Pass the Chocolate!

My daughter (5) today was collapsed outside in a heap on the grass sobbing during recess. I went to see why. Her best friend was collapsed a few feet away sobbing. I put her on my lap where she continued to cry and insist, "I don't want to tell you why!" I insisted that she needs to tell me, and slowly the story came out.

Apparently the teacher said something, and it made her feel bad, so she was crying. Why is your friend crying? "Because I am!", she wailed! Ah, for a good friend! So I carried her over to her best friend and told both huddled heaps that when women feel bad, we like to find a friend and eat chocolate and cry together. The older girls who had gathered around the spectacle of two small wailing heaps on the grass agreed. "Yes, that is what we do when we are sad."

Two little heads peeped half up at me, and one asked, "Do you have chocolate?"

"No. No chocolate, sorry, but one of the big girls, has some cookies here, maybe she'll share." Then I excused myself for a second.

Went to the teacher, got an explanation. She was totally unaware that her half-teasing comment had two small girls sobbing, so out she went to sit by the huddled heaps and talk it over. I stayed away. After a few minutes, the heaps sat up, brushed their hair out of their eyes, and went back inside - problem solved, even without chocolate.

Thank-you to all of you who would have been over eating chocolate with me this week!