Ms. Lonely

My heart just breaks for my Li'l girl.

I think aside from the fact that my Li'l girl is sociable ( like her Appa) she must also be in the stage now where she wants to play with kids her age. For many afternoons now, we've been going outside the house for her to 'play' with other kids. Everyday she will be looking out in the window and wait for her 'friends'. Our neighbor's kids are mostly grown up (age 7-12 years old) and they're all usually outside during the weekends.

So yesterday afternoon, a few kids were biking outside the house and my Li'l girl asked me if she could go out and ride the bike with them. Baby Lyle was sleeping so, I told her she could'nt go out because I couldn't watch her outside coz Lye's asleep. It's dangerous for her to be on the street with her bike because cars and motorbikes come and go. "But I'll just go to the side when there are cars and motorbikes, Amma", she reasoned out. Yes, my Li'l girl is very good in reasoning out, it's like I'm already raising a teenager when she's barely 4 years old! "No, Trish, it's still dangerous", I repeated and gave my reasons. "I'll be careful Amma.", she reassured me. But I remained firm and told her "NO". Then she started to cry. With tears in her eyes she said, "How can I have friends Amma if I don't go out?"..then it hit me, she badly wants to have friends.

I remembered a few nights before when we were outside. Our neighbors had children visiting them and Tricia went to the group to play with them. When she started to talk to them, they all ran away and tried to avoid her. Actually, this happened a lot of times with other kids too. Anyways, their Mom told me that they're shy to speak English. She was encouraging the kids to still let her join their play even if they could'nt understand or speak to her, but still the kids did't want to include her.

Then there was also a time when one of our neighbor's kid tried to mimic Tricia in a jest. Of course, it was okay for Tricia but as a parent I didn't like it that she was making fun of her just because she doesn't understand her. It's good that they are some kids who still try to 'talk' to her and include her in the group.

I don't know if it's just age gap ( as I said the kids in our neighborhood are much older than Tricia) or mostly language barrier.... But anyways, from yesterday afternoon I realized that I have to do something for my Li'l girl. We've already set up actvities for her so she won't get bored but most of these activities are with us or with her Teacher Jun ( read: all adults) BUT I think what she needs most is FRIENDS her age whom she could play with and have fun.

I'm still going to let her play outside with our neighbors kids (coz maybe then she could pick up the language).We've thought of letting her have Thai lessons. Our neighbor is willing to teach her but I'm not sure how long she'll last. But then we'll still have to give that a try and see. For her to truly assimilate in this place and make Thai friends , she must learn the language. But for now, I think I'll have to seriously set a weekly playgroup with other foreigner kids for her to fully play, be herself and enjoy.