A mom from Northern Ireland is getting a lot of positive feedback for her parenting after she learned her 6-year-old son had been mean to classmate at school.
Zowiiee Williams learned that her son, Callum, had said some mean things to his girl friend after he got upset that she, and a group of girls she was playing with, wouldn’t let him play with them. Upset, he told his “boy mate” what had happened and the boy told him what he should say.
“He had said words that should NEVER leave a six year old’s mouth and he ‘broke up with her’ – in front of his peers,” Zowiee told Metro UK.
When she got home that day, her son confessed what he had done and told her that he “made a mistake”. After checking in with the little girl’s mom, Zowiie learned that the girl had left school very upset that day. Zowiie was disappointed in Callum’s behavior and discussed it at length with her son.
He asked her what he could do to make it up to the little girl, and came up with the idea of bringing her flowers all on his own. Zowiee went on to explain to him that buying flowers won’t “automatically fix the problem”. She told the paper she “made sure that he understood he couldn’t be mean and expect anything materialistic to fix what he says, and that it is never okay to be mean to anyone, especially a girl. It’s something I feel very strongly about.”
After their chat, Zowiee shared a photo of Callum holding flowers and heading to school the next day to apologize to the girl. She included the following description:
“When your son hurts a girls feelings, it’s our job as parents to make him understand how saying things out of anger & upset can make others feel. Yesterday I was very disappointed to find out he had upset his special little lady due to another boy mate telling him what he should say & do. So much so that I felt the need to have quite a good talk with him. Today he is marching into school with flowers and an apology because I feel that we need to teach boys the importance of how they should react to certain situations. Callum now understands that what other people think or say should not sway him into acting like he doesn’t care about other people’s feelings. Especially a girl. !! His head was high and he apologised in front of his peers and handed over the flowers.
It was a very proud moment for me as his mother.
It was a learning step. One I hope he will carry with him always.”
Zowiee said that Callum apologized in front of the entire class and the little girl accepted his apology, taking the flowers and giving him a big hug. The two are back to being friends again.
Looking back at the situation, Zowiee feels that her son has learned some valuable lessons about not listening to others, and the importance of speaking his own mind. She also is proud that her son knew he had made a mistake and came to her with it to talk it through.
She said, “He acknowledged that it shouldn’t have happened and he rectified it in his own way. I think it was fairly brave for a six year old. And a very important lesson learned.”
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