Mean Girls

Let's just call these two little girls Paris and Nicole.

They live a few floors above us and, from time to time, Baby Cat gets to play with them. But after their bad behavior last weekend, I told the Yaya I don't want her playing with them. I don't want Laila picking up their bad behavior.

I guess it's normal for young kids to have this me-mine attitude. They must like excluding people because it's their way of feeling they belong to a clique. I know young kids tend to get overly protective of their 'possessions.'

But little Nicole--you know, the sidekick--actually shoved Laila away when she tried to get close to them.

Of course I 'calmly' told Nicole 'no pushing.' This little tyke is another only and gets away with almost everything, so she was evidently startled with my tone of voice.

The older one, Paris, was as pushy as Nicole but she was more conscious of my presence so her domineering ways was more directed at her other half.

There were other small kids in the playgroup that Paris an Nicole didn't want in. They were acting like spoiled empresses I wanted to give them a piece of my at-that-moment-not-so-mature mind.

Laila, as always, is oblivious of the power play.

What eats me is that I've never been too patient with girl politics so I don't know how I can help her navigate through the situation. As an elementary grader, I broke off from a group of girls just because I got tired of one girl imposing on the rest of the barkada. I've always had a penchant for being with the odd rather than the in crowd.

To this day, one look at me discourages people from approaching. The first impression I have on people is that I'm masungit and so they tend to keep a safe distance over fears of being snapped at.

I like that actually. But that make me not the best resource person to guide her through these tough, highly political preschool years.

How can I tell her that I deal with bitches by being a bigger bitch?