Wish her friends well, and make plans for Mother’s Day.
Maybe take the little girl out for a quick ice cream cone on the day of the Father-Daughter dance to fill her time up, but do not make it a big campaign that has to somehow ‘be won’ by the mother. The mom should accept that she cannot fill both roles at all times. Life will go on.
Those are constructive ideas.
What should be done about the classmates who say there is no dad because the girl is fat and ugly? Or about the people who believe that human anger (name-calling, etc) can accomplish the righteousness of God?
The mom could have done things differently, I know. We don’t know how she handled things in the 6 years before this. But I DO know what bullying (that is winked at by school administrators) can do to a kid and his/her parents. It sounds like there was a history of this little girl being shamed for a lot of things beyond her control.
We don’t know if this mom had any male friends in her life, who could have taken the daughter to the dance. We know nothing of her story. It just seems like people are quick to assume and speak, and much, much slower to actually listen.
That’s what really bothered me about the Milo situation. Milo could have told us a lot about what molested young men go through and how they deal with it. It could have been a real opportunity for listening, learning, and healing/reconciliation. But no, we had to be too “holy” to actually love and listen.
Ugly. Ugly doesn’t fix other ugly.