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02/03/2006: "Stellar Start"

My morning is off to a stellar start. The Girl and I went out for breakfast before school -- we maybe do this once a month. We're sitting at breakfast and she's telling me about her soccer practice yesterday.

First, let me set this up for you. My girl is big for her age. She's half an inch taller than I am. She's tall and while she's not fat by any means, she's not a stick girl either. She's a good kid and more than once she's stood up to bullies on behalf of her friends. Much like her mom, she won't back down from a fight, but she doesn't go looking for it.

Well...we've had a situation on her soccer team. There's this skinny kid who might come up to my daughter's shoulder. They've played soccer together all through rec league and moved up to adademy together last year. This other kid can be incredibly obnoxious. In the fall, The Girl would tell me that at almost every practice this kid would sneak in a kick and send my girl's ball way out so my girl had to go chase it down. There are 30 kids practicing on the field and if my kid positioned herself away from this other kid, the other kid would find her. If they were juggling the ball, she'd reach over and foul up my girl so she'd have to start over. She's made fun of my daughter's hair, called her gross in front of her teammates, ragged her out in front of her teammates when she was playing keeper and allowed the other team to score. You get the picture. But this kid is smart and sneaky. She pulls this stuff when there's no adult watching. I considered having a talk with the other kid's parents, but I think the parents have no control over this kid, so I didn't think it'd do much good. And my girl takes it because she's so much bigger, she doesn't want to look like a bully. Actually, it's a case of reverse bullying. I thought about taking the kid aside and having a talk with her myself but that didn't quite feel right either. So, she simply got away with it.

Anyway... over breakfast, The Girl tells me that Mary (name changed to protect the not-so-innocent) once again sent my girl's ball flying over the fence. She looked at my daughter and said, "Fetch, girl." First soccer practice of the spring season and Mary's already started in on my girl again.

However, this time one of the coaches caught it. He told her, "You have two choices. You can give her your ball to play with for the rest of practice and go get hers now or you can put yours down and go get hers now. Either way, you will go get her ball now." This brazen little bully just looks at him. He claps his hands and says, "Chop, chop, Mary. Now." YES!

I'm afraid I couldn't contain myself at this point in the recounting and cheered aloud in the middle of the restaurant. My poor child covered her face with her hands and muttered, "Mom, you're embarrassing me." But she had a big grin on her face.

Me? I've been smiling ever since. My day is off to a stellar start.

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