Here is a little tidbit of information you may not have known.
No girl is too young for "catty-ness". I learned this yesterday.
Katherine is playing basketball in a spring league. These are fourth grade girls. Approximately ages 10 and 11. So, you would think that they would not yet have learned to be as catty as grown women. And yet, somehow, there are some girls within this age range that do or say things that are appalling.
I was really angry yesterday. I'm not angry today, but still appalled at something that happened after Kat's game yesterday.
Let me start of by saying that Kat's team won, and while she only played a few minutes, she was guarding her girl CONSTANTLY and never gave her a chance to get the ball. It of course was a proud mom moment. The girls played hard, and they won, by I think 5 points or so. It wasn't a huge point difference and both teams played hard, and played well.
So, I was shocked, to say the least, when after the game Kat whispered something that had happened to her.
Apparently, when they were going by and "high-fiving" each other, as they always do after a game, this same little girl that Kat was guarding walked by and whispered "Loser" in her ear. And maybe you're thinking "What? Are you serious?" Because that is what I was thinking.
But wait...it gets worse.
Not only did she call my daughter a loser (which she clearly wasn't since they won but I won't go into her confusion on what a loser was...), when they passed by to high five, she dug her fingernails into Katherine's hand!!!!
WHAT???
So I'm not happy. What mother would be??
But wait...it's even worse than that.
Katherine wasn't the only girl this happened to on our team. At least 1 or 2 other girls received the exact same "clawing" and being called a loser! One girl had skin pulled back because of this girl's fingernails! It seems to primarily have happened to the girls that were guarding #50. That's right...I'm calling out #50.
Who does that? Katherine would be in some serious trouble if I found out she did something like that. I was appalled!!! And it leaves me thinking "Where does a 10 year old learn that kind of behavior?" I'm not saying the coach or the girl's parents approve of her behaving that way, but what I am saying is that I just do not understand why that little girl would act that way (it seems kind of extreme) and seem to think that her behavior was acceptable. And perhaps she knew it was wrong...but she still did it.
Did I mention that this is a Catholic league? I'm not saying that private Catholic/Christian schools won't have students who aren't kind and sportsman-like. But you would think that there would be a higher standard.
What do you think? Am I justified in being angered by this?
Kids can be ruthless. Particularly girls. It's sad but we are born in a world of competition - and not too many people know how to make it friendly.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was that age and in soccer there was one team of particularly poor sports who would spit on their hands before the team high-fived at the end of each game. I think they were the "Green Ghosts" or something stupid like that.