Parenting Styles: She’s Six. She’s Not Your Girlfriend.

I think you’re really going to enjoy this installment of our column, Parenting Styles. It resonated so much with me and what I’ve experienced this year with both my 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. I’ve found that it can go both ways as far as unwanted attention and it’s something parents don’t seem to know how to address…

Something happened a few weeks ago, and I’m still mulling it over.

My daughter, a first grader, invited us to her classroom presentation, some goats and trolls thing with cute songs and clapping and, somewhat unrelated but still sweet, every child individually announcing reasons they have to be thankful.

We applauded everyone for the usual lists – “my family,” “my house,” “my teacher,” but then, at the end of one little boy’s turn, we heard, “I’m thankful for my girlfriend!”

Around us, parents laughed and clapped as the first graders breathed a collective “oooooh!!” and turned to look pointedly at our daughter, who stood there grimly, eyebrows raised and mouth pursed.

My husband gave me a look that said, I’m going to kill that kid, just as the mother in front of us turned around to coo, “Oh my goodness, that is the cutest thing!”

I tried to smile.

After school that day, we got the scoop: This little boy had been insisting for weeks that our daughter G was his girlfriend. He chased her at recess to give her hugs that she told us she didn’t want. She said she told him to stop it every time, but he wouldn’t and so she just outran him whenever she could.

While my husband instructed her, in all seriousness, to Thai kick his head the next time he bothered her, I had a flashback to a few weeks prior. We were on the playground after school. I chatted with a few other moms while the kids ran off some energy, and suddenly, G made a beeline to me, screaming, “Mom! Mom!” She collided with me, wrapping her arms around me, just as a little boy came racing up.

“Hug, hug!” he shouted, arms already out wide. G turned her face toward me, squeezing tighter, saying “No!”

I put my hand out and spoke without thinking.

“Hey. When a girl tells you to stop, you stop. Do you understand?”Read More...

The post Parenting Styles: She’s Six. She’s Not Your Girlfriend. appeared first on Modern Parents Messy Kids.