The Fairly Odd Mother

February’s ROFL: Do You Like Scrabble?

March 6, 2009

My vote for February’s ROFL award goes to Sarah at Ordinary Days for her innocent little post about, ahem, Scrabble. Try not to choke on your coffee when you read it.

Want even more? You can see all the month’s nominees at Chicky, Chicky Baby and Oh, The Joys. Click here for more info and come play along in March!

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I’ve also reviewed a cool new nightlight for Sylvania—seriously, their PalPODzzz rocket and ladybug nightlights are too cute and double as flashlights! Which means that maybe your kids will leave your flashlights alone so you can find them during the next power outage.

Mean Girls Hurt Moms Too

March 5, 2009

She purposely hurt my daughter.

The story came out the other day, as we were driving somewhere in the minivan.

“Mommy, why would someone bend someone else’s finger back as far as it’ll go?”

Thinking she had just seen some kids goofing around, I told her that sometimes kids do dumb things like that to surprise an unsuspecting kid. They grab the finger, twist it back and then laugh at their victim’s shock and surprise.

I’m sure it happened to me before, once, because once is all it takes before you learn.

“Why do you ask? Did you see someone doing this?

“No. A girl at camp did it to me. . .And, mommy, it really, really hurt.” Her voice broke at the second “really”.

Last summer.

Last summer, a girl hurt her, and she didn’t say anything about it until more than seven months later.

There had been a few other things that came out about camp—a day camp we paid dearly for, that she seemed to love, that came with impeccable recommendations from friends and neighbors. I heard some things after the fact: a couple of girls that weren’t nice, who didn’t “let” Belly play with them, who thought they were better than everyone else. It seems a little stereotypical, but they were both blond.

What bothers me most is that she didn’t tell me, at least not right away. I’m heartened to hear that she did speak up to her counselors when the girls first started to exclude her, but I know that bringing in the “teachers” often just intensifies the “mean girl” treatment.

I had thought that kids had changed from my youth. Anti-bullying campaigns in school. Cartoons and children’s stories about being kind to others. Diversity classes.

And, yet, I keep hearing stories about kids deliberately hurting other kids, physically, verbally, mentally, often under the noses of adults.

I don’t want to put Belly in a bubble and keep her from being out in the world. Yes, we homeschool, but I want her to know how to handle these situations, to know that there will be people who meet her and love her, who want to be her friend, but there will also be some who don’t.

And, I don’t blame the camp for this happening. Mean girls are like cockroaches: they don’t ever really go away.

But, when it came time to re-enroll in camp, I let her decide. And, she decided she’d like to try something else this summer.

This is probably a good thing, because this mama wants to grab a couple of blond girls by the hair and shake them out of their shoes.

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written in response to Mom-101’s heartbreaking post about a mean girl who dared to hurt the feelings of one of the cutest little girls I know.

Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me 21 Comments

My (not very) big, fat Greek Wannabees

March 2, 2009

I used to want to be Italian.

I was so envious of the big family gatherings with its noisy conversations, the joking, the copious amounts of food, the little children running over the old peoples’ feet. The dozens of cousins.

On Sunday, my kids wanted to be Greek.

We were at the baptism for the third child of close friends. Walking into the stunning Greek Orthodox church for the ceremony, I was reminded of when their other two children were baptized and of their wedding. We have been part of several of this family’s big events, and I recognized quite a few people.

After the traditional and lovely Greek ceremony, we went to a function hall for dinner. It took a little while, but pretty soon, my kids were off and running through the building with the other kids, acting as if they too had dark hair, dark eyes—in other words, acting just like they too were cousins.

On the dance floor, the girls joined the circle to dance to the Greek music.

I later told them that one of the things I love most about this type of gathering is knowing that the same music and dancing, these customs, have been done by people for thousands of years. Being a part of it is like being a part of the link between the past and the future.

The girls really enjoyed the traditional Greek music and tried to figure out the dance steps the grownups were doing. Jilly almost made me spit my drink out when she excitedly said, “MOMMY! We HAVE to get this CD!”

Even D enjoyed the dancing, albeit for different reasons. Seems he already knows how to pick ’em.