Schoolgirl politics

I had a nice normal childhood but I didn't enjoy it much because I didn't like being a child. I was quiet and well behaved, never causing my parents a moment's trouble. My school reports were always good and the worst thing about me was that I was rather tearful. If I didn't like something I cried very easily and it was a habit I didn't break until I started secondary school. What I didn't like about being a child was the lack of power. I suspect most children are like that.

The other thing I didn't like was the way children behave. Little girls can be very cruel. When I see playground politics in action now I cringe with empathy. I remember the moment when I realised that if someone picked on me it was their problem not mine. I was nine or ten years old. I felt as if a weight had lifted off my shoulders.

I changed schools three times before I was eleven because my father had to move with his job. I spent just over a year at the final school. My new class had a disproportionately large number of boys. The small group of girls formed a small series of cliques. When I went to secondary school a girl from another primary school told me that her Netball team had met my classmates and had noticed how bitchy they were. When I arrived I was placed with best friends Monica and Sarah. For a while I had my own best friend called Laura but she went off with a much cooler new girl about a term later. Then somehow I ended up with best friends Susie and Michelle. Susie used to tell me how it would be nice sometimes if I didn't hang round with them and she'd kick me hard whenever I said something she didn't like.

As I said before, when I see schoolgirl politics today I cringe with empathy. Particularly for the quiet timid kids. They have no idea how much better life will be when they're grown up and they will know to walk away from people who give them problems.