DD6 was in an art class this week with a group of 20+ 5-10 year old girls. They were sitting on the front steps of the building. Along came a very impressive spider. Said girls ALL screamed and scattered.
Except for DD.
DD likes spiders. She was totally unconcerned. Much was made by the other girls that DD could have been bitten and DIED! DD scoffed at such a suggestion. It was a green lynx spider. They hardly ever bite, and their venom isn't remotely life threatening. The other girls were not impressed. They saw this as a terribly cavalier attitude on DD's part.
Later a dog ran into the group, and DD climbed a tree to escape it. She HATES dogs. She's convinced they're all going to bark and bite. She was terrified.
All of the other girls cooed over the dog, and cuddled it, even though it had no collar and there was no owner in sight. DD scurried out of the tree and into the classroom, where she hid.
Again, the other girls were dismayed by DD's behavior. DD felt isolated and ridiculed. She was really bummed when I came and picked her up from class. Worse yet, when she's feeling judged DD gets really standoffish and kind of makes faces at other kids.
The whole thing made her really sad. DD knows she could have played along... and she understands why the other girls thought she was "different," but she felt like her reactions were more honest than many of the other girls who were really only pretending to be scared...
