Cliques... long post alert.

I know I have mentioned this on my blog before but I am currently working as a nanny for two very sweet kiddos. I am enjoying this job quite a bit though I am searching for a position in my field of interest, community and economic development work. My education is in architecture. I try to keep my nanny work separate from this blog in order to protect the privacy of S and N. Have I mentioned that they are delightful children?! I realize this states the obvious... but boys and girls are soooo different. On Friday afternoon, S and I had a little conversation about friends. Well more specifically: about cliques (though I was somewhat careful about using that word). She's in third grade and is starting to realize that girls can be a bit mean or in her words "confusing."{S is still too young for "Means Girls"}

S and her brother N, a second grader, attend a Friday evening "kids club" at a local church. They are a wonderfully sweet brother and sister pair but S would like some more girl friends, rightly so. And this is where S got all emotional on the sofa with me Friday afternoon. Apparently, she invited her little friend H to Kids Club last week and she made friends with another little girl and wouldn't sit by S at snack time. She was SO. UPSET. "Why wouldn't she sit by me?... I thought we were friends... Will making friends get easier?" My heart ached as I could completely relate to her! I didn't have a tremendous amount of children in my neighborhood growing up. I have two older brothers but they are ten and eleven years older than me. I had a few close friends but at times, I felt pretty alone. I really wanted to lie and say something like, "Don't worry, S, I promise you that making friends will get sooo much easier." But then I'd have to skip over the entire adolescence years. Hmmm, not to mention the scary moments of your first day at college, moving to a new town, the first day at a new job, being the new person at church, a networking gathering... Does it get easier? I am almost 30 and am still finding my footing.

I didn't overwhelm S with the details of being an adult. I listened {I haven't been in third grade for awhile}. And we shared stories. She cried. And then we laughed. N, her little brother, played on the computer. Boys. He did offer a sweet smile to his sister.

I thought about S for most of the weekend. I didn't want to wait until Monday so I called her last night to see how Kids Club went. "It went fine... we played __and ate _ .... today I went ice skating with my family... we're going to eat fondue soon... thank you for calling me." I love how children go from subject to subject. Their little minds busy at work. I guess things are okay. For now.

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This is completely unrelated to the topic of cliques but I'm writing this post on my new {used} PowerBook G4. Brad got a sweet deal from his co-worker last week. I'm blogging. He's playing a computer game. Thus concludes Sunday night and this lllooonnngg post.