Monday, January 23, 2012

Third Grade Heartbreak


Sara has been dumped. Her BFFFFFFFFF (her description, not mine) has dumped her. Now, she "has no friends, will never be happy again and will never have another friend ever". Well, at least she is being calm, rational and reasonable.

In high school and college when a boy dumped me, I recovered by watching sad movies and eating Haagan Dazs with my girlfriends. Being in 3rd grade, not old enough to stay up late and "friendless", these coping skills are not available to her. I tried explaining to her that she may not, in fact, really be dumped forever. Maybe the girl was having a bad day. Maybe Sara did something to annoy or upset her (very likely). Complete with eye roll, Sara assured me tearfully that they will never ever be friends ever again. Tears, sighing, etc continued. I attempted to explain that I, too, was once a third grade girl and experienced these highs and lows on the friendship spectrum. I've been dumped and dumped lots of girls in the dramatic fashion 3rd graders love. I reminded her that I am still BFFFFFFFFs with a friend from preschool. I am still close to many friends from grade school, high school and college.

I feel her pain. Truly, I do. My heart breaks for her. I cannot stand seeing her big blue eyes crying because she thinks she has lost her friend forever. Right now, she is incapable of believing me when I tell her that this is not "forever". What do you do when you have the answer but your child is too upset to listen and believe you? I want to cry right along with her. I hope Scarlett O'Hara is right and "tomorrow is another day".

1 comment:

  1. aww this makes me sad. I wish kids didn't have to go through all of that :(

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