>“Mommy, I want to go to my old school & see my old friends who were nice to me” said a small voice from the backseat. My heart broke into a million little pieces.
The week before Spring Break Kiddo started saying that the kids in his class were making fun of him. He wouldn’t go into specifics for me but did tell Hubby they made fun of him because he is small. We weren’t sure if Kiddo was telling 100% the truth of the matter but took him at his word. We talked to Kiddo about how to ignore people who aren’t being nice, how to tell the teacher about the situation, etc. Honestly, Hubby & I are pretty clueless on how to handle the situation. We don’t want to run to Kiddo’s rescue & intervene unless absolutely necessary but do need to teach Kiddo how to handle life when things like this happen. We figured we’d wait until after Spring Break & see what happens.
Well, on Monday Kiddo mentioned he didn’t want to go to school because the other kids were mean. He went of course. Nothing was said on the home about teasing so I didn’t bring it up.
Then my.heart.broke.
Tuesday I tried not to cry as I asked Kiddo what he meant by “his old friends were nice”. Kiddo said that his friends at school were not nice to him. That they made fun of him. After bath time Kiddo said that Joey told him he wasn’t going to be his friend & burst into tears.
A little background – Kiddo is a follower. He gloms onto 1 kid & pretty much ignores the rest of the class. This time he declared Joey was his best friend back when school started in the fall. At first it seemed to go well. Keep in mind; I’m new at all this play date thing. I don’t know how little kid friendships work nowadays; it’s been a long time since I was a little girl. In the last few months, Kiddo has been acting out in school (the yellow/orange frowny faces). He’s been talking about Joey being mean to him, not being his friend, pushing/shoving him at recess, etc. Now I have taken all of this with a grain of salt knowing my son is not perfect. I know he is often guilty of misbehaving on his own, without provocation. I also know he tends to follow along & do what the other kids, especially his best friend, do.
I have mentioned to his teacher in the past my concerns about Joey & what Kiddo has been saying in a roundabout manner. His teacher said that nothing had been happening that she was aware of. She was surprised that I requested a conference with her about all the frowny faces in Feb. Apparently I was the only parent who was concerned. That I totally believe because she isn’t always aware of what is going on in class nor is she always in control of the classroom. I do have some issues with her overall.
So my conundrum is this, do I once again approach the teacher with my concerns knowing that she will probably tell me that nothing is going on. The teacher tends to get a tad defensive when I suggest that there might be a problem in the classroom. How to I teach our son to handle PreK meanies with grace? At what point do I as a parent step in & intervene?
Elizabeth
