you don't have to bribe me to see ya! I'll call when I'm done at D&P's. Dunno when that will be, as we haven't seen each other in 2 years.

Askye, I got the same "don't react, the bullies only do it because..." bullshit as a kid too. Which I think is SHITTY advice for a seven year old. Adults should fucking do their jobs and stop the bullies and punish them and not expect superhuman feats of maturity when small children are being TORMENTED by their peers!

I got it too. In fourth grade, one of my teachers had the brilliant idea of sitting me next to the kid that was picking on me, so that we would have to get along.

ugh WS. That's horrible.

omnis if it turns out you have free time tomorrow we'll be hanging out at my brother's place and I'm sure everyone would love to see you.

When I was out in California being Uncle Buck for my brother's kids, my 6 or 7 year old niece Laura was being teased in second grade, and the teachers all said "Oh, they propbably just like you."

I told her yes, sometimes people tease you because they like you, but other kids are just plain mean. I also told her to watch how they act at other times, and try to figure out which ones are the good kind.

I always hated the dismissive "advice" that "they probably tease you because they like you" and wasn't going to let her be misled by that line.

If I ever have kids, I'll probably make the mistake of telling them that I don't care if they get suspended for it, but they have my permission to cockpunch bullies - verbally or physically.

It wasn't until jr high that a fellow student told me I had to stand up for myself. After that it got a little bit better.

Yay Barb!

If it makes you feel better Aimee, I may not bathe with the kids anymore, but I also don't care much if they see me naked in the shower or whatever.

Nate punched a bully in school after he'd been heckled and heckled and heckled by this kid. Since he had other kids who stood up for him and said he'd been taunted into hitting the kid, his suspension was only one day as opposed to three.

In the office, I told the vice-principal that we did not advocate hitting in our home and I was disappointed that Nate had felt the need to resort to such measures and that I would continue to reinforce that lesson, but that I would not punish him for defending himself.

I'm watching A League of Their Own and eating chickpeas with nutritional yeast while waiting for the pain meds to kick in. For some reason I really wanted to watch Dirty Dancing, but I don't have the DVD, and League of Their Own was on TV, and it seemed like the best option.

Omnis, we thought you were hanging out with us on Sunday...?

ETA: ND just clarified that you two had emailed back and forth but not actually made plans. Never mind. I would love to see you, but no worries if you're too busy this trip.