Well welcome to your work week… Hope it was awesome weekend!
Perhaps you heard, we had a big ol slumber party for very loud 10-year-old girls, at our place this weekend. My daughter's birthday celebration was celebrated by a small handful of girls that made this momentous occasion memorable!
As much as I dreaded the rumored no sleep, girl drama night fraught with mess, as it turns out, it was very pleasant and the girls were just wonderful! However, for a time it did feel a bit like a Justin Bieber concert in our living room with all the screaming. (Lol) I clocked the rise in energy to just after the largest surgar intake of the evening! So it was no wonder!
That said, one of the poignant moments of the evening caught me offguard, when one of the little girls, obviously feeling this well needed support, made a confession to the small group of her dearest friends. It seems she has been receiving harrassing text messages from another little girl from their school, though in another class, so I was not familiar with her! These texts she said, were very graphic and with sexually related topics! The worst part, while this other girl very obviously was looking for a "safe" person to vent to, made veiled threats of "if you tell anyone I won't be your friend anymore" which, in 10 year old speak is life altering! It just boggles my mind that at such an early age they deal with this kind of thing, and all the while, this poor little girl has been plagued with this secret the last few weeks! So heartbreaking to see her look for comfort and support from friends who are also sworn to secrecy…
Thankfully, however they did feel comfortable enough to talk to me and our very dear friend, who volunteered to help me out the night of our sleep over. Talk about a God appointed opportunity, without having to hash on the actual details of these texts we were able to encourage the young lady to finally talk to her parents and for the other girls, share the lesson, most especially important, not to ever keep secrets from your parents no matter who tells you to! And it's okay to stand up for right choices with other kids!
My friend used the beautiful example of being confident to be the "Light" in a very dark situation! We explained through an analogy that even a little light can actually illuminated a dark room MUCH EASIER than darkness can overtake the light! Somehow it seems to register with these sweet young minds and what we saw next was amazing! It was like confidence just blossomed over the room! The one girl that was dealing with these text messages just felt inspired with the support from her friends and this new information, it's okay to stand up when you believe something is not right! Her response to the harrassing texts then became, "If you keep sending me text about these things, I am going to have to delete your number." And, "You told me not to tell, but I think you should really should tell somebody and soon!" Talk about inspirning! Our kids are sponges and if we choose to give them the tools and empower them, they may find they do not have to cave in to the pier pressure. Instead, they can learn to be leaders and like in our analagy, "The Light" that fills the darkness around them! You would not believe how many symbols of light they came up with to further describe this action! What was precious also, was her retelling of this experience to her mom when she arrived to pick her child up the next morning! And her mom light up with the opportunity to talk with her kiddo about why she has seemed quiet the last few days! Just powerful!
How do you to talk to your kids about sex and bullying? Sadly, it comes up too often even with the youngest of kids! Share your story here...
