Maybe it is just me, but I am very naive when it comes to the kindness (or lack thereof) of children. I know there is the "Mine!" stage and the "I'll be your friend if you give me that ____" stage, but I was unprepared for the outright meanness stage. That is, the meanness of children to other children. (Siblings excluded of course.) This year, I have heard stories from Helen of kids calling other kids fat, unpopular, and ugly; forbidding a boyfriend (yeah-that's right-I said boyfriend!) from playing with other girls; hitting; cursing; kissing; it just goes on and on. The innocence is lost it seems.
Now, my daughter is far, far from perfect. And of course, she is not always nice. But she is also unconcerned by the perfectness of one's hair or the size of her waistline or the notion that anything can be posted on Facebook. She watches cartoons, not sitcoms with teenagers and tweens kissing. She thinks "stupid" is a bad word that one should never say. She is only 7.
Thank goodness, her individuality will take nothing short of a steamroller to suppress (I'll admit that I've tried a time or two). The girl has a sense of self that most adult women would kill for, but her innocence cannot be regained.
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