My 8 year old daughter, Cori, came home from school today, a little upset because one of the boys was mean to her at school. They were standing in line to have school photos done and the boy turned to her and for no apparent reason he said "You're a freak"
Cori didn't know how to take this and didn't know why he would say such a thing. I asked her what her reply was. "Nothing" she said. I could see she was hurting a little and didn't quite understand how to feel that little bit better.
I said "Maybe he was having a bad day". Cori said that the boy does this often. He gets grumpy and mean for no reason to many of the kids in their class. I told her to be nice to him. I explained that when she is nice to someone who is mean, that person can't NOT be nice in return. It's the Law!
I then shared a story with her which I will repeat here.
I said "Daddy had the same kind of trouble with a man at work. Every time the man came to work, he would be grumpy with Daddy. He would say to Dad and his work mate, you are hopeless at loading this truck, its all wrong and I dont like the way you do it!"
"Now Dad has loaded many trucks for many people and this is the only one man that has ever complained. At first, Dad and his work mate got angry back at the man. This went on for weeks every time they saw each other. Dad had a think about what was happening. He said to his mate that they have to try being nice to the grumpy man and see what happens.
Once again the grumpy man came into work and got angry. Dad said, well I'm sorry mate, how can I make it better? Now the grumpy man didn't know what to say in return because Dad was being nice. The man HAD to be nice. He couldn't NOT be nice.
As the weeks passed, Dad and his work mate's kindness paid off. The grumpy man is now the really nice bloke that was just having a bad day once upon a time"
Be nice to mean people ;)
