A Bully

On Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays little j gets a bath and her hair washed. I generally get to do the honors because apparently I understand how to wash hair. I really enjoy this time because nine times out of ten we have a really good talk as we do the dry off. Usually she'll reveal some piece of information.

Tonight she told me that there is a bully at her school, but he is older and in either fourth of fifth grade. When I asked her how she knew he was a bully she said that he said, "I can pull your nose off" to some other student. Okay, I generally like to keep a straight face during these talks, but I seriously burst out laughing. I was trying really hard to keep it in when she said, "He also pulled a smaller child's arm off."

Cue even harder laughter.

At this point little j is not very pleased with me. So I told her that pulling someone's arm off is just unrealistic and couldn't happen. And certainly pulling someone's nose off was just silly. I told her that when he said that I hope she laughed.

But then we talked about what being a bully was really about: this student doesn't feel good about himself and his reaction is to make other people feel bad. And little j, bless her heart, said, "Maybe he needs some friends to help him learn how to do nicer things and have fun."

This is a girl I would want for a friend.