Standing up for What's Right

This year we've gotten into some of the elementary school drama that all little girls seem to go through. It began a month or so ago with one of Elise's friends who decided at recess to start a club. Elise was very excited at first because she had "never been in a club before and didn't know what it was like." But quickly it went sour because Morgan decided to "boss everybody around." I asked Elise what she did and she said, "Well, I quit the club. Morgan wasn't being nice, so I decided just to quit the club. I thought it would fun to be in a club, but I didn't want her to tell me what to do all the time." The next day she came home to tell us that she and another friend had started their own club where people could do whatever they wanted. They were having themes for different days. Their first day was going to be "Talk about your Family" day. Everyone in the club was going to get to tell all about their family. We were pretty impressed with how well she handled the situation. What makes it even more impressive is that there are all the usual threatenings of "you'd better do this or I'm not going to be your friend anymore" or "I'm not going to play with you unless..." or "You can't sit beside me if you don't..." or whatever. Those threats are a big deal to a little girl. Yesterday she came home upset because Morgan and another girl in the class (and Elise's closest school friend) decided to start a "Mean Club". Originally Morgan had started it and Elise and Ally had decided not to join it because "why would anyone want to be in a Mean Club anyway?" But yesterday, Ally joined the mean club and left Elise all alone. They tried to get Elise to join it, but she held firm. They had wanted her to tattle-tale on another boy in class, but Elise didn't want to do it--so she didn't. She was pretty hurt and upset that her friends left her and wanted her to be mean. But she held firm and did what she knew was right. Those situations are so tough for little ones and it means the world to me that she stood up for what was right. I told my sister-in-law about it last night and she said that making those tough choices didn't seem hard for Elise. Even though she was sad and hurt, she never really considered doing the wrong thing. I think that pretty much sums it up. What a good girl she is!!!!