Motivational children's books for girls: A Girl Named Pants
Raising three daughters requires a parent to deal with the consequences of name calling. I used to go through it every day. One of my girls would run up to me crying because one of my other girls called her a name. "Emma said I'm a geek."
How do you respond to that?
I used to respond by asking, "Well, are you a geek?" In every case, whoever was crying would stop crying and say, "No, I'm not a geek." "Well, then I guess she's wrong. And since she's wrong, why are you crying about it."
A few weeks ago, one of my girls came crying to me for the same sort of thing and I thought of a more powerful way to deal with it. I surprised her and shouted, "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will NEVER hurt me!" That got her attention. That got all of their attention. Then, I shouted it again...this time, louder. By the third time the girls were all shouting it with me. "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will NEVER hurt me." We began shouting it in unison and jumping up and down. Then, after a while, I explained to them what it meant. It seems to have worked pretty well. Now the girls will say it themselves when name calling starts.
Childhood is filled with name calling. There is no perfect way to deal with it. But, That one statement seems to help. Especially when you shout it out. Any thoughts?
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