Bit of background - my daughter is 6 and is on the waiting list for ASD assessment. She has some struggles socially and is very lacking in confidence. Also, in case it's relevant, I was fairly badly bullied at primary school and really pretty miserable for most of it.
So today I took my daughter to a birthday party. She had a very wobbly front tooth which is basically hanging at an angle. It's been like this for a few days and she had noticed people looking at it and has been very self conscious about it. Today, there was pizza for the party food. DD was trying her best to eat it but it was tricky with her tooth and it was getting a bit messy etc. I overheard the girls sitting opposite whispering to her friend "urghh. Look at her tooth. That is disgusting"... DD didn't hear and was quite happy but it just sent a chill through me. It brought back to me the sheet nastiness and misery of my school days and has just made me feel really panicked about what I can't help feeling is inevitable - bullying, unhappiness etc. I just feel I am woefully ill-equipped to help her with this kind of stuff. I know this may seem a bit of an over-reaction but it's really brought so many feelings to the surface for me. It just makes me feel so scared. I know she is not very socially adept and I don't want her to have to go through what I went through but I just don't know how to equip her for life going forward. I'm really panicking about it, just can't shake off all the horrible memories, emotions and feelings that this has brought up. Please can anyone talk me down from this, I just feel so anxious right now and need someone to rationalise this for me as I don't seen to be getting there myself.