BigBrownMonster

When BBM picks Pinkxi up from school, they have a little ritual of telling each other about their day since the droppoff earlier in the morning. Sometimes Pinkxi’s exuberant about her day and others were, well, as routinely mundane as BBM’s. There are also days which Pinkxi doesn’t feel like talking very much, BBM thought perhaps she had grown a little tired during those days and tries to perk her up with the promise of ice cream when they get back. Besides she’s a growing kid and one should always expect (and respect) certain degree of mood swing every now and then.

A couple of days back, BBM was going through the motion of asking her about her day, when she duly yakked off then trailed into silence before she even touched on playtime. BBM had thought nothing of it then since he was more concerned about navigating through the tricky after-school pickup traffic. When he tried engaging her with where she’d left off, Pinkxi was trying to ignore and avoid answering. A third try gathered only Pinkxi’s reluctant mumbling of ‘I forgot’. That totally tripped the parent-sensor and BBM made a mental note to revisit the matter at a later time.

Post dinner and ice cream made Pinkxi a jolly critter.

BBM was hopeful in fishing out more details of her playtime and possibly her reason for going silent earlier. Little by little BBM asked about her usual playmates, where they played, what they played before Pinkxi finally divulged that another group of critters had displaced them their usual play area, told them to squat under a tree and not to move before playtime ends. Not only that, they had also been told not to flag the incident to the teachers. At this point, Pinkxi was visibly upset about the whole episode and was reduced to whimpers.

BBM asked if Pinkxi or any of her friends had told these nasty critters off, but being physically smaller,  she said they stay squatted the whole time. Pinkxi was uncertain how best to react (possibly there was some degree of shock since she had never encountered such treatment before) and they really did what they were told till the bell rang. BBM served up another scoop of icecream and asked if any of them went off to tell the teachers after the bell rang, but that did not happen too. Possibly for a lil critter, it was instinctive to simply put it aside and rejoin her class as soon as possible. Afterall it’s now ‘safe’ and there’s class to attend.

Over dessert, BBM told Pinkxi that she and her friends were actually rather brave, and it was certainly not nice to have some obnoxious critters come and push them around. That was simply BULLYING and reiterated that bullies can and must be dealt with, just like in the books and cartoons on tv.

“Perhaps Pinkxi simply needed a super power!” BBM said with a wink

“But I am not strong. I cannot run very fast. My friends do not have superpowers.” she mumbled while dipping into her icecream.

“I think you do. Remember what I said about being brave? That is a superduperwhopper power. You have a little bit of that and so do your friends. When all of you put your brave-bits together, I think it’s a remarkable superpower…and bullies are bad guys who are afraid of this super power!”

“Next time you and your friends must come together to say no these nasty critters. If they are still nasty after you say no, then the friend who can run the fastest can try to find some help from a teacher or even other friends who are playing nearby. You know, even superhero teams need help from their friends from time to time!”

“Like the different teams of superheroes in your comics?” She lit up.

“Yes yes yes. So not only is it important to be brave, you must also try to make more friends during playtime. Maybe you can ask more friends to join in your games. Or you and your group of friends can join others rather than playing by yourselves all the time. Then you will have more friends to help each other when these nasty bullies come back. If you have more friends, then you will have more brave bits and….”

“We have OUR SUPERPOWER!” Pinkxi hooraaahed and chowed down her remaining dessert.

BBM nodded. He can only hope that the lesson sinks in soon, as he watched another bit of her kiddy innocence melted away like his remaining ice cream.

>> Back to Growing Up with Pinkxi.