Mean Kids...

Have any of you ever seen the movie "Mean Girls"? Essentially, it is about a group of popular high school girls whose goal in life is to belittle and put down every person that is "beneath" them. If you have seen it I am sure you are able to recognize some hurtful truth to it.

We all had those people in high school that appeared to be so high on their horses that they appeared to have little time to do anything but make others feel horrible about themselves. Please be sure that you read that I said APPEARED. I do know that there is little reason in this world for a human being to treat another person like that other than the need to feel better about themselves.

What is absolutely amazing to me is the CHILDREN and ADULTS that act this way. I understand high schoolers to a point - don't we all struggle to make it through high school in one piece? But CHILDREN...seriously? And adults - well, they are the ones creating the children that feel it is okay to constantly belittle other people.

We do our best to raise our children to be loving and kind of every human being. We do not tease people because of what they do or do not have, because of how they look or what they are wearing, because of "disabilities" (or different abilities as the case may be)...

Of course, I am not naive. I understand that my children are not angels. I understand that how they act in front of their friends may be very different than how they act in front of me.

I promise you, however, that if I EVER watched my child give an adult a dirty look or EVER heard my child make fun of another person they would be in for a world of hurt (no, we do not beat our children but instead make sure that they apologize to the other person and we have "long talks" about what is right and wrong).

The children that think it is okay to make fun of a child less advantaged of them are amazing to me. The child that calls my son "Scribble" because he doesn't color in the lines, the child that makes fun of my son because he doesn't play baseball as well or have a Nintendo DS...

What is happening to our children? When did meaness become a part of early childhood? When did competition become so important that we are willing to hurt another's feelings over it? When did our children lose their sense of childhood and enter a world that is too grown up?

Something that amazes me even more than all this is that they are willing to do these things in front of adults and not care if they are heard...

What is going to happen when this generation is in charge of our world? If in kindergarten and 2nd grade these children do not care about tolerance, what happens when they take over the work force? When do they learn tolerance? I thought love and kindness was something you were born with and that hatred is taught...then how is it that these children have learned it already?

When did "Mean Girls" turn elementary?