Drama, drama, drama

On Tuesday Jercie came home from school. Usually she is very excited to tell me all about her day and show me what's in her back pack. When I asked her how it was she said fine and went to put her back pack away. I asked her to bring me her back pack and she took off running crying and telling me she didn't want me to see it. So I of course chased her, made her cry even harder and finally wrestled the back pack out of her hands. There wasn't anything in it. She had a little High School Musical notebook that I bought her in there that she thought I was going to take away. I must be a pretty mean mom if she's worried about that. :) So anyway, she just wasn't herself so I finally asked what was going on. She said that Nick's older sister was being mean to her, and all the other kids laughed at her. I was livid! This girl is in 5th or 6th grade. What the hell is she doing picking on a first grader. She told me that this girl called her a jerk for no reason. I explained it all to Mike, if you know Mike at all you know that you don't mess with his kids. He doesn't care how old or young you are he will take you down. Luckily, I was able to talk him down. I told Jercie to ignore that girl and tell her to leave her alone. Mike told me that if she comes off the bus crying again I don't have a say in what he does.

Yesterday, Jercie came home and the tears came pouring in. She said that the mean girl took a gum wrapper from her and tore it up. I know that sounds silly, and it is, but to a 6 year old it's horrifying. So Mike went up to the girl's house and spoke with the dad and the little girl. I told him to be nice. I had a feeling we weren't getting the whole story. Of course I was right. Mike came home and asked Jercie to tell the whole story.

Apparently, on Tuesday Nick brought a lizard to school. He let Jercie play with it. The bell rang and Jercie couldn't get it back to him before she had to get to class. She put it in her back pack and told the teacher about it. The teacher told her to go outside and let it go. I guess this ticked off Nick so he went and told his big sister who in turn was being mean to Jercie, never called her a jerk.

I asked Jercie if she thought she might owe this girl and apology and she said yes. I asked if she knew why. She said because she didn't tell me and Mike the whole story and lied to us about the girl calling her a jerk. So Mike took her back up to apologize. The other girl apologized too. I was very proud of Jercie for being so willing to say she was sorry and knowing what she did wrong. I must be doing something right. :)

Now just so you all know, this girl comes from a family of bullies. She and her brothers have all been in trouble for it. She is not innocent in all this, but Jercie wasn't either. Jercie will be riding the other bus that comes to Joseph from now on. I have to drive her to and from the bus stop now, but her happiness is well worth the price I have to pay. Being a parent is a lot harder than my parents made it look.