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I’m Sick of Parents Making Excuses For Mean Girls

Mean Kids and Bullies

 

I talked to a friend of mine the other night who told me a heart wrenching story about how a group of 7th grade girls literally got up from a lunch table and moved when her daughter sat down at it. They certainly had a good reason to do it. After all, an 8th grade hottie asked her daughter to the dance and (gasp) she said yes. Unbeknownst to her the boy was verbally taken and off-limits. Yes, I know this sounds like Mean Girls, Part Deux but in fact it wasn’t. It’s just another day in a garden variety middle school in a small New York town.

As much as the girls’ vile behavior upset me, it’s what my friend told me next that really got my blood pressure boiling. When my friend called one of the girls’ moms — someone she has known for more than a decade — the response was this: “Oh, I don’t think it was a big deal. I just don’t think they are as close anymore. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.”

Um, what the what what?

I get it. It is a hard thing to imagine that your sweet little girl can also be Regina George but are we really that naive? Are we so blinded by the love we feel for our kids that we refuse to believe they are capable of unkind behavior towards someone else’s child, someone else’s little girl?

I worry sometimes about my own three girls. Although I know their hearts are kind, I wonder are their minds strong enough to know right from wrong in a moment of weakness, of jealousy, of rage. Or when they see someone they admire acting cruel, will they have the courage to act appropriately? It’s a lot to ask of a young girl and it’s crazy to think they won’t make mistakes.

To be clear, I do not believe that one bad incident does a mean girl make. There is a difference between a child that makes a bad judgment call, and one who out-and-out torments another kid. But, I do believe that the more excuses we make for our children, the more likely they are to do it again. And again. And again.

I read somewhere once that children need to be raised not managed. This is so true. If you hear yourself uttering one of these phrases below, ask yourself, is this how I really want my child to act?

Then take a moment to close your eyes, and imagine it’s your child, your little girl. How would you want another parent to respond? How would you feel if your child was ostracized, and one of the following was the excuses you received?

5 Ridiculous Excuses Parents Make For Mean Girls and Bullies

5.  Your daughter doesn’t seem to be interested in being part of the group anymore, so my daughter and the rest of the girls just don’t talk to her as much. Not everyone has to be best friends. Oh, the classic passive aggressive “it’s not me it’s you” defense. That will work well when she grows up and is expected to actually get along with people “outside of her group.”

4. My daughter said it really wasn’t that big of a deal, and really, shouldn’t the girls work it out on their own? What if the police said that to Charlie Manson’s cult? “I know Charlie is a little crazy, but really, can’t you guys just figure out how to get along with him?” Seriously, when did we get so lazy as parents that we can’t take 15 minutes to talk to our kids about the difference between wrong and right? Why will we drive them hours across state lines to sports tournaments but we can’t spend ten minutes to sort out bad behavior. Yes, kids need to learn to work it out, but there are also times when parents need to step in and course correct. All it takes is one parent to be brave enough to actually, well, parent their kid, and it can make a huge difference.

3. It’s not my daughter’s fault that your daughter is so sensitive. Seriously? There are millions of documented incidents of girls out-and-out traumatizing other girls — some of which are supposed to be their best friends! Don’t automatically blame the other girl. Make your daughter take at least a small portion of responsibility. Reflecting on one’s behavior and understanding your role in a situation is a pretty important life skill.

2. It wasn’t really my daughter being mean, it was her friends. The innocent bystander excuse. Lovely. Because as long as you don’t participate, you’re not really doing anything wrong.

1. Girls will be girls. This is the one that really gets my pants on fire. Since the dawn of time we have been saying girls will be girls. As women, are we not tired of this? As parents, haven’t we all had enough? Wouldn’t it be nice to take the negative connotation off of this phrase and turn it into a positive? This phrase should be abolished. Sometimes a girl just is actually mean, but most mean girls are created, not born that way. We should never use this excuse for bad behavior.

My friend’s daughter will be okay. Fortunately she had other friends to fall back on, and she learned a tough lesson early on in life; but that doesn’t mean every girl treated poorly will have that happy ending.

Let’s stop making excuses for our girls. Let’s start raising them up by not accepting excuses for putting others down.

It starts with one brave parent.

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11 Comments

  1. Everyone is so quick to jump on the “bully” train now. So some girls didn’t want to sit with your friend’s daughter and she is now being “bullied”. So much that your friend called the “bully’s” mother.

    1. Seriously? So a friend of a decade ditches you out of the blue and takes all your friends with her and it’s no big deal? I guess we know what your response would be

    2. Obviously your daughter hasn’t been on the receiving end of this behavior. Would you would be ok with your daughter ostracizing another child and convincing all of the other girls to do the same? Because that’s what happens and high school is hard enough without having to eat lunch in the athletic director’s office alone because those girls said she was no longer allowed to sit with them

    3. Lori J Gandelman says:

      No one used the word “bully”. They used the word “mean”. Leave the table on your own? Fine. You don’t have to sit with my daughter if that’s your prerogative. Take everybody else with you? Mean.

    4. Wow, with your statement. If you have children, I can only imagine how “nice” they are. Terribly sad.

  2. Always remember there are two sides to every story and sometimes teenage girls interests change as they enter high school and unfortunately this can result in the end of long term friendships as the girls find they no longer have common interests or things to talk about. This doesn’t mean bullying is involved even though their feelings may be hurt and confused. Also parents can get too involved and they can end up being the ones doing the bullying. Thankfully the teenage years don’t last forever!

    1. Yes, you are right. However, I was once in a situation just like this girl was, where all her friends decided to move when she sat down. This happened to me at 13 years old, because a boy I liked, who my best friend at the time also liked, liked me instead of her. And because of that, her and the rest of my “friends “decided it was best that I wasn’t apart of their squad. Those girls were bullies. They were horrible to me. They were jealous girls who bullied others too. Bullying comes in many forms. Not just beating up on someone physically, but emotionally and mentally, by turning people against you. By taking away someone’s friends for the sole purpose of making them feel lonely, and awful about themselves, that’s bullying. For me, luckily, I had a mom who taught me how to defend myself and not take anyone’s crap. And because of that, I grew up strong and waving my middle finger at bullies as I flipped my gorgeous curly locks and walked away towards my sunset. Moms need to make sure their daughters aren’t mean, but also teach their sweet daughters how to put these mean girls in their place! Stick that middle finger in the air, and wave it like you just don’t care! Peace out mean girls.

  3. Lori J Gandelman says:

    No one used the word “bully”. They used the word “mean”. Leave the table on your own? Fine. You don’t have to sit with my daughter if that’s your prerogative. Take everybody else with you? Mean.

    1. Maybe all the girls decided to ditch the one girl because she started dating her friend’s crush. Obviously, the date with the “eighth grade hottie” was more important to her than caring about her friend’s feelings. She picked the mister, they picked the sisters. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who is disloyal and doesn’t care about their feelings. It doesn’t make them “mean girls” just girls who recognize when someone isn’t really a friend. Every time a girl gets her feelings hurt or feels ostracized doesn’t mean that other people are mean girls. Maybe it’s caused by her own actions.

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