Today I was witness to one of those childhood dramas (social rejection) that can scar a person for life. It was a little bit scary, because I also had to deal with it and minimalize the damage done. I hope it went well.
This child reminded me of my own childhood traumas. I think everyone has them. For me, my most painful elementary moment was about grade two or three. Two of my friends (Friend 1 and Friend 2) were in Daycare at my house and another one was over (Friend 3). The two Daycare friends (1 and 2) decided to run away from the visiting one (3) and therefore me as well, because I was hanging around with her and couldn't bike fast yet. Whenever one of us caught up to them, they ran away again...and again...and again. The point of this story is that even though now I look back at it and see it as a simple issue, I know that those simple acts of rejection can hurt children deeply, if not for their whole lives. And, now that I think about it, it must have been the most painful for Friend 3, because I wasn't standing by her. I was trying to be accepted by the other two.
Children doing things like that don't know how they could permanently affect another person. That's why I hope the child I saw today wasn't traumatized by social rejection and will eventually forget what happened today. If they can forget it, it usually means that the scar of hurt didn't go deep.
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