I’m over at Parent.co writing about about a tough topic, the time I was the Mean Girl….

I have a mean girl story. Actually, like you probably do, I have a few of them. But the one I won’t ever forget is the time that the mean girl was me.

When I was 13, I came home from a sleepover at a friend’s house, let’s call her Sleepover Friend. The phone rang when I walked in the door and it was another friend calling, we’ll call her Phone Friend.  I quickly found out that Sleepover Friend, who I had just had a great time with, was now “out”.  No longer in the group.  Had inexplicably become a social leper. Phone Friend was calling to say that Sleepover Friend was suddenly annoying or stuck up or dorky or some other such 13-year-old crime. Just like that. Because sometimes that is how the social cookie crumbles when you are 13.  It certainly had for me before.

So, what did I do? Let’s just say my character wouldn’t be the 80’s movie hero sticking up for the underdog. I decided to avoid the risk of joining Sleepover Friend in no man’s land and am ashamed to admit that I joined in the criticism of her with gusto.  I was sitting under our kitchen table “for privacy” when suddenly, out of nowhere, my mom grabbed my legs, pulled me out from under the table, grabbed the phone and hung up on Phone Friend.

Panic.

Read more here about how my awesome mom handled this and the lesson I learned that impacts my parenting to this day.

Enjoy and thanks for reading!