We've also got a Girl X! She enjoys rejecting her friends to make herself feel powerful. Weirdly, the parents are not particularly dysfunctional, other than being a bit spineless. I suspect that Girl X learned it from her older sister, who learned it at public school, and the parents have never effectively intervened.
Worse, my daughter (Hanni) and Girl X are only 4. They are at a small preschool together so there is no way for them to be kept apart. And Hanni is too young to have any perspective on the situation. Even if she agrees logically that friends shouldn't be mean, the emotional pull of wanting to be loved by this girl is just too strong.
Girl X is away for two months, and it's a huge relief, but I'm dreading when she comes back. Hanni has other friends, but nothing like the intensity she feels for Girl X. She continues to talk about Girl X and call her her "best friend." And Girl X's time away from the group will probably just intensify her need for emotional control.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I checked out some books from the library yesterday. They didn't have the one mentioned above (Little Girls Can Be Mean), but I'm reading Odd Girl Out. And I have to say, IT'S NOT HELPING. It's just making me angry.
