It is so hard not to rise to the defense when our children have their feelings hurt.  At age 7 she still seems like your baby and needs your protection.  She does need your protection and guidance because this is only the first of many times throughout her life that others will tease her for one thing or another.

We would like to be able to protect our children from all bad things in their lives but the best we can do as parents is to teach them a way to handle those situations when they occur to keep themselves safe.

Teach your daughter some things she can say and do when others tease her that will not make her a target for teasing.  Let her know why she should handle teasing in the way you have described and have her actually practice it.  You can pretend you are one of the students in her class and say something that you think they might say.  Have her respond in the way in which you have taught her.  Be sure to reward her for practicing successfully.

If this habit of your daughters’ is something that will cause her peers to mock or make fun of her, help her change it.  Teach her what to do with her hands that will not be so obvious to others.  Monitor her doing that around home.  Keep track of the number of times that she uses the old habit and how often she uses the new technique that you have taught her.  Strive to reduce the old habit and increase the new.  Set some short term goals so she can feel success along the way to eliminating the old habit completely.

Boys Town National Hotline
1-800-448-3000