My 6 year old granddaughter is a very sweet and kind girl. She's polite. She's funny and friendly and smart as a whip. What she is NOT is a fighter.
We all met at the McDonald's which was part way between where we live and they live to do the great tomato exchange. The idea was to give the girls a chance to run their energy off between the 1 1/2 hour drive there, and the 1 1/2 drive back.
It has a great climbing cage that goes all the way to the ceiling and it has a piano slide. When the girls were turned loose in it, they had a great time, but there were two boys there as well. The oldest boy and my oldest granddaughter were about the same age. The youngest boy was a year older than my youngest granddaughter.
Now the boys were much more boisterous than our two girls. They ran at the girls screaming "MONSTERS! MONSTERS!!!" and making grabbing motions in their faces. They crowded close to them while they were climbing, not exactly pushing, but just being physically in the way.
It wasn't that their grandparents weren't telling them to stop it. They were.
It wasn't that the boys weren't listening. They were.
However, ever so slowly, it would begin again. They would begin to crowd and make clawing motions in the 6 year old's face, and she'd get weepy and run for her mama.
The grandparents would scold the little boys and tell them to back off...but...then ever so slowly, once again...
At one point, Miss Six was teaching Miss Two how to climb, and the two boys pushed in past and began making roaring noises and clawing motions at the girls' faces. My daughter in law and I opened our mouthes to say something when the two year old took matters into her own capable hands. She got right back into the boys' faces and let loose a scream that could make ears bleed. I mean, I have heard screaming children before, but really, this little gal has a set of lungs on her like you have never heard in your life.
The other grandma was up in a second, fearing that the boys had hurt someone, and the boys got another stern talking to. Their grandfather threatened to take them home. Shit got real.
I looked at my daughter in law and said, "Those two girls are as different as night and day, aren't they? That little gal is fearless!"
My daughter in law said, "Her father believes that she's going to be that girl that goes to school with a brick in her purse."
I'm glad there are girls like the two year old. I can imagine the scene in my mind and have to chuckle. Good on her for helping out her sister.
ReplyDeleteShe has one of those screams that makes everyone in the area flinch and blurt some little exclamations. She rarely uses it except in moments of extreme emotion: Mad as heck, scared as heck, or excited as heck. She has a less agitated scream for everything in between.
DeleteThe world of children. So delightful. Lol about the brick in the purse.
ReplyDeleteHer dad is a funny character. Back in his day, he was quite a screamer too, so she comes by it naturally.
DeleteGood on the 2 year old! She sorted them out. "Brick in her purse" too funny!
ReplyDeleteShe walks like a little drill sergeant. Long strides, elbows out. She's confident.
DeleteI raised a strong daughter. She has always fought for the underdog, taken on bullies, and speaks up for herself all the time. Sometimes I wince a little at some of the things she says and does, but she will never change and at her age of 56, I don't want her to. When I look back on how I was in my youth and early adulthood I never was like that. But then that was a different world we were living in, and I was raised with a different scorecard. I am tremendously proud of her.
ReplyDeleteI've got one of those as well. They all are what they are, and they've done well in their lives.
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ReplyDeleteI love her self confidence!
ReplyDeleteShe's not at all shy.
DeleteSome kids are very socially inept.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that it was ineptness, really. They weren't bad boys. They were just extremely boisterous, physical kids.
DeleteI used to shepherd three little girls to primary school, one being my daughter. One of the other ones was always bullied at school and sure enough the third girl started bullying her. My daughter suddenly stepped up and starting pushing the bully around, asking her how she liked it. It worked. There are those that do and those that don't.
ReplyDeleteI remember once in the playground, the Anderson twins (girls) found a snake and they were chasing people with it. I was deathly afraid of snakes, but I knew that if they caught wind of that, it would only make matters worse. So when they ran at me with that small snake, I forced myself to stand very still and said, "That's really a very small snake. I wonder why people are being so silly about it." It wasn't long at all before they found a new target.
DeleteShe is going to do well I feel.
ReplyDeleteThey will both do well, I think. Miss Six will always be the reasonable, rational person. Miss Two might change, but for the moment, she is a force of nature.
DeleteOh this DID make me laugh - it was that final comment about the brick in her purse! Rosie has an ear-splitting scream too - it could curdle milk a room away. I have a feeling she will be one of life's fighters too.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of Gabby (yup, a brick would be at home with her too), who was dreadful as a teenager but has now come into her own and when we want people "dealt with!", we get her on the phone. We call her our "tame Rottweiler". She is definitely one of life's fighter - we were on holiday in Scotland once, camping. There were a family there from the Govan in Edinburgh. (A VERY VERY rough area). The parents let the kids run feral outside until it was pretty dark. Anyway, the lad was very pushy and tried to thump Gabby's Little Brother (Danny). Gabby was having none of this and beat seven bells out of Govan lad, at which point his sister joined in, calling him a sissy to let a girl beat him up!!!
