Re: I adore Jemima . . .
in reply to a message by Chrisell
I know a two girls called Jemima and they haven't been teased because of Play School. Its weird because I would have thought exactly the same as you, but they haven't been teased. One Jemima is in my grade at school and we sometimes bring it up as a joke, but not teasing. The other is six and she doesn't even think of it.
Replies
Hmm . . .
I'm not surprised that neither the 6-year-old or the Year 12 Jemima currently get teased - 6-year-olds usually haven't learned that type of bullying yet, and Year 12s are usually over it for the most part. It's the middle years - 9-14 - that are the worst for that kind of teasing.
However, it may also be that the bullying situation has changed significantly since I was at school. In the 1980s the prevailing adult wisdom was that "a bit of teasing" (no matter how bad the bullying was) never hurt anyone, and that it was easier to enforce a "no dobbing" rule than it was to enforce a "no bullying" rule. Since the mid-1990s I've seen massive changes in this attitude so it's quite possible that the kind of targeted bullying that children of my era had to endure has now been significantly reduced in schools.
*shrugs* Either way, I'd still be self-conscious about naming a daughter Jemima because my response to it is "rag doll"!
♦ Chrisell ♦
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
I'm not surprised that neither the 6-year-old or the Year 12 Jemima currently get teased - 6-year-olds usually haven't learned that type of bullying yet, and Year 12s are usually over it for the most part. It's the middle years - 9-14 - that are the worst for that kind of teasing.
However, it may also be that the bullying situation has changed significantly since I was at school. In the 1980s the prevailing adult wisdom was that "a bit of teasing" (no matter how bad the bullying was) never hurt anyone, and that it was easier to enforce a "no dobbing" rule than it was to enforce a "no bullying" rule. Since the mid-1990s I've seen massive changes in this attitude so it's quite possible that the kind of targeted bullying that children of my era had to endure has now been significantly reduced in schools.
*shrugs* Either way, I'd still be self-conscious about naming a daughter Jemima because my response to it is "rag doll"!
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.