I don't care what you think.

Jill got a new pair of shoes. She loved them. Tennis shoes with brown to match her clothes and pink since it is her favorite color. Plus, Kenny took her to pick them out. She was proud of them. Until someone told her he didn't like her shoes.

I decided it was time Jill had some lessons in being a little more thick skinned. I mean, we spend all this time teaching our children to be sweet and polite, but really the world isn't always kind. We talked about how she shouldn't care what someone else thinks, that her own opinion should matter the most to her. We talked about how anyone who would take the time to say something rude is not a nice person, and that we should value the opinions of nice, helpful people, not hurtful ones. I coached her on some replies she could use. We practiced a cool, even tone of voice. I told her if someone is rude to simply say, "I care more about what I think than what you think." Sure it is a bit rude, but hey, it gets the point across. She seemed to get it. This morning she happily wore her new tennis shoes to school...and reminded me I needed to bring more medication to the school nurse.

Around ten, I made it up to the school to drop of the medication. The receptionist saw me enter the building, and immediately started giggling.

"What?" I look around and down at my clothes. Maybe Emmi had stickered me when I had been paying attention.

More giggles, then, "You are not going to believe what Jill said to her teacher today."

Oh. Shit.

"Her teacher told her she thought Jill needed to calm down and quit talking, and Jill said 'Well, I care more about what I think than what you think'."