Drama Lessons
For some reason I wrongly assumed that having a male child meant that drama would be kept to a minimum. I always thought that all of my friends who have female children would be the ones coming into the preteen years pulling their hair out, wishing they had boys and that I could secretly, and not so secretly, laugh at them and point while sitting mightily on my throne of NO DRAMA maleness.
I have since discovered that drama knows no sex. It doesn’t discriminate, it attacks everyone without discernment for their tired, confused parents.
I also wrongly thought 3rd grade drama was pretty intense with the advent of some real competition between students for certain honors both academically and in extracurricular activities. Again wrong.
Fourth grade may yet be the death of me if I have to hear one more story about Jane (not her name) telling Susie (also not her name) that Brian (you’re getting the name picture, they’re all made up) doesn’t really want to sit beside her in math class he just sits there because the teacher said he has to, and he secretly wishes he could sit anywhere else. Seriously. I’m not kidding.
And all of this is told with hand gestures, woeful teary eyes if you’re Susie and a great deal of angst and colorful embellishment that I mistakenly thought was something only valley girls did in bad movies. I’m just waiting for the day when all these little people I have the pleasure of being around start saying “as if” and “like, really” while rolling their eyes so I can confound them all by laughing myself silly and possibly throwing some movie quotes at them.
In my particular case my son came home last week terribly upset because Sally told him that June, who is his BEST FRIEND, no longer wants to be his best friend, and he just didn’t know what to do so he asked June if it was true and she concurred with Sally. I thought the sky might be falling and the ground shaking. So his question to me, “Mom what do I do?”
My advice to him…don’t talk to Sally or June, they’re obviously trying to upset you and drag you into drama, ignore it and either June will come to her senses and realize you are a great friend, or she’ll keep feeding into the drama created by Sally and you know you weren’t meant to be friends anyway.
What does he do?
Of course, you guessed it already. He talks to them. The story gets MUCH more muddled from here, I can’t even keep up, nor am I trying. He asked for my advice, I gave it and he didn’t listen, so I guess he’ll get to learn the hard way how to handle the drama that life and people can throw at you.
I think the same holds true for adults. There are some people who are never content unless they are in the middle of a sandstorm of their own creation, stirring the pot of confusion. And then there are some who would rather avoid drama with a 10 foot pole and run in the opposite direction from confrontation.
I like to think I’m the non-dramatic, which I sincerely am, however, I also realize that I do not avoid confrontation just because it is started in a hotbed of drama of someone else’s creation. As for my own ability to create drama, I am human and realize my faults but my preference is to remain as drama free as possible while standing up for what I believe.
So while I wait to see what the next 9 year old drama will be because I know it definitely will not be the last, I’m holding onto the thought that at least I don’t have to go back and live through that age again, I just get to hear about it!
-Leah Poole, CEO of the Liberty County Chamber & CVB
The Right Blend Blog is written by three different authors employed by the Liberty County Chamber/CVB. As we are able we rotate weeks and each write about our individual experiences, opinions and let our writing reflect our personalities and creativity. All content provided on The Right Blend blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.
