Lessons From A 9 yr. Old

Kaleigh told me something tonight that broke my heart. You see.....she has this friend named Baylee that's in her class at school. They have become REALLY good friends. Poor Baylee is the sweetest girl, but not the prettiest at all. In a class full of well-taken-care-of beautiful girls, she sticks out like a sore thumb. To make matters worse, she is in a family of all boys and her mom is a tomboy who wishes Baylee was a boy as well. Her hair is never combed and her clothes are too small and dumpy. I have been told by Kaleigh's teacher that she is the only one who will play with Baylee and can look past her "flaws". I have been very happy about that and have encouraged Kaleigh to be a good friend to all.
She and Baylee have become close and have play dates often. Every time I am working in their classroom or Baylee is at our house I am always saddened at how she admires Kaleighs clothes and hairstyles. She always asks if she can go shopping with us so she can have clothes like Kaleighs and she ESPECIALLY loves when Kaleighs hair is curled for school, which is often.
Well, tonight Kaleigh and I were talking and she told me something that happened at school today. It went exactly like this.....
*They were playing at recess and Baylee was admiring Kaleighs bouncy hair, which was curled. As the bell rang and they ran to line up, Baylee walked beside Kaleigh to class and grabbed her hand and said, "You know what Kaleigh? Every night when I go to bed I pray and ask Heavenly Father if he can please make me your twin when I wake up in the morning so I can look just like you!". *
I immediately started to cry. It broke my heart that a 9 YEAR OLD girl goes to bed at night wishing she were someone else. That's just not right. Kaleigh was so confused as to why it made me cry so bad. It was a great opportunity to talk to her about self esteem and kindness. As a mother myself, I can't imagine my daughter feeling that way. Especially at such a young age! We had a great discussion about it and figured out how we will approach the situation to help Baylee. I wanted to blog about this to raise awareness. It is situations like these that we all need to learn from. I hope that everyone who reads this will take time to tell a child how BEAUTIFUL they are. It's so important to let them know how special they are and how important it is to be happy being themselves. Please. Everyone could use it, really.