Born This Way

Ah, and as the girls age closer to middle and high school, the cattiness begins.

We have a squadron of new girls, strictly IGC. Emily is a little younger than the rest of the group. She's flaky. Marches to her own drummer. All those metaphors. Genuinely a good kid who wants to make others happy, though.

The other girls didn't pay much heed to Emily until Gail started in. At first it was the little things. "What are you doing?" she'd say to Emily whenever Em unwittingly cut ahead of her or took an extra turn, all huffy-like, all "You don't know what you're doing." I made a mental note to talk to Gail about her 'tude. She tends to be 'tudey anyway, Gail does. She's 10, but she will be a delightful teenager, I'm sure.

Then McKenzie joined in. McK's a generally laidback, happy-go-lucky sort of girl, which made her open annoyance with Emily surprising. I can also see that she's the cool kid of the group; all of the girls want to be her friend. So if McK's picking on Emily, you can bet that Gail feels encouraged to continue.

"I finished!" Emily bounces over to me, hair flapping in her face.

"She didn't really do all of her handstands," McKenzie says, looking perturbed.

"Yeah, Emily, I'm only on my third one," Gail says. Her 'tude face is set.

"Why don't you girls worry a little less about Emily's handstands and more about your own?" I say.

At the end of the rotation, I take Gail and McKenzie aside. Look, I know Emily is younger than you, and sometimes she gets in your way, but that doesn't mean you can be mean to her, I say. They nod and nod.

It happens another time. My boss has a talk with the whole group. Emily, in keeping with her character, is perfectly oblivious the entire talk.

Will it happen again? Probably. Am I ready to lay down the law? Yes. Get those parents on the horn. You can be frustrated, and you can get a little annoyed, but if you're going to be mean, you can get out.