Once a "Mariah"

For the nth time, my daughter came home from school in tears. There is this particular little girl who, according to my daughter, really went out of her way to be mean to her. This girl, Mariah, has been a pupil in my daughter's new school since pre-school (Kinder 1) while my daughter, Mary Elizabeth, is a transferee. She was no longer accepted in her old school because she flunked her Chinese classes, so we have no choice but to transfer her to the Alma Mater of her Dad where there are no Chinese subjects required. Now back to Mariah. This girl is a daughter of an Overseas Filipino Worker who works in a nursing home in Canada since Mariah was a little girl, so I've been told by a friend who happens to be a College Instructor in the same school.

Upon knowing this, my feeling of irritation towards this girl for being mean to my daughter just vanished. Instead, I took pity on her. It is very difficult not to have your mother around when you are only eleven years old and just in Grade V. I know how it feels because my own mother died when I was only six years old. A month before I entered Grade 1. It was a very sad little Genalin who joined the Grade 1 class of 1970 at Inzo Arnaldo Village Elementary School.

Sometimes when a person is sad and could not cry, the sadness turned to anger and the anger inside, at times, manifest as meanness. I should know, I was once a very sad little girl who misses her mother a lot, but could not cry because to do so will upset her father, who is already having a difficult time coping with being both the father and mother of four little girls, ages six, five, three and a year and eight months. So I lashed out whenever I can. Most of the time when I was not at home and in school. Nobody likes me very much in my elementary school because I was always angry and mean! Maybe the girl named Mariah in my daughter's class is just a lonely girl who misses her mother, like my little self long ago.

I have to tell my daughter that her own mother was once like the sad/angry/mean girl she dislike so much. Maybe it will help her understand some things that she needed to understand about her own mother and gave her some insights on human nature. I hope...