Jessi's Secret Language Part 2

[drmaggiemoreau]

Jessi’s Secret Language Part 2
So, after my first snark, I was so excited to read all the comments, and I’m jumping back in for part 2!

Comments

[shatisarockgod]

I hate how they always label Jenny a brat. I know it's been said so many times before but it's worth repeating. These girls are too used to the Stepford kids they usually take care of and it really is a shock to the system when they come across a normal kid that wants to do her own thing.

1. Being neat and clean...so? I'm not going to fault the kids that play so hard and can get as dirty as Pig Pen but I won't fault the kids that want to keep clean for whatever reason. Maybe the child doesn't like getting dirty, maybe she's worried she might mess up her clothes and get bitched at, etc. Respect the kid's wishes. It's not like she's demanding 30 ice cream cones or something like that.

2. No defending Jenny for picking on somebody else. Something should be done/said about that instead of letting that behavior continue.

3. Some people aren't into nicknames. Again, respect those wishes.

She and Jessi get in a few more digs at Jenny for wanting to wear a nice coat, but this really isn’t Jenny’s fault.--No way to win. Can anybody picture the "concerned faces" the girls would give each other if the coat was full of holes/torn and dirty?

I also don’t need books about Helen Keller, Beethoven, or Van Gogh (because he cut off his ear).--I remember what you were talking about in your first snark and I honestly want to compare it to some of the things we were talking about in the Trouble with Twins snark. It's mind boggling when you're dealing with people that can't recognize how to tell people apart and recognize there's more to that person/people than just being a twin, having hearing problems or anything else you want to list. It really is offensive when the general attitude is "You're a twin so you have to act and look exactly alike." "You have hearing problems so of course you have no other interests besides people with hearing problems, books/movies/tv shows that feature a character with a hearing problem, musicians with hearing problems, etc.

Mary Anne continues to fail as a babysitter by allowing Jenny to insult Matt and his sister to their faces.--And unfortunately this isn't the only time this happens. So many books feature these girls allowing bullying to happen in front of them and they say/do nothing about it. That's really another poor message in these books imo.

lmao, I'm saving the girl drinking gif!

[anabellabobella]

I can defend Jenny. At 4, she is rejecting what she doesn't understand and that scares her. This is a biological survival tactic, plus she's still making sense of the world, and here's something she hasn't encountered before. However, it's up to the adults (and teens in charge) around her to help her understand so that she's not scared and won't want to reject a kid who is different. Problem is, when people don't move to teach kids, realistically those kids go on to become bullies.

So while her behavior isn't okay, it's defensible as far as being normal. What's not defensible is Mary Anne passing on using that moment to teach Jenny so that she'd understand and wouldn't repeat the behavior in the future.

[drmaggiemoreau]

I agree, anabellabobella. It would tick me off, but I do understand she's four and scared.

However, MA needed to step up, because the only person who called Jenny out was Haley. And she's nine. It wasn't what Jenny said that pissed me off (which was rude, but not horrible), it was that two kids were being insulted, and neither one of the TWO babysitters, who both know Jenny did or said anything.

[anabellabobella]

Yup. It annoys me that neither MA nor Jessi (MA more, since she was Jenny's sitter) did a damned thing. They strike me as the type who will become the parents who say, "Well, my kid is just being a kid!" and then looks the other way while their kid beats someone up because, hey, kids will be kids.