The Tappy Way to Happy Kids

As Mom picks up Josh from school with their white pick-up truck, Josh looks very unhappy. Mom asks: “Josh, what’s wrong?”

But Josh says: “Hurumph”

Mom keeps quiet, because she knows very well that if she keeps asking, it will only make Josh more and more grumpy.

As they drive out of the city, Josh quietly put her small hand on Mom’s shoulder.

Mom says softly “Oh poor girl, it wasn’t nice at school, today, wasn’t it?”

Josh doesn’t say anything, but Mom sees in the rear mirror that she is about to cry.

She reaches onto the passenger’s seat, and picks up a brown coloured cuddly teddy bear. She stretches her hand out to the back, and Josh grabs the fluffy bear.

“Why don’t you tell to Tappy Bear, what happened?”, Mom says.

Josh takes Tappy Bear in her arms, and starts to talk softly.

“They teased me again, Peter”, she says. “I hate them, I just hate them! The twins are so mean and nasty, and that little new girl from the big city was even worse today. She grabbed my ear and pulled it, and the teacher was looking but she did not say anything! Why does everybody tease me, and why don’t I have any friends?”

Mom starts to talk in a little squeaky voice.

“What a mean little nasty bunch they are! I hate them too! Shall I beat them up, shall I kick them in their little butts?”
Josh starts laughing.
“You beating them up, oh come on Peter, you’re much too small for that!”
Mom says with Peter’s voice:
“No, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not! Do you hear me? I beat them up, I do, I do, I do!”
Josh laughs even harder now.
“Oh Peter, I love that you want to help me, but you’re really to small for that. Even I cannot beat them up, they are much too strong for me.”

Mom uses her squeaky Peter-voice again:
“Ehrm, Josh… If we cannot beat them up, would there be another way to beat them? I mean, we are clever, aren’t we? And they are probably just a bit stupid, you must be a bit stupid if you tease and bully other kids. What clever things could we come up with, we together?”

Josh gets a big thinking-wrinkle in her forehead. “I don’t know Peter, I really don’t know. What do you think?”

“Well, maybe we could try to become friends with one of them? If we have one friend in the group, maybe the others will accept us better too… We could choose one of the children who actually look quite friendly. Maybe there are some kids who just bully you because they are afraid to be bullied if they don’t!”

Josh’s wrinkle vanishes, her eyes are big.
“You are right Peter! Even I sometimes bully this little boy in our class, because if I don’t the others bully me!”

“You see! That is the solution. Let’s first tap on your feelings of anger towards all of them, and then we choose someone to become friends with. Deal?”

“Deal!” Josh answers with a relieved smile.