Child Remembers

Not yet double digits when the sting
of rejection punctured my ego –
“We can’t play with you,” peers
gloated; “our mothers said.”

What did I know of reasons
or replies, just felt a part of me die.
Still trying to win approval,
heal my nine-year-old heart.

Published by

VJ

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

31 thoughts on “Child Remembers”

  3. Ah! It does now. Reposted yesterday over and over on various blogs.
    What I did say: I’ve been there, having grown up on the ‘wrong’ side of the railway tracks. In fact, there was a time we lived right next to one! We had lots of fun, playing very dangerous games but we got through fairly unscathed. I couldn’t play hide-and-seek with the other kids. I stuttered so much each count counted for five or six. By the time I counted to ten the kids got bored and went home … just kidding. But: it does stay with one.

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    1. Children can be cruel. I think much of my rejection was because of my family too – stuff out of my control. In some ways, surviving the taunting makes us more compassionate, don’t you think?

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  5. Beautiful. As an elementary teacher for dozens of years, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I heard that kind of stuff. Ah, the hundreds of chats I’ve had with kids about being mean to others…Who knows if my chats sunk in. We can only hope.

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  7. OUCH! I encountered ONE mother who considered me a bad influence (I prodded her daughter to inquire WHY to restrictions I found weird … and apparently inquiring WHY was also off limits!)
    “Like” doesn’t quite fit here, but definitely this resonates. Hindsight suggests the mother(s) concern was with my parents more than me personally. Hindsight does not lessen the sting when these memories surface! Indeed, a partial death. A life-time pain.

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