Malika
Well-Known Member
A man in the village came to deliver an invitation for J to his daughter's sixth birthday party this Saturday. So we were talking about that when J mentioned that another of the (three) girls in his class recently had a birthday party and that J was not invited; he said that the little girl's mother told him that her mother didn't want him there... I felt a little shocked and saddened for J, although in another way I understand, I guess - an indoor birthday with J rushing around and being loud and excited is not what everyone would choose. But... it feels very unfriendly, in such a small community. At the moment J seems unaffected by it but it would only get harder as he gets older and begins to understand. He is going to be in for a fair amount of social rejection in France, generally, of course - and already I have fallen out of friendship with a French woman locally because J was rude to her 9 year old son and he got upset; her thesis is that J is the way he is because I am not authoritarian enough... Some people will understand and others won't and that's just the way it is. Life becomes altered with a hyperactive child; you can't do many of the things that other people take for granted like going to a restaurant with friends or going round to people's houses that are not good friends... I know that social isolation is one of the features of life for these children and it makes me sad. We are not good at welcoming difference. It is hard for others to accept them, one can understand that and yet... they have every right to be loved and welcomed on god's earth!