Mean Girls!

At dinner last night we were talking about our days. Paul asked Annika a question and she all of a sudden started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she proceeded to tell us this story...
"E double promised me that she would play with me at recess. But E and E and S were playing and S said I could only play with them if I knew the pass word." I asked if E or E could tell her the pass word but Annika said no one could tell her, she had to guess. My heart sank when I heard this coming out of my 5 year olds mouth. I know that girls can be mean and clicks are unfortunately common among girls. But already at 5 and 6 years old? Annika said that this has never happened before with these kids but my heart just broke for her.
I vaguely remember elementary school. I do remember clicks all throughout middle school and high school. I remember that I was pretty good friends with some girls in elementary school but when we got to middle school they were popular and I wasn't, so we were no longer friends. And I remember girls not being nice and all the drama.
I tried to reassure her that she's a great girl and all that but a big part of me wanted to fix it. Paul was willing to fix it. He said he was going to talk to them the next day and tell them they have to let Annika play or...I don't remember or what... Make them or tell on them or something. (Nothing like big brother to the rescue!!) She was fine the rest of the night until she got into bed and then she relived it in her mind and started crying all over again. Poor thing!
This morning after we dropped the kids off at school I talked to Annika's teacher (even though my husband didn't think I should) and just told her briefly what happened. She said she would address the issue to the class and not make it sound like Annika's mom tattled.
I know that this is reality for Annika and that it's unfortunately going to happen many more times in her life, I just want S and other kids (and even Annika) to know that things like that hurt other people's feelings. I want to teach our kids that God wants us to build each other up not tear each other down. And I want them to know that God made them special and unique and that even when it seems that no one likes them, God does.