Mean Girl

When I first found out I was having a girl I was quite nervous. Actually, truth be told, I’m still nervous. With girls come a lot of issues but the main one I was worried about was “mean girls.” I fear for the teen years when girls will taunt each other, intimidate one another, make one another insecure, and just be plain mean.

But I’m starting to see mean girls can occur much earlier.

Let me introduce you to 6 year old Jenna.

Sweet, blond, curly haired Jenna.

Or so I thought.

I decided to take Caroline and Andrew to the playground during one of Alex’s lacrosse games.

As we were walking up I noticed Jenna because of her curls. Tons and tons of blond curls on her head. She was wearing her shirt tied at the side along with running shorts. So cute.

Or so I thought.

As we got closer the screaming began.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!”

“I WILL CUT YOU WITH A KNIFE UNTIL YOU DIE!”

What the &%$#!@& is going on here?

Jenna was screaming at a little boy who I also guessed to be about 6 years old. Actually she was screaming it to any boy around. I immediately veered my kids toward the swings.

The swings satisfied them for about 5 minutes.

Soon we were back by the playground equipment where the tirade was still going on.

“I”M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

“GET AWAY FROM OUR AREA!”

When not screaming at the boys, she was stomping her feet, and chasing them away. Andrew knew enough to stay far enough away from Jenna but close enough to me. He seemed to be in her prime target range.

Seemingly oblivious to all of this, Caroline walked close by and started playing with some movable discs. The discs can be slid from one side of the pole to the other side. Caroline enjoyed herself for a few minutes moving the pieces.

And then Jenna came up.

She watched Caroline for a moment.

She then promptly pushed all the discs to one side, essentially squeezing all of Caroline’s fingers which were stuck between the pole and the discs.

I immediately pushed the bars away and checked Caroline’s fingers.

She seemed to be fine but I was boiling.

“We do not hurt people on purpose. She can play with the bottom discs and you can play with the top discs.”

Apparently she didn’t want to play with the discs anymore so she went back to screaming at the boys.

I looked for Jenna’s parent but never found someone who would willingly claim her.

As we were leaving the game I noticed Jenna standing next to an older woman. It must have been her grandmother since she kept saying, “Nana. Nana. Where’s Papa?”

Papa was probably sitting on the side lines enjoying his last moment of peace.

I thought about saying something to Nana but didn’t. This poor woman probably knew what she was dealing with. Hopefully she would refuse to babysit for a long time.

I’m starting to think I might have been wrong in my initial thinking.

Maybe it’s not mean girls I should be worried about.

Maybe it’s psychotic 6 year olds.

4 thoughts on “Mean Girl

  1. This child sounds psychotic…and different than you, I DEFINITELY would have said something to Grandma. Probrably would have gotten myself shot in the long run, but…at least I would have felt better.

  2. I remember when you were in kindergarten and a little girl you liked a lot and wanted to be friends with decided she was going to dominate you by telling you not to eat your school lunch hamburger…..well, that was the end of you caring to be friends with the girl…….I remember worrying about similar things at different ages…and I have come to the conclusion that the bad asses are out there and civilization is threatened daily by
    their boorish behavior. So many parents could stop this in their tracks with making sure their children are grounded in reality which includes realizing that the world does not revolve around them….Now, I will get down from the “soap box”.

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