Hellobee Boards

haven't seen it yet, but makes me so sad

Ugh! I am so nervous about this. I really hope my little one gets my husbands "don't give a hoot" attitude. I had a tough time with mean girls myself.

A friend recently had to meet with her daughter's preschool director over mean girl behavior/bullying issues. It makes me so so sad.

I saw it this past year at age 4.
It broke my heart and I was so thankful my DD doesn't play with that group of girls

That's so sad

My fear is that my daughter will be a mean girl. She loves bossing people around and telling them what to do! I hope she's not!

Ugh, I was bullied so badly in elementary school and it was such a miserable thing.

Its one of the big reasons we want to send DS to a certain school in town (it goes from preschool to 12th grade). The school states that they have a zero tolerance policy on bullying and every single parent and student I've talked to at the school always mentions the policy on their own. They tell me that the school is SUPER intense about bullying and rude behavior will not put up with it. And because so many families send their kids to the school beginning in preschool, the kids grow up understanding the zero tolerance policy and I guess they do a great job self-policing too. One of my baggers at my grocery store is a recent grad and she was randomly telling me how much she loved her school experience there because she never really saw bullying or mean behavior like her other friends. I'm sure there's SOME bad apples, but if I can have my son avoid the level of BS I went through, I'll do it.

I've taught preschool for a while and I've seen it as early as 3. As soon as a kid realizes they have the ability to affect others' behavior & mood, they try it out ("You can't come to my birthday party." Etc) I usually see it become a "mean girl" bullying thing when it's left unchecked or an adult in their life is a bully. It's worse when other girls "go along" and support the bully, so I think teaching young girls to be good "by-standers" is really important.

@yellowbird: being bossy doesn't always lead to being a mean girl! Most kids realize telling others what to do isn't enjoyable and doesn't get them what they want, so they stop doing it

ETA: it makes me really sad that that's going on in that classroom. Those girls are old enough to learn to be nicer.

There is definitely a mean girl in my LO's room. The teachers (thankfully) know it and are on her, although let's be real, there are only 2 teachers, they can't watch everyone 24/7.

It makes me sad to see this starting so early, but I'm also not surprised. After meeting said girl's mom, it's totally an apple/tree situation. I tell LO to ignore what X says because she is being a bully, but to stand up for herself or friends (by telling a teacher).

@JoyfulKiwi: thanks for chiming in. I'm really sad that kids this young can be bullies.

I just don't get how at this young kids can be deliberately mean. Sure my daughter says mean things that are hurtful. But I really don't think she does it to *be* mean.