Llama Drama

Last school year... that's June 2024  (timeline is important) I brought some coloring pages to work. There are a lot of after school programs that rely heavily on coloring sheets for activities, but mine isn't one of them. I usually have some on hand, but we have so many activity possibilities that it's unusual for a bunch of people to be coloring at the same time. But these were Llamas, and for whatever reason, kids love llamas. For added fun, a sloth was included.

I don't think any of this occurs in nature...

Casey (kindergarten) and Maria (2nd grade) each chose the same coloring sheet. They sat next to each other at the art table and began to color. Each of them had grabbed a pink marker and colored all four llama feet when I told everyone it was time to go outside.

We were outside for half an hour. When we got back into the building, everyone washed their hands and either went back to what they'd been doing or chose a new activity.

Casey went back to the art table, picked up a purple marker and started coloring the sloth's flowers.

Maria came back after washing her hands and when she saw what Casey was doing, began crying loudly.

I went to the table to find out what was going on. Maria had a HUGE flood of tears, something she's great at manufacturing for any reason or no reason any time of the day. She sobbed out, "Casey colored on MY PAPER!!!"

Remember, until Casey started on the purple flowers, the sheets were more or less identical. It was an honest mistake.

Casey burst into tears, apologizing profusely to Maria, who stuck her nose in the air and said, "I hate you now. You're NOT MY FRIEND anymore!"

Then Maria's little sister Brianna had to say something, too. "You were mean to my sister! I don't like you anymore either!!"

Yes, I was working on the situation. Remaining calm, explaining that both pictures had been on the table together and how easy it would have been for someone to make a mistake.

This little argument over basically nothing took about 15 minutes for me to sort out. I took Maria and Casey aside separately, then sat down with them together. We talked about how easy it had been to make a simple mistake, and that sometimes all of us make mistakes. I told them that they could each start over with a new coloring sheet if they wanted. Casey kept the one she was working on and Maria chose a different one. Still llamas, haha.

They were fine after that. There were two more weeks of school, and during that time they didn't argue or spend any time being grumpy with each other.

Fast forward to a week ago.
As my kids were coming into the cafeteria as school got out, I heard angry voices in the hall. I finished putting a bracelet on Gavin and got up and peeked around the corner. Maria and Casey were facing each other, both with their gargoyle faces on.

Casey turned to me and said, "Maria said she is very mad at me!"

I turned to Maria. "Are you angry with Casey?"

"Yes!" she spat. "She RUINED my paper!"

"What paper?" I asked.

She looked at me as if I were an idiot.

"My llama??" she said.

"Your llama?" I repeated blankly.

"Yes! She colored on my paper. Don't you remember???"

"You mean back in June? Before school got out? That llama??"

She rolled her eyes at me.

I asked her, "How long do you plan to continue being angry with Casey over a mistake she made seven months ago? Until you're in high school? Until you graduate college? Get married? Become a grandmother?? How long do you think you'll need to be mad about a coloring page? And I replaced that page, gave you a brand new one! So how long will you be mad?"

Did she back down? No, she did not. Instead, she tried the classic deflection.
"Well, she always,"

"That's not what I asked you, Maria."

"Yeah, but she always..."

"Maria. Where is the new coloring page I gave you to replace the one with the mistake on it?"

She said, "I don't know... that was a long time ago!!"


:::headdesk headdesk headdesk:::