It has begun. Today, the 15th whole day of 6th grade, middle school has become middle school for my daughter. Bless, bless, bless her. The basic problem is: the child does not have a mean bone in her body. Bossy? Absolutely. Dingy? Testify. But mean? Completely beyond her realm of thinking.
So we have had many conversations that conclude with a snotty, weepy declaration of, "But I thought she was my friend." The sad part is that it isn't the same girl. You see, if you know Ashley's name, she's your friend. If you pass her in the hall, she's your friend. If you have the same notebook/ t-shirt/ tennis shoes/ math teacher as her, she's your friend. And she will treat you the way a friend treats people. But that is evidenlty rare among 6th grade girls.
One thing I have always commended Ashley for is choosing her friends wisely. And the friends that she is closest to are still being kind. Oh, but not all friends are being friendly. And it is a shock and blow to her little sense of fairness and rightness in the world and today, the worst happened -- about a half-dozen different people (MEAN GIRLS!!) commented negatively about the same part of her appearance. So we are having an all-out appearance crisis in our home, which I'm barely ready to talk myself out of, much less an 11-year-old. I have never in my life wanted to feed a child food for comfort -- until today because I had absolutely NO IDEA what to do with her.
So I just cried with her.
