She's NOT "Hot", She's Nine!
JR was in tears bordering on hysterics yesterday afternoon when I picked her up at the Y.
Apparently a 6 year old girl told her:
A)That she has several older brothers, and that one is 19 and that they think JR is "hot".
(And JR was embarrassed to use that term--she's lately become worried about hearing "bad words")
B)That her brothers are watching JR from their home and that they have pictures of her with her doll "Baby"
JR had then embroidered this to believe that these "brothers" had gotten into her room and were the ones who'd written "I'll be back" in tiny ink letters on her wall--something that we'd noticed months ago, perhaps as far back as winter!
I still don't know who did that. Suspects are her best friend, who sleeps over occasionally, and a bratty younger friend who was there are Hanukkah, or the younger friend's equally bratty brother. But it was someone trying to be funny, not someone who meant her any harm!
Of course the story is nonsense--this kid only met JR a day or two ago at camp and I didn't believe a word of it, especially with the crap about them spying on her from their houses. But it took me a while to make JR understand that I believed the kid had SAID it, I just didn't believe it was TRUE.
She kept going "but she's my FRIEND!"
Maybe, but she'd only met her a day or two before. And this isn't exactly a friendly thing to do!
I can only imagine that the kid was saying this to make JR interested in her. She might have thought that JR would like this sort of thing.
But she didn't.
I found the camp director, let him know what had happened and he and I got JR to promise that if this happens again she will come and tell him at once. He emphasized he didn't ever want her to feel afraid at camp. And I WANT JR to stay at camp--she's had a really good time there this summer.
AND she needs to learn to deal with bullies and teasing--she has a very hard time standing up for herself outside of home!
Finally JR calmed down and we went off to Target so that we could get a gift card for her REAL friend's birthday and so that she could waste some of her allowance on another Barbie doll. And she was fine.
But at bedtime last night, she was upset again. And I'm still upset.
What kind of family is that six year old growing up in that she can think of telling another little girl that she is HOT? That she can come up with telling her stuff about boys watching her from afar?
I can only wonder at what that young'un is watching on TV and what movies she's going to.
Do her parents KNOW she's thinking like this? Do they CARE?
Mom prejudices aside, I know that JR is beautiful--and that other people notice it, no matter how much I try to downplay it.
"I don't want people to talk about me that way, about boys looking at me,"she wailed last night. "I'm too young for that sort of thing!"
And she is.
She's NINE......
