Friday, September 22, 2006

kindergarten stalker

s is on her 17th (we counted) day of kindergarten already. she is excited to go every day, and is happy and full of news when she gets off the bus. lately, she's taken to wearing her favorite skull-and-crossbones hat to and from school since she's-- of course-- prohibited to wear the hat during school. she makes her little fashion statement while coming and going.

since the first day, she's come home talking about a little boy named samuel-- pronounced sam-well in the spanish way. the first reviews were glowing, but as the days went on, i noticed her talking more irritatedly about him. "he always pats my head," she claimed. when at school on tuesday, i realized what she was talking about. samuel is a sweet, round faced and very talkative little boy, but he's on poor s like second skin. she's a bit shy at school and was quietly tolerating him sitting practically on top of her at every turn-- lunch, centers, music, you name it! i tried to assuage her by telling her that he loves her because she's just so fabulous. she groaned, "no! it's because i hugged him one day!" with a grimace on her face, the little girl regret peeking through.

i told her to go ahead and ask for help from the teachers so she could have a little more breathing room, and some space to make new friends. apparently this helped, and she seemed a little bit perkier about the situation yesterday afternoon. she did say that the worst part about school that day was having to ask the teachers to move her away from samuel.

as any parent does, i worry about my kids being bullied in school, by mean, rough and rude children. it had never occurred to me to worry about them being smothered by an admirer! especially not in kindergarten. luckily i'll be at school every week to help keep an eye on the situation, and maybe the trance-like attraction will pass. have any of you ever had this kind of problem either with yourself or your kids? it's bizarre, but i, being her mother, understand why he finds her so appealing. you want people to like your kids, but maybe not quite so much.

6 comments:

Smoothieshake said...

i used to have a crush on someone in fourth grade. kindergarden? nope. but hope this samwell is nice!!

Lotus Reads said...

What a cute story, Melissa, but I do understand S. feeling smothered by all the attention from her persistent admirer! I think you did the right thing in asking S. to tell the teacher about it. Hopefully, little "samwell's" heart won't be too badly broken and he'll find someone else to fawn over!

J said...

Maya used to be followed around (aka, smothered) by her best friend. But turnabout is fair play, and she now smothers another.

Anonymous said...

My son had an admirer in pre-school - but she was one of the high school girls who helped out in the pre-school. I think SHE had a more difficult time when he moved on to kindergarten than he did...the little heartbreaker!!

hellomelissa said...

sruthi: samwell is very nice! but is it nice to sit on my daughter??? hmmmm....

lotus: yes, i'm thinking of extolling the virtues of OTHER little girls in the classroom in the hopes that he has a wandering eye.

j: i'm sure "the beast" as s is sometimes known will latch onto some nice little boy who wants nothing to do with her in the all-too-near future!

mr.l: OLDER WOMEN?! ALREADY!!??

Unknown said...

That is a little disturbing, but she is learning a valuable life lesson, right?