My Daughter took a bully down with a mumsnet classic today...

[WaitroseCoffeeCostaCup]

My Daughter is at an age where some of the girls at school have started being horrible witches nasty to one another in the playground. My Daughter has always been wonderfully quirky, with a heart for justice and the kindest, most empathetic person I've ever known. Old beyond her years (in a beautifully old lady way-she's recently taken to wearing her reading glasses on a chain round her neck )
The new hormonal nastiness has her outraged (LOVES a rule!) but not upset. Some of the things (particularly comments about her adoption) that she's told me have made me far more upset than they have made her.
I told her what I thought might be a good way to quieten the bullies and today my 9 year old loudly replied to one 'I'm sorry, did you MEAN to be so rude?!' Apparently other children burst out laughing and said bully stropped off. I like to think with a cats bum face.

Love it! Awesome team of Mum and daughter. Well done.

Wow I´m in awe, fabulous job OP and hats off to your DD!

DS is also 9, a bit of a sensitive soul and quite quirky - his sense of humour has potential, let´s say...

I wonder if there would be any put downs more effective for boys, as I fear some of the ones mentioned here are a bit too subtle or simply not working on boys.

For example, I imagine "did you mean to be so rude" said to a 9-10 year old boy would probably get a resounding "Hell yeah and there´s more where that came from" kind of response.... no?

Sorry to derail your thread OP

That's brilliant, well done her :-)

brilliant ! What blessing your dd is to you and school playground x

LikeaWolf she and I would be THRILLED! If you pm me she'd love to talk to you! Thank you! Wow!

numbereightyone she's very concerned with politics! She's raised over £400 for the refugees in Dunkirk she was so outraged on their behalf-she cried when their school burned down.

Wonderful daughter!!!! I would like her to learn ( with a distainful look) " Oh dear....jealousy's such a painful emotion, don't you find?" 😁

What a gorgeous girl! She sounds amazing

Chocolate cancel the cheque! Crying!

madrainbow I wish I knew she was just born wonderfully strange! She's on a different planet and I wish I lived there!

She’s great! And so are you... well done in raising her to take on all comers!

My mother, an English teacher, faced with swearing children would say: “ your vocabulary is a bit limited/boring. I think we will do a session on Shakespeare’s insults”. And theynext English lesson they would do one.

Perhaps she could use the first sentence of that, something like, “you know, your use of insult is pretty unimaginative/dull”.

For boys, I think we tried the shorter variant, “Oh don’t be so boring” said in terms of complete scorn. It was reasonably effective.

Do you think you could get her to answer the next stupid comment with a quizzical look over her reading glasses and a very firm response of "Penguin Bollards", before going back to her book?

Hermione

She sounds ace, you must be very proud

Good for her...she sounds great!

I always used to get bullied on my appearance being a little overweight. my usual response was the withering look up with a sarcastic 'oh god, thank you for telling me, i'd never have known if you hadn't just pointed out the blatantly obvious"

When I was 11 I remember saying, "Oh you really are dull", head tilt, "we should try & find time to get together & work on that"
She was stunned to silence.

what a fabulous young lady!

She could perfect her Maggie Smith Dowager countess role from Downtown Abbey.

Waitrose Done! x

Has she read the Wells & Wong books, btw? I think she would enjoy the two main characters. They're ever so good.

This is fantastic. Love it!

Your daughter is awesome. Mine is also adopted and she will love some of these come backs. You both rock!

As the delighted Ma of a quirky dc, your dd is my new hero!