Finn's Army

My sweet, sweet Finn.

This past winter, I noticed that Finn was really only hanging out with the girls in his class. The several boys he had buddied up with in the fall never came up in conversation, he only asked to have play dates with other girls in his class, and whenever I was at school, he was always surrounded by the ladies. And I didn't mind. I mean, girls are awesome, right? But I had wondered why he was no longer interacting with the boys who he had talked so fondly of earlier in the year.

Well, after some prying, I found out that almost all of the boys in the class were being mean to the girls. Finn liked the girls, and refused to be mean to them, and so the boys basically ousted him from hanging out with them. So, the class was often divided into Finn and the girls, and the rest of the boys. I am so proud of my little man for sticking up for himself and for the girls, but was also really upset that this was how the dynamics were at school, in a pre-k classroom. Wasn't this the stuff of 3rd and 4th grade?

Finn didn't seem too upset with things though. He happily shared stories about him and the other girls he played with, so I figured that he was doing OK and decided not to intervene. And then, slowly, the boys started coming back into the conversation. He was asking for play dates with other boys in the class and telling me stories of him and other boys at recess. I assumed the boy-girl separation had just faded out.

And then a few weeks ago, in casual conversation, Finn mentioned his "army" to me. In my mind, I was thinking that this had to do with imaginary guns or Star Wars or something. But, when I asked him what "Finn's Army" was, he told me that he had formed an army of boys to protect the girls. He told me that he got a couple of boys to join with him, and at recess they protect the girls from the mean boys and try and convince the other boys to join him and be friends with everyone in the class.  He told me that his army has been growing and more and more boys are joining him. It literally brought tears to my eyes.

Finn has had lots of issues with anxiety this past year, and for him to take control and be the leader in this project be-nice-to-the-girls is amazing. I couldn't be prouder of Finn and his army of peace keepers.