Fey Child

[HoneyBeeMum1]

I feel I am in a difficult situation and would be grateful for the advice of the Mumsnet community.

My husband and I have been living in a remote and beautiful part of the Scottish Highlands having relocated from London a few years ago. We have five children, including a boy at university in England and four girls.

My husband is the love of my life and he loves me as deeply as I love him. Our children are healthy, happy and beautiful. We are fairly insular and - until recently - did not have much social interaction outside the immediate family. We have much to be thankful for and not a day goes by that I do not appreciate our good fortune.

So far, so good.

Unfortunately, there is a potential flaw in our blissful existence and I am in a complete quandary trying to decide how best to act.

My eldest daughter - who I will refer to as 'Emily' started at secondary school this academic year. Due to our remote location and the considerable distance to school, she boards from Monday to Friday and returns home for weekends.

Fortunately, she made a friend - who I will call Sarah - who lives only a few miles from us. We have become close friends with Sarah's parents and we share travel arrangements for the girls as well as regularly socialising with them.

Everything seemed to be working so well. However, I have started to have some concerns about Sarah. She is something of a 'fey child', given to flights of fancy and strange moods. I have noticed on occasions when she has been staying at our home that she has moments when she appears vacant and I suspect she might be experiencing petit-mal seizures. I have mentioned my concerns to her mother who insists that she is fine and puts her strange behaviour down to being an only child.

Unfortunately, Sarah's strange behaviour has been noticed by the other children at school and this has led to her being shunned. They accuse her of being a witch and some even claim to be afraid of her. Sarah is also prone to tantrums for which she has been punished by her teachers.

Emily is fiercely protective of her friend which makes me enormously proud. However, I fear she will be tainted by association and that this will affect her relationships with her teachers and other pupils.

Am I being selfish and unreasonable to feel that I would prefer Emily to make other friends and distance herself from Sarah? I realise that to do so will also jeopardise the newly forged friendship between our families which I would deeply regret losing.

Your advice and opinions would be of great assistance.

Thank you.

Am I being selfish and unreasonable to feel that I would prefer Emily to make other friends and distance herself from Sarah?

Of course you are.

"Fey" is just an old fashioned term rarely in use nowadays. We tend to say "off with the fairies" now and it's much the same sort of character type.

"fey" or "fay" means fairy IIRC, eg Morgan le Fey.

As an aside, it's the other secondary age girls who are calling Sarah a witch, not the OP. Kids are prone to pick on DP differences and name call.

The OP just doesn't want her DD tainted by the bullied girl's unpopularity.

Obviously they need to throw Sarah on the village pond, if she sinks she's not a witch...

"Perhaps she's a Scottish kelpie."

I think they might have spotted if she was a kelpie. Unless it was Queen Etherburga's, I suppose.................

Very odd post. If you are seeking advice about your daughter and her friend then how strange you told us about all your other circumstances as well - your relationship with your husband, your location, your relocation from London, your friends...some of this just isn't relevant.

I have never heard the term 'fey child' and petit mal is now referred to as absences. I know you are living in a remote part of the country but 'fey child'....really?? As others have said, is this a plot for a book (or from a book?)

What's the book/film? I can't find one, even with the aid of google.

I think that, if you choose to live in a very remote location, that social interaction with people who are not mainstream is part and parcel of the package.

If you only want your DC to socialize in very mainstream circles you should move to an area with more choice of humans.

What an odd thread

Do you live on Summerisle?

Tis very Gothic. Bronte sisters maybe?

I think you're the one who's lost the plot op

Speak to the school.
This sounds like bullying - not acceptable.
I would think as a boarding school their reputation is pretty important to them.
Are there other suitable schools available?

Perhaps she isa daydreamer. Or has absence epilepsy.

Or maybe she is a "witch". If she's a good person, does it matter?

Report the bullies to Miss Grayling and suggest a midnight feast with tinned sardines and ginger cake.

Wasn't Sarah your friend who shared some intimate moments with your husband in your garden?

Is this for real?

Trying burning sage, OP

Oh for God's sake

If she floats, she's a witch.

What WalkingCarpet said.

Are you writing a book?

I hear it is a low admission year at Hogwarts this year. Perhaps Sarah would be happier with her non-muggle kind.

I suggest you move Emily from her private weekly boarding school where the children believe in witches and the teachers do nothing about bullying.

Send her to the local high school instead where she will have a lot more fun and a wider choice of friends .

Though it is a remarkable coincidence that despite living very remotely and having no social interaction, you happen to live near another family with a child of the same age who goes to the same private school. Or indeed that you happen to have a private boarding school so near to you, it's amazing they are able to stay in business in your remote area.

And I recall from your previous threads that your husband commutes to London frequently so you must live near Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, invernesss or Aberdeen airport.

So I find it all a bit confusing . I can't imagine where you live that's within easy travel to a major airport and a boarding school but not with a bus journey to the local high school .

I