My little Berry is upstairs feeling very sad now. She asked to be left alone but I wouldn’t doubt that tears are falling.
Living in this neighborhood has it’s good and bad. It’s good to feel a certain measure of security living in a gated community. It’s nice to be able to walk any time of the day or night, letting Berry play outside when ever she would like.
I can’t force her to go out though. She is dealing with mean girls. They are being absolutely hateful. Girls who she had “hung out” with before now snub her when they see her and won’t reply to her text messages. The girls hide from her, won’t come when invited and are in general, hateful to her. They go so far as to tell others not to play with her either and make fun of the kids who do spend time with her.
She doesn’t know what to do. Remaining true to herself doesn’t win them and behaving like they do inspires teasing. Nothing she does can be good enough for the lot of them.
Eleven is hard enough without having to deal with preteen and just turned teen girls. Even worse, the boys are mean too. This is especially bad for a little girl who would rather play rough and tumble than sit around talking about girl things. On top of it, the three boys who have become dear to her are leaving in just a few weeks. She feels horrible about that.
I am trying to see our way through this and handle it better than I handled it with Bean. Sometimes telling a little girl to continue being sweet and kind is difficult in the face of being treated so poorly.
