It's like slowly pulling off a band-aid

On Monday this week the Princess informed me of something.

She's no longer hanging out so much with one of her best friends that she'd had since kindergarten.

I guess this girl is now hanging out more with some of the other girls in class. Hanging out with what I like to refer to as the "sassy" girls. The ringleader is a spit-fire (and not in a good way). At the holiday gathering at my daughter's school, the ringleader did a dance routine with some of the older girls. A second grader dancing with the fifth graders. Doesn't sound bad, right? Wrong. The song they danced to was one of those filthy songs that degrade women. A song that I don't let my kids listen to. And the ringleader was smack dab in the middle of this "dance" routine shaking her keister. THANKFULLY, the only people out watching the routine were the older kids' parents. The rest of the kids were in their classes by this time.

Anyway, the Princess let me know that her old best friend was hanging out with the ringleader and a couple other girls now. And that her friend was actually sassy to her. Her friend did a backbend and then looked at the Princess and said "I can DO this....YOU CAN'T!" The Princess didn't know how to respond to this so she just walked away.

I let the Princess know that she did the right thing. Walked away. She's not a confrontational kid. But I let her know that she could have said something back like "Good for you" or "That's nice". She wouldn't say anything sassy or criticizing back. It's not in her nature.

What's interesting is that the Princess a couple times this week, she has mentioned talking to her friend. She mentioned that her friend ordered the same book as we did for the Princess. She mentioned that her friend was doing well in one of the computer reading programs. "Mom, she's got a 33. She's doing really good!" She speaks about her friend in a positive light even after the girl wasn't so nice to her. My daughter...always looking at the good in people.

But it does make me sad that this 2 1/2 year friendship is at a rocky point. The slow disintegration. It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because I know that deep down inside, the Princess is sad. And I can't do anything to fix it.