Mean Kids, Nice Kids
My 17-year-old daughter is an angel! So are her friends!! They are super nice kids!
Or so we’ve always thought.
Now her brother and I are wondering if she’s a little devil, and we’ve been sheltering one of the mean kids all these years.
My son was recently cleaning out his closet (not voluntarily; I made him do it) when he came across a pencil box handed down to him by his older sister. Inside was a note written years before when she was 11 years old. A contract signed by her and her girl friends.
You be the judge: nice kids? or mean kids?
The contract states:
If you tell we will be very mad and have the silence treatment for three days. This goes for everyone! You must keep your voice down while we are doing this. You aren’t allowed to play with or bother us. You may not talk to us until 6:30pm. If you tell anyone we won’t speak to you again. We won’t sign the cards you make. If you follow the contract past the last day of school, we will sit with you at lunch but not in any other grade. You may only annoy anyone who has NOT signed.
The friggin’ contract was signed by 12 girls. The dirty dozen! Twelve mean kids, if you ask me.
Of course, if you asked anyone back when these girls were eleven, you’d hear they were the twelve nicest eleven-year-old kids in the after-school daycare.
Next time someone says your child is one of the nice kids, keep in mind they might actually be one of the secret mean kids. And vice versa! Mean kids being nice kids.
Will this keep my daughter out of a good college?
If so, I’m swallowing the mean kids note and pleading ignorance. Or fiction. Or bull-honkey. Whatever paints her as one of the nice kids!!! Ha!
(Ed.Note – my daughter said I could post this note. We all thought it was funny. She couldn’t believe it existed! A group of 11-year-old girls wrote it years ago at an after-school day care. They were all good kids. My daughter is almost an adult now, and one of the nice kids for sure! This post is meant to be a humorous look at bygone days.)
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Comment by BigLittleWolf
| November 16th, 2009
This is pretty funny! And probably also was a bit strange. (That was quite a few years ago, wasn’t it?)
I suspect we would all be surprised if we found out every little thing our kids had done or said. So keep her mean kid past to yourself (if it was anything more than a passing thing, along with so many other passing phases), assess the friends she’s hanging with now, shake your head and pour a bloody mary (it is morning, after all).
Girls are tougher than boys, aren’t they… But if you confront her about it, or even mention it to see what she says, just don’t be mean!
BigLittleWolf´s last blog ..You can’t always get what you want
Comment by dadshouse
| November 16th, 2009
BigLittleWolf – this was years ago, and we thought the whole thing was funny. I added an editorial note to the post to clarify. My daughter was moritified the note existed, but said I could post it here since it’s so nasty and mean – and so opposite of what she’s like. We had a good laugh about it.
Comment by Mindy/Single Mom Says...
| November 16th, 2009
Ah yes, mean girls. I’m not surprised your daughter wrote that ‘contract’ when she was 11. My 3rd daughter is 11 and in 6th grade right now and 6th grade has notoriously been the worst year for the mean girl dramas. Funny that the note had survived to come back and bite her!
Mindy/Single Mom Says…´s last blog ..The Good, The Bad & The Rest of the Weekend
Comment by Nicki
| November 16th, 2009
Wow, so many conditions. Wonder if any of these girls will grow up to be lawyers.
I don’t worry about my kids being the nice kids. Rachel has managed to find a balance. (She recently was in trouble in school for sticking up for a kid with Tourette’s.) Keenan is still too nice.
Luckily, for the rest of us, the mean kids USUALLY outgrow that stage. And those that don’t USUALLY get what they deserve.
Nicki´s last blog ..Envisioning a room of my own…
Comment by BigLittleWolf
| November 16th, 2009
A lawyer! That’s perfect. Or perhaps an engineer of some sort, with all that specificity. What about it DM? Can the quality of note lead to certain suppositions as to career choices ahead? (Too funny… omg, I wonder what my boys have stashed in their rooms, which I dare not enter lest I catch something…)
BigLittleWolf´s last blog ..Sudden Outbreak of Rhymatoid ArtWriteUs; CDC Contemplates Next Steps
Comment by Big City Dad
| November 16th, 2009
Scary. If they are mean, boys are just outright mean and pretty obvious about it. The little cliques girls put together are just scary though. I remember being so intimidated by all that as a kid. I can only hope Miss M isn’t a secret mean girl, although, to some extent, I’m sure it’s inevitable. Thanks Dave.
Big City Dad´s last blog ..Our Secret Spot
Comment by Sandra
| November 16th, 2009
That is a funny note !
Now I can better understand why some parents inist their children would never be mean, when they really are in secret.
I am so glad I never wrote anything down like that. If I said it, it has probably been long forgotten.
Sandra´s last blog ..Cake on Sunday Morning
Comment by Honey
| November 16th, 2009
Haha! My fifth-grade diary is just full of entries about how much I hate my sister. It’s all kind of hilarious now.
Honey´s last blog ..I Made Out With My Co-Worker Again and Then Said The Worst Line Ever
Comment by momma sunshine
| November 16th, 2009
Girls can definitely be mean like that. It’s funny how in school, boys are more physically aggressive, whereas girls are all about being emotionally and psychologically agressive. Sometimes I’m really afraid for my two girls for when they get older….
momma sunshine´s last blog ..Making it Work
Comment by A Single Dad's Life
| November 16th, 2009
Ha! I remember middle school, it was always the girls that were the meanest! I went to school in a very rural area with the same kids my whole life. We all have moved on to bigger and better things, but were just talking about this at our HS reunion. Very funny.
A Single Dad’s Life´s last blog ..Please Lord, don’t take me in my sleep
Comment by Kat Wilder
| November 16th, 2009
Are you only discovering now how manipulative girls can be?
Boys’ meanness and girls’ meanness are different, but each gender has it. Some grow up to be women who still have it; I know, I’ve had bosses like that!
So much for sugar and spice …
Kat Wilder´s last blog ..Honey, those are fighting words
Comment by Just Me...
| November 16th, 2009
I think every little girl is part ‘the mean kids’ and part ‘the nice kids’.. I know mine fluctuates back and forth on a daily, if not hourly, basis.. It’s just the little girl in them..
Boys? They’ll slug it out and then be best buds in a few minutes.. Gotta respect a gender that can solve their problems so easily.. :) :)
Just Me…´s last blog ..The Difference a Day Makes….
Comment by Rob
| November 16th, 2009
That is awesome. My daughter is a straight A honor student and one of the nice kids or so we think. LOL. That would be too funny if I find a note a few years from now showing she was one of the mean kids.
Glad your daughter was a good sport and let you share it with all of us. Glad to hear she is past her “Mean Girl” stage. LOL.
Rob´s last blog ..Monday Mingle November 16th
Comment by Unknown Mami
| November 16th, 2009
The note reminds me of something that would be in a Judy Blume book.
Unknown Mami´s last blog ..I Comment Therefore I Am
Comment by Laura
| November 21st, 2009
hahahaha I am sure there are notes somewhere with my signature on like this :) And I was a nice kid too!
Laura´s last blog ..Its time to P-A-R-T-Y
Comment by la dolce vita
| November 26th, 2009
On a different note, I’m wondering about your, and your readers’, thoughts about after-school day care. How young is a child OK to come home from school on the bus and stay at home alone for an hour or so until their parent arrives? I’m thinking of a fairly small, safe neighborhood where some children as young as 8 or 9 stay home alone after school.