Choco Lattes

Shining a light on bullying has been all the rage… that and apparently there’s some new trend in child rearing where you have your baby sleep on a mattress on the floor, rather than a crib, so as “not to constrain them.”  Thank you to my friend Sarah for making sure I’m up on the latest in alternative parenting…

So back to bullying.  Happens to just about everybody.  For some, it can scar them for life.  For others, it remains a dark cloud over the adolescent bliss that is Junior High (Ah, Letti… you know what they say about karma…).  Worse now that kids can torment each other via text message.  And I had no idea it could start so early.

A couple of weeks before his third birthday, Jakey started the transition to the “preschool” classroom.  The stakes are higher.  You have to be potty trained, you eat in the cafeteria and you learn double-digit numbers.

I get home one night and Jake recounts the following story to me:
“Mom, the kids were making choco lattes today at school.”
“Uh, huh.  They were making cho-co-la-te?” (Spanish pronunciation)
“I wanted to make choco lattes today.  And the kids, the kids told me I was too little to make choco lattes.”
“They did?  That’s not very nice.  You make chocolate all the time.  Then what happened?”
“They told me I was too little and I had to go back to the little kid classroom.”
“What?  They said that?  What did you say?”
“I said, no.  No, I’m big!”
“That’s right, you are big.”

It’s probably important to note that this new class is made-up mostly of little girls, who are the same size or smaller than Jacob.  Who knew “go back to where you came from” could start as young as two?  James had a little “keep an eye on it” talk with Miss Chethi and Miss Hedidi (That’s what Jacob calls his other teacher, Miss Letti.  Coincidence?  Perhaps he was born with an innate sense of the injustices that were forced upon me at the age of 13 and therefore cannot pronounce her name in good conscience.  At least that’s what I’ve decided.)

Miss Chethi said she witnessed what was going on a day or so later.  As she put it, “You don’t need to worry. Jake can handle himself.”

Those little girls better keep an eye on their choco lattes.