Ana is less prone to saying randomly cute things nowadays

[conuly]

and so I have fewer Ana-cdotes than I used to.

But here's one:

We had just left the school when I saw Ana's classmate Billy. I know it's Billy because he is very short. Really very short.

And Billy's mother sees us and goes "Hey, isn't that one of your classmates?"

Billy: Oh, that's just Ana. She hates me.
Grown-ups: Uh....
Ana: That's right, I hate him.
Me: Um... well, don't take it personally, she hates all the boys.

It was very awkward, as I'm sure you can understand, and the matter-of-fact way they said this didn't actually help.

Several hours later, at bedtime, Ana looked at me and said "That's not true, you know. I don't hate all the boys."

Me: You don't?
Ana: No! Just the annoying ones!
Me: I don't know, sometimes it sounds to me like there isn't a single boy in your class you can stand.
Ana: That's not true!

And then she began to list them all, by name. Apparently, there are two boys she doesn't hate - one because he doesn't talk to her, and the other because he doesn't talk at all! She specifically "broke up with" (this seems to mean "stopped being friends with", I realized by listening carefully) Billy because "he likes me and always wants to sit next to me, so I had to tell him I hate him". But a week later they had made up again... sorta. She was clear to me (if not to him, I wasn't there for this conversation) that if he keeps on being so irritatingly friendly she'd have to not be his friend.

Comments

[steorra]

Did you call them 'Ana-cdotes' originally because it fit with her name, and then coin 'Eva-cdotes' by analogy?

[conuly]

Yup!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Haha, that IS awkward. Kids are so funny about friendships. Kira is always breaking up with friends too, only to make up very soon after. Sometimes it isn't even a matter of breaking up and making up, it's just that the other kid plays with someone else instead of Kira, so that clearly means they are not friends. Then when they play with Kira again, then they are friends again. Friendships are minute-to-minute; I think I'd phrase it as "personal attention." If Kira is receiving positive personal attention, that's a friend. No attention or negative attention means they are no longer friends. Does it seem like that to you (about Ana) too?

[conuly]

Oh, god. Ana has told us, very seriously, that she can't be friends with ANYone in her class except (short list of names) because all the other girls BETRAYED her.

How did they betray her?

Apparently, they once went to play with somebody else. Or sat somewhere else at lunch. Or something.

[calieber.livejournal.com]

I perfectly understand the concept of not being friends with someone who's too friendly

[conuly]

I do too, but as near as I can tell, in this case her only problem with him is that he likes to sit next to her on the carpet, but she wants to sit sandwiched in between two specific girl friends instead. Other than that she's fine with him. (Because he doesn't talk much in class.)

Of course, we don't expect seven year olds to be full of social skills, and I have NO IDEA what went on beforehand!