the mommy who doesn’t like us and straight A’s

Okay, try this with me. Lift your left shoulder and pull it forward a bit. Turn your chin to almost touch you left shoulder. Furrow your brow. Lift your left upper lip. Look down.

When someone looks at your daughter like that, does she have gas or is she sneering?

PinkGirl says:

“Mommy, GoodFriend’s mom doesn’t like me.” (Smart kid)

“That’s okay, honey, she doesn’t like me either.” (I get the same gassy look.)

“But why?”

“Well, honey, I’m not sure. We may have done something she doesn’t like, but if she doesn’t want to tell us, we can’t make her. We also can’t make her like us. It’s hard, but sometimes, there will be people who just won’t like us. I think maybe we should just stay away from her and hang around people who like us. What do you think?”

“Okay” (and it’s back to playing)

(Dear Lord, please let PinkGirl retain this resilience. And please, if GoodFriend’s mom continues dislike us, let her dislike us so much that she stays far, far far away from us. Please let her disdain manifest itself in the silent treatment.)

Unfortunately, I’ve been to birthday parties with this mom. She is only silent to the person she dislikes. She has quite a bit to say to others about the people she dislikes. I thought the one lesson everyone took from junior high school was that when someone takes badly about others to you, you can bet they talk badly about you to others.

I can tell which of the other parents remember this rule. They are the ones who keep the conversation on a superficial level, never providing personal information (ammunition) which can later be twisted and presented in a negative light when relayed to others later. As one parent put it, “I just don’t ever want to make her mad at me.”

(Dear Lord, please don’t ever let me cause anyone to ever say that about me.)

On the other hand, the parents of FavoriteSon’s friends seem to think he’s a pretty cool kid, which is always a good sign, especially as he is entering the “age of peer pressure.”

He had an end of the year project he worked on with a friend. His friend wrote a report and FavoriteSon built a model. Model building is NOT one of his talents. There are so many (did I say many?) tiny (did I say tiny?) little pieces. And they take SO long to dry after painting them. And they fall off after gluing them. Any they cover the kitchen table (and floor) for WEEKS while trying to paint and glue them. (Thank you God, that this project is OVER. Please let FavoriteSon NEVER again build a model.) It was a Model A, ‘32 Ford. The headlight fell off between home and school. But they got an A+ (97) on the project. (And again, thank you God, that this project is OVER. Please let FavoriteSon NEVER again build a model.)

And, we are SO proud of FavoriteSon! Straight A’s on his report card! He came home and asked:

“What do I get?”

“A proud hug and the praise of a loving mother.”

“Yeah, but what do I GET?

“You get to move on to 7th grade.”

“I want money.”