My Compassionate Daughter

For the time that Lily and I lived in Fuquay Varina and my daughter Lily was being bullied at school and at home by the girl who lived next door I felt so defeated.  No matter what I did, including talking to the school and talking to the bully's mother, nothing helped.  But now that we have moved away and Lily is thriving in her new school I can see how that experience has helped mold my daughter in to a compassionate little human being.

There is a boy in her class this year (3rd grade) who is being picked on and bullied.  For the past month or so Lily has been expressing some really deep concern for him.  I believe her concern is so deep because she know what he is going through having experienced it herself.  I talk with her about it and remind her of her time in Fuquay Varina.  I ask her what she would have liked someone to do for her.  I let her know that she knew deep inside what the right thing was to do.

One night after having gone to her room for a while she comes out and shows me a card that she had made for the boy in her class.  I could not have been more proud of her.  Here is the card:

She explained to me that the reason she asked him not to show anyone the card was because she was afraid that the other kids would pick on her for being nice to him....a fear that she was right to feel.  Kids can be cruel.  The following morning she left it on his desk before he got to school.  At lunch he approached her and asked if she was the one who made the card for him.  She told him that she was and he smiled and thanked her for being so nice to him.

I had written the teacher and explained the situation.  She wrote back a few days later and told me that Lily had talked with her about it and that she was going to keep a closer eye on things.  She also told me that she watched the boy find the card and read it.  She told me about the smile that spread across his face and stayed there all day and how he keeps the card in his desk so he can see it every day.

My daughter stepped up when nobody else would.  She did the right thing and she showed me that while I may doubt myself from time to time, I am raising her up right.  I love my daughter more than I could possibly put in to words.