It’s a hard knock life

Posted by Justine | March 3, 2008 | 8 Comments

My third daughter, 7, comes home from school in tears. She melts in a puddle on my bed, and I sit next to her to try and get the details of her travail. It comes out, slowly, with many tears.

“I’m just having so many problems at school! (sobbing, and hair thrashing) So many problems…! Brian! Morgan! There are just too many…Serena!… people in my class! (head thrash) Oh, and Shelby! Colton! How can I do it, mom? (collapse on the bed in a fit of tears) I just can’t, that’s how.”

“Ummm, What are you talking about?” I ask as kindly as I can (and as well as I can interject words into the wailing and thrashing about). I am starting to wonder if she was being beaten up, bullied, teased, ignored, or in some other way maligned.

“I’m just too, too popular, mom! I can’t play with all the people that want to play with me! (sobbing) Everyone wants me! Catch, chase, jump rope, fairy girls, I just can’t do all of it! (speaking while sobbing into a pillow) I’m just so adored…and my people get so upset when they can’t…(more flails) oh, there just need to be more recesses so I can fit everyone it…(trails off in sniffles).

Life can be so hard…so very hard.

Category: Slice of Life

Comments

8 Responses to “It’s a hard knock life”

Sue
March 3rd, 2008 @ 10:20 pm

Oh my gosh, that made me laugh. Poor little rich girl :> Love it.
Michelle
March 3rd, 2008 @ 11:13 pm

Wow. The trauma. That’s a precious interchange, though…one she will get a kick out of someday.
Dalene
March 3rd, 2008 @ 11:46 pm

“I’m just so adored…”

Priceless!

Oh and yeah, I totally have that problem too–there just needs to be more recesses!
Justine
March 4th, 2008 @ 12:00 am

This kid has never had a self-esteem problem… You’d think being the third kid would beat confidence out of her. Oh no.
AzÃºcar
March 4th, 2008 @ 1:42 am

I know exactly how she feels.
Elizabeth
March 4th, 2008 @ 11:31 am

You need to teach that girl about effective time management. Honestly, doesn’t she have some type of PDA she could take with her at first recess at the beginning of each week to work everyone in?
Zina
March 10th, 2008 @ 12:45 am

I remember reading once (long ago, the source now shrouded in the mists of time,) that popular teen girls actually do experience stress because they can’t reasonably maintain the intimate relationships expected of teen “best friends” with more than two or three friends, leading to others considering them stuck-up. Your daughter is discovering young that it really isn’t possible to be everyone’s best friend, even if you do like, and would like to please, everyone.

I’m not saying that the story’s not hilarious; it is; but I also think your daughter’s stress is real and worthy of sympathy.

Another danger of popularity: towards the end of the last school year, my VERY well-liked 7yo daughter started getting small but vicious attacks by bullies who (I believe) were jealous of her. The scariest was when, while she was watching kids bob for apples, someone came up behind her and pushed her head into the water and held it there long enough that she feared she would drown. She never saw who did it (and neither did anyone else.) (Yes, this is part of why she is in home school this year — another reason (of several) was that I wanted to give her a break from the fun but exhausting role of Queen of the Playground.) And here’s another story: when I asked my daughter, a few weeks ago, whether she was going to bear her testimony in church, she said no, and when I said, “But lots of people here love you and would love to hear your testimony,” she said, “That’s the problem, Mom — EVERYONE comes up to me and wants to tell me how sweet I am and how much they love my testimony, and I HATE it!” She wasn’t being coy, either; she really was dreading that kind of adulation — so I stopped pressuring her to bear her testimony. (Not that I want to teach her to hide her light under a bucket, but there will be time for her to learn to cope with adulation later — or maybe she’ll turn into an unpopular teen and have to deal with those problems instead.)

Anyway, like I said, I do think it’s a really funny story, but I do also feel for your daughter. (Even if I never personally have never experienced a surfeit of popularity.)
Justine
March 10th, 2008 @ 1:40 pm

Zina, I think I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen my daughter really distraught over the welfare of every kid in her class, because she somehow feels “responsible” for them and their state of being.

She had a couple of girls that were really angry with her because I wouldn’t let my daughter invite 27 children to her birthday party, and someone got excluded.

So, while I have to laugh at the hilarity of the problem that I so clearly never had in school, I see some of the ramifications playing out in a more serious way, too.

Thanks for your kind words.