*disclaimer* My children are not bullies. They are not being bullied. I am fully aware of what is going on at their respective schools and with their respective classmates.  There is nothing to be aghast about. I’m giving you an abbreviated version of a conversation that I thought was funny. No child had their feelings hurt in the making of this post. **  By the way, that last line was sarcasm.

The other day, the girls were talking about how to resolve differneces on the plyaground. Mo was telling me about a child who likes to play with her and several other little girls, but has a tendency to dominate the playing, trying to change the game and boss the others around. 

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“Tell her that if she’s going to do that, she can’t play with you all any more,” I told her.

“Well, we can’t tell people they can’t play with us. The princicapl said so,” she replied.

So, I said,   “Then tell her that whatever it is you guys are playing, she’s welcome to play, but if she doesn’t like it, then she should play something else.”

“Maybe. . ” Mo said, which is basically her way of saying, “Yeah, I’m going to pretend that you didn’t said anything and just do what I want to do.

Co decided to offer her take on how to handle the situation.  “You know, Mo,” she began, “when I was have a problem with Suzy Q (not her real name), I just tell her that I don’t like how she’s treating me and then I walk away from her.”

At this, I looked up from what I was doing because, 1) I noticed she used present tense, and 2) Co had just gone to a birthday party for Suzy Q not that long ago. 

“Wait a second,” I said. “You and Suzy Q are still having an issue? I thought you guys were friends.”

“Nope. We’re not friends.”

“But you begged me to let you go to her party.”

Co gave me a full body eye roll, which for her fun-size five year old frame is pretty huge.  “Mom. I don’t really like Suzy Q, but I really, really like birthday parties.”

Oh boy.