As I walked out to the playground yesterday to pick up my pretty princess, I heard "Lilly, come up here and talk to me about what happened." I noticed my princess crying on the playground below, and quickly rushed to the teacher to find out what was going on. She said "Well, one of the kindergartners said that Lilly called her a stupid ass." Imagine my shock, not necessarily that my daughter would say such vulgarity, but rather that she'd say it at school! I'm not suggesting that my precious toddler uses such slander at home, but I have heard some of the mean things she's said to her brother, so the idea that she was capable of such language didn't come as a complete shocker to me. The teacher asked if I thought this was possible of Lilly, because she "always seems so polite. I can't imagine that she'd ever say something like that." To which I replied, "Let me talk to her, she'll tell me the truth."
Me: "Lilly, did you call Sophia a bad name?"
Lilly: "Yes."
Me: "What did you call her?"
Lilly: "Stupid."
Me: "Lilly, did you say another bad word after that?"
Lilly (with tears): "Yes. I said ass."
Me: "Lilly, why would you call her that?"
Lilly: "Well, she IS."
Me (red with rage): "You apologize to her right now and we'll talk about this at home."
Lilly quickly apologized to little Sophia, and cried the rest of the way to the car. Knowing that she was in big trouble, Lilly politely offered to help Anderson with his car door, his seat belt, and offered him her pink laptop that was in the car. (All things she never does!) I stood outside the car, called my mom and asked her how to handle this?! This isn't something my kids do! They've been in trouble at school MAYBE twice, but NOTHING like THIS! I was mortified.
I handled the situation the best way I knew how at the time. I made her stand in the corner until dinner (nose in the corner, hands behind her back, not a peep), she had to write an apology letter, and then she had to call her dad and tell him what happened. Aaron, being 45984 miles away, handled it very well. He spoke very calmly, explained to her that it hurts people's feelings when we call them bad names, and told her that he hoped she wouldn't ever do something like that again.
I am hopeful that today will be a better day for my little Lilly.
(...to be continued...)
4 comments:
I think you handled that great!
it's funny, but it's so NOT funny. kids repeat everything and are so innocent in their thinking (to the fact that she openly admitted that this girl IS in fact a stupid ass!). as a former teacher, many parents don't like to think that their perfect children could do such things...i'm glad that you realized that it was possible and dealt with it right away. and i'm glad that you made HER tell aaron what happened. she must learn to take responsibility for her actions. way to handle this (of many, i'm sure) situation!
Okay...I have to admit, I laughed out loud. {It is so easy to do that when it isn't my child or my student} I also think that her response was priceless. BUT! It was wrong and I know it hurt your heart to have to deal with this and your own child.
I agree that the punishment was correct...now if I could just remember how my daughter was punished for calling a neighbor boy a "peckerhead" one day when she was about Lilly's age...
Dad
Post a Comment