She was so excited coming home from school today. Our conversation:
Chelsea: "Mommy, you know that girl in school I was telling you, she keeps on talking to me non stop while I was doing my work. I can't finish at all. But I told her, please stop I'm finishing my work. I think she does not want me to finish."
Me: "Why is that?"
Chelsea: "I don't know. She always says to me, you cannot finish that!"
Me: "Did you finish your work?"
Chelsea: "Yes, I ignored her."
Me: "That's good. You did a good job in finishing your work then. You have to really focus."
Chelsea: "I'm working really, really hard!"
Then she started telling me about what she ate for lunch, her excitement in her book fair wherein we all need to come so we can all buy the books that we want.
Chelsea struggled heavily with bullying in school during the first few months when she entered Kindergarten. And until now, she is coping up with it. She did entered school in the Philippines before through preschool but this is her first time to enter school in the United States. Because she entered Kindergarten at 5 yrs old and less than one month (her birthday on July and school starts August) and with her classmates almost reaching 6 or some going 7, her young and small structure sometimes intimidates her especially if some would ask her questions like, "Why are you so small?" She will just mum about it and until such time that, at one point, she never wanted to go to school.
But now, somehow she has learned a few strategies to cope up with bullying. She was crying in one of our conversations before asking me the same question. "Why I am so small, Mom?" And I said, "Well you are. But it does not mean you are less than other kids you know." There was even an incident in school before when a kid told me something while I accompanied her in the cafeteria to have breakfast. "So, you are her mom! Why is she so small?!" I was like... Excuse me? But I did not say anything. I wanted Chelsea to deal with it on her own and learn how to thrive in this challenging world we live in.
How did she start fighting her challenge? Each day, I asked her what she thinks about herself. And everyday she would be sad and how to get the best adjective about herself. I encourage her each day, help her with her tasks and homework but then still, she struggles each day. But then at sometime while we were watching Alice in Wonderland, she had amazing thoughts about being small. Then, she came up with the idea that she is small but then she is smart and pretty! Well, I cannot deny it, not because I am her Mom but truly she is! One of my precious is truly small but smart and pretty! Today she still struggles but knowing that each day she continues to fight, I know she will get better each day.
Tell me about your thoughts about bullying, make some comments and suggestions. I love conversations!
