Sunday 15 January 2012

Fickle Friendships

There was a time when Jack never told us what he got up to at school. If you asked him about it he'd just say I don't memember.

When we did get information out of him we found that a common subject was Jack C, one of two other boys that shared his name. They were friends initially, united by common first names, but it  wouldn't last. Eventually we'd start to hear every day about how this child had made Jack's life miserable. From what I could put together he was just a big tattle tale, every little thing that Jack did, or didn't do would send Jack C running to the teachers to tell an exaggerated version. He was apparently also very stand-offish. Jack detested him but doesn't have to deal with him anymore. Though even now he'll make sure that Jack C isn't invited to anything.

Now-a-days his memory has improved somewhat. We get the run down on much more than just which children he doesn't get along with, but on that front, now there are different children that we hear about.

Earlier in the year it was a boy named Tyler. If you ask me he just sounds like a bit of a bully. But it's hard to declare a 5 year old a bully, because lets face it, they're all sociopaths when you get right down to it.

It's sad but it appears that none of the other children like Tyler either, he hits and calls names and is just generally unpleasant to the other kids, he focussed this behaviour on Jack for quite a while. Jack tried desperately to avoid him but if the teachers weren't insisting that Jack "play nice" and sit next to him, Tyler was seeking him out. Thankfully we don't hear about Tyler anymore, I think Jack has finally shaken him off.

Lately a boy named Callum gives him the most trouble. When he's not conning Jack out of his sweets, Callum seems to have an ability to exclude Jack. Whomever Jack chooses to play with for the day Callum will rope into his own game and then won't let Jack play. Callum also has a nasty habit of wrecking Jack's models during construction time. Jack got his own back when Callum's best friend Max defected after a big fight and became Jack's friend. Jack was thrilled that Callum was the one excluded for a change, even if it was just for a few days.

However, there are six hours in the school day and these reports can only make up of a maximum of 20 minutes so I try not to dwell, or let Jack dwell on these incidents.

Today I got a report from Jack and sure enough, it included Callum.

Callum and I were sandwiches today. (meaning that they both had packed lunches) And Callum gave me one of his sweets.
That was nice of Callum.
Yeah, we're friends now.

We all have a Jack C, Tyler, or Callum in our lives and we all deal with them differently. Jack takes the befriend approach, be nice to them and hopefully they'll be nice back, eventually.

1 comment:

  1. In Adell's life, it's a girl named Isabella. She's her best friend one day and not the next. Adell never knows why it's one way or the other. Makes a grandmother want to come beat up the bullies.

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