Sorry, strike out Edinburgh - I meant to write GLASGOW.
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious. There's nothing more ferocious than sible war.
DeleteA two-year-old's scream can be nerve-shredding, but well done her for standing up for herself and her sister.
ReplyDeleteShe's a corker. She wanted so much to get to the top of the climbing tower. Her mama is a very sensible woman. Her theory is to let them figure out how to get up there. If they can get themselves up, they can get themselves down. She struggled and struggled. Standing outside the protective gridwork, I told her to get in the corner, brace her foot against the grid, and push. She's two. I never for a moment thought she'd understand that. But she did, and she got all the way to the top. We both stood watching in disbelief as she climbed all the way to the top. We applauded and she let loose with one of her earsplitting yawps, came down the swirly slide, and then showed no more interest. She had proved to herself that she could do it, I guess.
DeleteI love a child who can stand up for herself and her sister, our youngest granddaughter (3) is very protective of her older brother (4)
ReplyDeleteMiss Six is not averse to standing up for herself, but she does it differently. She will tell the other child to stop doing (whatever), that she doesn't like it, and it makes her feel (fill in the blank). In her experience, that has usually been enough.
DeleteAs they would say around here "Good on ya, gal!"
ReplyDeleteLOL. It was certainly hard not to cheer. The boys were so shocked. They just stared.
DeleteGood for her! My daughter has always stood up for anyone being bullied and, though physically tiny, has always stood her ground in a quietly determined way. She has worked for charities dealing with the victims of domestic abuse and now works to help protect children from online abuse. It makes me really proud.
ReplyDeleteGood for her. People who stand up for the underdogs are an asset in todays world, where underdogs seem to be simply swept to the fringes and ignored.
DeleteCarrying a brick in a purse or backpack even sounds legal! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteGod help the poor person who underestimates her.
DeleteMy daughter was my youngest child and she had 4 older brothers so she was never intimidated by boys and would stand up for herself and her friends. Now she has to stand up to a bully at work (her boss!) and she does that but she is looking for a new job (his loss!).
ReplyDeleteI would have made those boys get off the slide if I was their grandparent. They need to learn better behavior.
You know, the grandparents were very nice people, but yes. They needed to be a bit more firm about it. They would have gotten a time out immediately, on the first transgression. They were told repeatedly, but they just always went back to their ways after a time. Nothing really happened, but they were very physically crowding and directly in the girls' faces. That wasn't cool and it meant that someone needed to be right there to monitor it, lest someone be pushed from a high perch accidently.
DeleteI agree with Ellen D. There should have been no need for your granddaughter to roar her mighty roar although I know it must have been impressive. The other grandparents should have taken those boys out of the play area on the second monster attack.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive. But you are absolutely right when you say that the grandparents should have been firmer. The grandmother did speak with me when I was cleaning our table up while my daughter-in-law took the girls to the restroom. She said that she hoped the girls had a fun time. I said that I thought it had. She apologized for her grandsons and said, "They are not little angels. I know that much." She also said that the scream scared the wits out of her because she thought that they'd hurt someone. Very nice, but a firmer hand was needed.
DeleteThe boys were a little over-the-top as they say, but that must have been an awesome scream.
ReplyDeleteI really think that you might have heard it in parts of Canada.
DeleteA brick in her purse! I knew an older woman who always kept an ice pick in hers. Talk about shit getting real...
ReplyDeleteI don't carry a purse. A little clutch. Maybe I need to reconsider.
DeleteGood for her!
ReplyDeleteThe boys were stunned.
DeleteGood for the little one. Those boys needed restrained long before she was involved.
ReplyDeleteThey did. Not going to disagree with you there. It required their mother and me to stand right there are the cage and monitor the situation. We told them to get back too. It fell on deaf ears.
DeleteI have grandsons and they might do this. However, after the first time (or perhaps twice) of doing the monster routine, my daughter would have pulled them out of the situation. Then they would (perhaps) melt down and she would say, "So much for getting that ice cream you wanted. We're going home." She's tough. My son-in-law, not so much. LOL
ReplyDeleteIn a perfect world, those boys would have been taken from the play area to their table and given a time out and a firm talking too. Luckily for the final quarter hour that we were there, more kids came in and one was much older. The other was another rowdy boy. They all began to play with each other and the girls were left to their own devices.
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