Thursday, October 15, 2015

informal poll

   I have a question for those readers interested.  How do you handle it when you don't like your daughter's friend?  As I've often said, parenting is an education, on a lot of levels.  As usual, I'm learning all sorts of things I didn't expect.  Our girl likes to play  with one of the neighbor's kids.  Don't get me wrong, our girl is not being bullied or hurt. She is however being bothered, and so is mommy.  This kid will knock on our door, barge in, ask for candy, spill things, make a mess of toys, and leave.  She stays for hours and we never hear from her parents, who, by the way , have a nanny.
   My problem is, the kid is not mean per se, just maddening and I disagree/don't understand how she's being raised.  It's not the kid's fault and in parenting it's really hard to judge if you don't know the full story.  Nonetheless, I can't deal with the stress.  We have a small house and I've made it clear to our girl that she is responsible for any mess that she and her guests make.  I've also let a different mommy know that if our girl engages in similar behavior in her house, she had our permission to toss her out.  It was my hope that if the mommies ganged up on these shorter people the message would get through.  She had also observed similar behavior in the same girl.  I am at a loss for how to handle this.  I've always stank at politics.  The only solution I've come up with so far is to limit the visits to a maximum of two hours, preferably either outside or at the other girl's house.
  I think even our daughter has figured this out.  I don't want her to be mean to this kid and I don't want to upset her parents but I could use a break.  If I'm being a bit nuts, it wouldn't be the first time but I'd also like to know.  Your turn....