The other day Sophie came home and made a passing comment that one of her friends had teased her about the sandwich that was in her lunchbox. Apparently having a slice of cheese in between two pieces of bread is “SUCH a Sophie style sandwich” and one that Sophie’s friend does not approve off AT ALL.
This conversation was met by an eye roll (from me) and a sigh (from Sophie) before I launched into a spiel about how ridiculous 10 year old girls can be at times and really, if you’re going to find something to pick on, surely you can do better than a sandwich?!
Sophie was all, “I know right?” before telling me that sometimes it’s just really exhausting to be around certain friends at school and why can’t everyone just be nice to each other?!
It starts young, doesn’t it? This whole notion of bringing someone down to make yourself feel better. Of nasty, bitchy comments that do nothing but make the other person feel like shit. It’s a completely unnecessary way of approaching life and quite frankly, I’m over it!
Back in the day when I used to love planning birthday parties, I’d get all sorts of reactions when Mum’s dropped their kids off for a couple of hours of pass the parcel with a sugar high chaser.
I’d get everything from, “Wow, this looks amazing!” to “Goodness me, look at his set up. Somebody has far too much spare time on their hands!”
To which I’d say, “Thank you” and “Really? Who?” Because if nothing else, I’m REALLY GOOD at raising the passive aggressive bullshit bar to a very high level!
Fortunately, I haven’t had much negativity to deal with on this blog or on the blog’s Facebook page, but I do see a lot of it floating around the internet, as I’m sure you do too. For example, on Wednesday night I tuned into The Bachelor and this was the first thing that popped up on my Facebook feed the next morning:
I mean, really?
I don’t know about you, but I miss the good old days when off the cuff comments like that were said to whoever was sitting beside you on the couch while you were watching TV. You’d have a bit of a laugh and then it was forgotten. There wasn’t 4,600 other people listening into your conversation, with over a thousand of those people offering their opinion and what you said didn’t hang around in the room forever.
Sometimes I think the art of being kind has been forgotten. Who cares what you have on your sandwich or what sort of party you throw for your kid or what someone on TV looks like? If we all show a bit more kindness towards each other every now and again, maybe our kids will too.
Has your child been picked on at school? Did you watch The Bachelor? Tell me everything!
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