class with the other kids.  I felt a little sorry for her that morning. But by the next day, I was done with this little girl.

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I asked the Big One if she played with the new girl, to which the Big One said, “Mary said we had to touch her necklace two times if we want to be her friend.  And I didn’t want to touch her necklace.”

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Fair enough I said.  I told the Big One that she should never have to do something like that in order to gain someone’s friendship.  We talked about being nice and fun and caring, but never telling our friends what to do.  We went on to talk about peer pressure (in kindergarten terms) and I assured her that she didn’t need to be friends with the new girl if she didn’t want to.

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So a couple days later the Big One had Pirate’s Booty in her lunch. {for those of you who don’t know what Pirate’s Booty is, it is white cheddar cheese puffs} She loves Pirate’s Booty, but when she came home from school she told me she didn’t want to take it for lunch anymore.  I asked her why not and she told me that Mary and some of the other girls were calling her, “cheese-eater, mousey cheese-eater”  at lunch while she was eating the Pirate’s Booty.

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Now I knew it was Wednesday and most of the kids in the Big One’s class buy their lunch, so most of the kids were eating pizza for lunch. So I asked the Big One what Mary and the other girls were eating for lunch.  She told me pizza and I asked her what was on pizza.

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Exasperated with me, the Big One said, “I know Mommy, I told them they were cheese-eaters too, but I still don’t like them calling me that.”

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I get it.

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So it’s a new week.  The Big One came home from school early yesterday because she wasn’t feeling well.  Today as we were hanging up her backpack and putting away her lunch, Mary came up to the Big One and said something.  I couldn’t hear what she said, but I could tell from her attitude that it was something not nice.  As she passed the Big One she gave me the biggest grin, so yes, I gave her the stink eye.  I didn’t say anything to her because I didn’t hear what she said, but I was pretty certain it was something mean.

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As Mary walked away the Big One got real clingy and told me she didn’t like Mary. I told her it was okay to not like someone. I told her she didn’t have to be friends with her.  But I did tell her that when Mary says something mean to her to be sure to stand up tall and tell her that she is being mean and you don’t like it.

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The Big One said she’s tried that but it’s hard because Mary is in her group and she always says mean things. How in the world does a five or six year old get to be so rotten at such a young age? I feel bad for giving her the stink eye, after all she is just in kindergarten, but if she is going to make school even harder for my child you can bet that I will be perfecting my stink eye and maybe even opening my big mouth soon to put that child in her place.