My heart also hurts as a mom

In addition to my heart hurting for my mom as I wrote in my last post, my heart also hurts as a mom.  That feeling is generally there every time my kids walk out the door, but lately it has been more prevalent.

While I was at my grandfather's induction ceremony Saturday, Andrew texted me that Thomas was very upset because his teammates from his rec basketball team didn't like him.  Sadly, I'm not surprised by this.  He and the coach's son are the only 8th graders on the team, which means the other boys are all 7th graders...younger and more immature.  I also completely acknowledge that Thomas is not a particularly good basketball player, although that does sometimes seem to be lost on him.  Andrew did his best to point out to him that he has his own friends, and that not everyone has to be his friend.  That is hard on my little guy's heart though, who wants everyone to be his friend.  He was also devastated last evening by the news of my mom's dog and just leaned against me and cried for a bit.  Always hard on a mom's heart.

Catherine also asked Andrew yesterday if she and her friend Hayley could eat lunch in Andrew's classroom each day.  Andrew has the entire period as his plan period, so Andrew said it was okay.  The more we talked, Catherine mentioned that someone at her table had told Catherine that no one likes her and that they didn't want her eating there.  It turns out that Catherine's best friend Austin no longer eats that lunch so he isn't there with her, and the table dynamics have changed a bit.  I had a pretty good feeling I knew who had said this to her, and it was someone that earlier in the evening my husband had mentioned was such "a nice girl".  I disagreed even before I knew about Catherine, but kept my thoughts to myself.  As I talked more with Catherine about the situation, I was correct in who had said that to her.  Fortunately, Catherine seems to be taking it relatively in stride, and is enjoying eating lunch with Hayley in her dad's room.

This morning I found myself wondering what kind of a person says such a thing to someone as "No one likes you and they don't want you here"?  How nasty a person must you be to do such a thing.  I also found myself wondering if it was such a smart idea for the girl to say it to the daughter of one of her teachers (yes, this girl is in my husband's class).  Sometimes I just don't understand people.  I know my children are all far from perfect and can definitely make poor choices, but I pray my children display kindness if nothing else.