girl behavior

[flea]

Last week at some point I found a tiny little note in Casper's book bag. It had a list of "best friends" and included Ali Cat (Allison), Siena, Katie Sue, Mrs. C, and Mrs. B. Both of the latter (Casper's teacher and the aide) had the word "love" written next to them. I think it's cute that Casper loves her teacher, but I was a little concerned about this process of writing notes about who is one's best friend and who is not.

Yesterday she brought home another list in Siena's handwriting. It was divided in two and labeled "good friends" and "bad friends." Casper was on the good side, as were Katie Sue, Allison, and Dynasty, a couple of other people I don't know, and Mommy and Daddy (hee!). On the "bad" side were a girl I know from after school, a boy in Casper and Siena's class, and a couple of other names I don't know. Notably absent from the entire list was Siena's twin brother!

I know kids do stuff like this; I probably did it myself when I was a little girl, though I don't really remember it. We've not made a big deal about it, but mentioned to Casper that it's important to treat everyone well even though there are some people we get along with better than others.

What do y'all think? Is it worth taking any further? I know Siena's mother well and could bring it up as a "common problem of 6 year old girls" thing (as opposed to a "your kid sucks" thing.) Should I mention it to the after school people (which is where I think it is happening), or Mrs. C the teacher?

Ugh.

ION I think I am getting my act together to take us to NC this weekend (western). Anyone want to join us? The weather looks a tad iffy, but that actually might make it easier to find last-minute camping spaces.

IOON I need to buy a Daisy Girl Scout uniform. Yoicks!

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

This is the part that terrifies me about having a girl. Please keep us posted about whether you decide to do anything, and what.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

If you know Siena's mom well enough to mention it, even in a general way, I think that's worth doing. And from your comments Mrs C seems like the kind of teacher who'd want to keep on top of these things.

[aimeejmc.livejournal.com]

skips over girl child rearing advice, for which I have none

Onto Scouts!! Do you need a vest or a smock? I have a smock that was given to us, but we're using vests. Do you need any books??

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Chuckles appears to have been dumped by her one friend, who was always very into all that friend-ranking drama type stuff. That whole way of thinking is just so alien to Chuckles that I think she's more perplexed than upset by the development.

I signed her up for Brownies this year -- we didn't do Daisy Scouts, because I figured she was already getting all the social interaction she could cope with at school. There were more kids than usual who wanted to participate at her school this year, so they asked if I could be a co-leader. It's been interesting so far. (I was only a Girl Scout for one year in high school, so that I could go to Europe with my friend Sue's scout troop.)

We had the big cookie sale kick-off rally on Friday, and I was absolutely livid when I discovered that there is a secret, exclusive Brownie troop made up of professors' kids who go to her school. Chuckles' ex-best friend is a member, of course. No one told us about it or invited us. Objectively, I don't have a problem with special-interest troops; my mom was in a Latvian-language scout troop the whole time she was growing up. But elitism really gets up my snoot -- especially when I'm not included! So suddenly I become much more interested in scouting. Our motley little troop of social underdogs is going to be the best Brownie troop EVAR!

[burrell.livejournal.com]

There was a bunch of cliquey girl behavior in Franny's class last year. For the most part, Franny stayed outside of it as she tends to pull away from kids who are inconsistent in their affection. But there were days when she came home with her feelings a bit bruised. And now that she's fairly high in the social rankings I sometimes hear her excluding others. My usual MO is to remind her of how she felt last year.

So yeah, I'd say it's normal girl behavior. I don't police it, but I do try to make Franny aware of how her actions might appear to others.