Playground Drama

For some reason, playground drama seems to follow poor Charleigh June.  The sweet girl wants nothing more than to be EVERYBODY'S friend.  Every time a kid comes to the playground she immediately runs up yelling, "Hi Friend! I'm June-June!"  Doesn't matter whether or not they want to be her friend or play with her, she's right there in the middle of it.

Yesterday (Sunday) after the Walk of Hope we ran up to Center Court to eat lunch and let Charleigh run off some of her excess energy.  We ordered food, and let Charleigh play until the food got here - sadly, she didn't want to come eat her French fries once they came.  She was playing pretty well, so we decided to let her play until she was exhausted.  Next thing we know, we hear a crying coming from the playground - sure enough, she's on the ground screaming.  Chad goes running after her, as well as two other parents.  She was fine, but completely caught off guard.  As you most likely know, Charleigh is a bit of a tomboy and she's the kind of girl that falls down, cries, and then gets right back up again.  

We made her sit down and eat to calm down so that she could play again.  I went to watch her on the playground and was very disappointed in what I saw.  Boys calling her a crybaby, telling her she smelled like poop, etc.  They were blocking her from getting on the slide, and some bratty girls were sitting square in the middle of the entry playing on cell phones.

I was especially irritated since their mother had just gone up to the boys and told them they were being mean, yet they continued to pick on her.  It really broke my heart.  As a kid who was bullied growing up, I have a real problem with my kids being bullied.

Obviously bullying isn't acceptable anywhere, but these boys were probably 9 or 10 versus Charleigh's (almost) 3.  I'm not going to tolerate this.  Sadly, I think that this is obviously a learned behavior - most likely from their parents.  

We gathered our stuff and went inside with our friends.  And had a VERY upset Charleigh June.  She kept asking if she could go outside and play with her friends.  I tried explaining to her that these kids were not her friends, because friends aren't mean to each other.  (Until they hit puberty, that is....we all know how girls can be.). I told her they were mean boys whose parents didn't teach them how to be nice to everybody.  My sweet girl just didn't understand because in her mind EVERYBODY is her friend.  At least I know that we are doing a good job of raising a sweet girl.  But someday we will teach her how to handle situations similar to this when they get out of hand.  I want my kids to stand up for themselves and, more than anything, know that Mommy & Daddy love them more than anything.  

Someday all three will understand that we ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING, and I will be an even prouder Mommy than I am now.